Raymond Trahan of Singer works as a supervisor for Austin Industries and leases a 120 acre tract in Beauregard Parish. He knew he had some good deer on the property but it was only during the night of Oct. 24 that his phone pinged to reveal a huge buck.
“I told my wife I was going to get up and go hunt because a big buck we named “Big Boy” had shown up near one of my stands,” he said.
Trahan has two stands on his lease with cameras on each stand. At the first one he found a herd of feral hogs around the stand. It was the second where Big Boy had shown up, so that is where he chose to hunt that morning.
“I hunt out of a ground blind at that site, and it overlooks an 80-yard long lane with several white oaks on each side, trees that were dropping acorns,” he said. “It had started to get daylight and I hadn’t seen anything until 8:29 when my phone lit up showing a big deer at the end of my lane. I eased my gun – I shoot a Savage 7mm.08 – out the window. When I finally saw antlers I knew it was a good buck but had no idea if it was Big Boy.”
The body of the buck was obscured by brush but he could see the neck clearly, so he aimed for the neck and hit the trigger.
“When I shot, I was surprised when he just took off,” Trahan said. “I figured a neck shot would drop him but I assumed I had missed the vital part and the bullet only passed through.”
Sealing the deal
Walking down to where the buck was standing, Trahan found a few drops of blood and followed the trail some 30 yards when the buck jumped up and ran.
“I tried sneaking up on him but the ground was dry and my walking was making too much noise,” Trahan said. “Then I saw him when he went down into a slough. There was a trail that split into a “Y’ with one fork going left; the other going right. I took the one to the right when I heard something and the buck was coming up out of the slough. I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder and he fell but then tried to get up again.”
Deciding that this buck may eventually get away, he did something unconventional so he’d have proof of the buck’s size.
“I snapped a photo of him with my phone before taking one more shot that finished him off,” Trahan said.
After calling his wife to report he had shot Big Boy, he left and got his 4-wheeler to load up and bring the deer to his truck.
Since he had to go to work that afternoon, he dropped the buck off at a deer processing plant in DeQuincy. The deer carried a rack of 14 points with an inside spread of 15 ½ inches, weighed 180 pounds and was determined to be 6 ½ years old. The antlers were measured and the tape revealed a score of 175 3/8 inches.
