When you get a broadside shot at a buck at 150 yards, chances are good that you got him. If he doesn’t drop on the spot, he may run, but you’re likely to find him piled up not far away. This is what 51-year-old Alex Cantu, who lives in Moss Bluff and works at Citgo Refinery as a lab analyst, hoped would happen when he was hunting on his 250 acre lease in Beauregard Parish on the morning of Nov. 12.
“When I shot, he just stood there,” Cantu said. “I aimed again as the buck had moved so he was slightly quartering to me, pulled the trigger and couldn’t believe it when he just stood there looking at my box stand. I had missed him twice and he was still standing there probably trying to figure out what the two shots were, and I’m getting super frustrated.
“By now he was facing me as he was looking directly at my stand. I centered the crosshairs on his neck and this time when I shot, he dropped.”
This was a buck Cantu had on his trail cameras since 2020, and that year the buck sported a decent rack for a 4-year-old. He only had two photos of him that year and only two each of the following three years. However, logging activity was taking place to the west and the buck began showing up on camera more regularly, but all the photos were either just before daylight or just after dark.
Prime habitat
On the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 12, Cantu got in his box stand that overlooks an old logging road. The property butts up to a pasture, and his stand is surrounded by mature pines as well as an area where timber had been cut and replanted and has grown up fairly thick.
“Soon after getting on my stand before daylight, I heard a deer blowing and wasn’t sure if he was blowing at me or something else,” Cantu said. “I had some doe estrous spray with me so I stuck it out the window and sprayed hoping that if he had detected my scent the spray would override my scent.”
Around 6:30 a.m., a small 6-point buck came out into the road and was eating the corn Cantu had scattered on the ground.
“The little buck seemed nervous and he soon slipped off into the thicket,” Cantu said. “Half an hour later, I looked down the old road and there stood a buck. I couldn’t tell if it was the big one I had on camera. I got my gun out the window as the buck continued to walk toward me, stopping to eat some corn. He stopped broadside at 150 yards and that’s when my ‘missing’ problem began.”
Fourth times a charm
The buck sported a main frame 10-point rack with two kickers and was measured as a 12-point. His inside spread was 16 inches, he weighed 180 pounds and was determined to be 7 ½ years old. Taking him to K&K Taxidermy in Reeves, the rack was unofficially scored at 152 inches.
Cantu shared another frustration about his encounter with the buck.
“Two years ago, I actually shot at him running and missed,” Cantu confessed.
It’s not often that a mature buck would still be around after having been shot at three times over two seasons. Fortunately, the fourth shot was on target and Cantu could finally lay his hands on his prize buck.
