‘I guess it was just my turn,’ hunter says of Morehouse Parish monster buck.
Opening day (Nov. 19) in Area 4 dawned warm and muggy, and Bastrop insurance agent Bardell Bostick decided to sleep in that morning. However, his hunting buddy talked him into going to his stand that afternoon, and he’s glad he did.
Just over half an hour after climbing into his stand, Bostick put the crosshairs on a 17-point non-typical that later green scored 186 2/8 Boone & Crockett that placed him atop the Largest Louisiana Deer category in the Simmons Sporting Goods Big Buck Contest.
“Three of us lease a little plot of ground, 380 acres in all, along Bayou Bonne Idee in Morehouse Parish,” Bostick said. “We usually kill five or six deer a year here, mostly does but an occasional buck.”
The tiny piece of land is bordered by rice fields on one side and includes some CRP land on the property, but the prime drawing card for the area is a strip of dense woods and brush that serves as a sanctuary.
“We never go into that part of the land,” Bostick explained. “Since our area is so small, and to keep deer on the place, we’ve designated that part as a sanctuary where the deer can feel safe and not pressured.”
Bostick said that this was a day when he did everything wrong, broke all the rules but still scored on a big buck.
“I hadn’t even been to that stand since last season; one of my buddies had gone and sprayed wasp nests for me earlier,” he said. “I hadn’t trimmed brush or planted anything. After crawling into the box stand, I spent some time killing spiders and banging around, not feeling hopeful at all because the weather was so warm and it was late in the day,”
Thirty-five minutes after settling in, however, Bostick looked up an old road the stand overlooked and saw movement. It was a big buck.
“The buck came out of the sanctuary, stepped into the road and stopped at about 85 yards to look toward my stand,” the hunter said.
He didn’t hesitate.
“I shoot a bolt action Ruger .30-06, and I put the crosshairs on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger,” Bostick said. “He dropped on the spot.”
However, the buck didn’t expire immediately, and that began to cause the Bastrop hunter concern.
“When I shoot a deer, I always make myself wait half an hour at least before getting down, just to give the deer time to die,” Bostick explained. “However, I watched as this buck started moving around and actually pulled himself out of the road into the grass and out of sight.
“I thought about shooting him again, but I had seen the rack and I didn’t want to risk busting it up.”
Bostick didn’t wait his self-imposed 30 minutes: He crawled out of his stand and walked over to the deer lying in the weeds just in time to see it take its last breath.
Bostick undoubtedly breathed a sigh of relief himself.
“I couldn’t believe what I was looking at,” he said. “I’ll bet I counted his points at least five times, finally settling on 17.
“After doing so many things wrong, I guess it was just my turn.”
The buck had a rack that featured a 19-inch inside spread, lots of mass and long tines. Adding to the character of the rack were a couple of short drop tines on one side and one 6 inches long on the other. The buck weighed 225 pounds.
View other photos of this amazing buck in the Deer Hunting Forum.
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