Garris scores on Union Parish 13-point just weeks after delivering baby daughter
Kylie Garris decided she needed to take a short break from being a mom, so she headed to the peace and solitude of a deer stand on her mother-in-law’s property in Union Parish.
Garris, mom to a 3-year-old daughter, an 18-month-old son and a newborn baby girl, made the escape while her husband Tom kept the three kids on the afternoon of Oct. 30 to give his wife a couple of hours of well-deserved peace and quiet.
“After giving birth to our youngest daughter two week prior, I needed a break that afternoon and Tom agreed he’d watch the children so I could go sit for awhile on my deer stand, a box stand overlooking two shooting lanes where we had put our corn and rice bran,” she said.
Trail cameras had revealed that most of the deer action in the area took place in the late afternoon, and a few of the photos revealed a big buck. Garris was hopeful that her period of rest and relaxation might culminate in the big deer showing up.
“The afternoon was getting late when a couple of does walked out to feed on the corn on the lane,” she said. “I texted my husband and asked if I could shoot a doe, and he suggested that I wait and see if maybe the big buck would come out.”
Having given birth only two weeks before, Kylie was tired and assumed she dozed off for a few moments. She was surprised when she looked up and the does were nowhere to be seen.
“I wondered what may have scared them off, when I looked down the edge of the lane about 85 yards and saw antlers. This big buck stepped out of the woods and walked toward where the does had been, sniffing the ground as he went,” she said.
When the buck turned broadside, Garris was ready. One more step revealed the shoulder, and when she fired her .30-06, the buck took off.
“I waited probably 30 minutes, but it was getting late and I decided I needed to get down and see if there was evidence of a hit,” she said.
Walking to the spot where the deer was standing, she found blood, trailed it and found the buck lying next to the food plot.
“I took a cell phone photo and sent it to my husband. He had told me when I left to go hunting he wanted to see some horns, so I had a fine set to show him,” Kylie said with a laugh.
The buck only weighed about 160 pounds, but carried 13 points on a rack that featured an inside spread of 16 4/8 inches, main beams of 20 inches, G2s measuring 11 inches, G3s of 9 inches and 4-inch bases.
Simmons Sporting Goods scored the buck as a 12 point (one point was less than an inch long) with 150 1/8 inches of mass. TP Outdoors was a bit more generous, giving the buck a green score of 152 3/8 inches Boone and Crockett.
Don’t forget to enter photos of your bucks in the Nikon Big Buck Photo Contest to be eligible for monthly giveaways and the random drawing for Nikon Monarch binoculars at the end of the contest.
Read other stories about big bucks killed this season by clicking here.
