Risinger’s buck green-scores north of 145 inches
As the owner of a construction company, West Monroe’s Todd Risinger is able to follow his passion for deer hunting — and that typically means a trip up to Illinois this time of year to bowhunt big bucks up there.
But just before heading north this year, he had a big Union Parish buck that he head seen on trail cameras on his mind. So last Monday, Oct. 29, he decided to see if he could rendezvous with the big Corney Creek bottom buck before heading north — and that very morning he came face to face with the big 10-pointer.
“Since the rut in Illinois occurs at the same time ours does here in Louisiana, I don’t get to experience it here at home because I’m usually gone,” Risinger said. “It’s been a long time since I heard the grunt of a rutting Louisiana buck, and I wanted to have the chance before heading north.”
Climbing into a box stand on Barnes Bridge hunting club in Union Parish, Risinger settled in to wait for a chance at the buck.
“This was a special morning,” he said. “I got to watch a coyote running back and forth across my shooting lane and saw several does — including one with an unusual double white throat patch. While I was enjoying the morning watching all this, I heard a buck grunt behind me,” he said.
The stand Risinger was hunting gives a view of the Corney Creek bottom on one side, and an old abandoned field that is now a pine plantation on the other. The grunting Risinger heard was coming from the pines, and he could tell it was headed in his direction and closing distance fairly quickly.
“I put my Browning .270 out one window of the blind thinking he was coming on that side. Then I saw movement out the other window and there he stood only 20 steps from me. I was fortunate the buck was looking the other way, and I was able to switch windows and get my gun out. Looking through the scope, he was so close all I could see was brown but I found his vitals and squeezed off a shot. The buck bolted and ran and I was concerned at first as I felt the shot was a bit far back,” he said. “Fortunately, the buck ran only some 20 yards before collapsing.
“Hunting in Illinois, I have taken some good-sized bucks, and when I tried to get this buck loaded into my truck, I realized I had shot a really nice-sized Louisiana buck. It was all I could do to get him in the back of my truck,” he said.
The buck weighed 210 pounds, and carried 10 points on a symmetrical rack with a 15 ½ inch inside spread. The buck had long tines with mass throughout, and green-scored 145 4/8 inches.
“Every buck you hunt has a story,” Risinger said. “And I feel real fortunate to be able to get the one Louisiana buck I was hunting.”