Deer killed after hunter finally agrees to use trail cams on Union Parish hunting lease.
Farmerville’s Heath Gean has deer hunted for years and had never considered using trail cameras on his 850-acre lease in Union Parish. But he broke down this year, and he’s glad he did because it revealed a buck guaranteed to get his adrenalin pumping.
“My 14-year-old son Colby started working on me before the season this year to put out a trail camera, so I finally decided to give it a try,” the Weyerhaeuser forester said. “I bought two cameras and basically turned them over to Colby, who gladly agreed to check them for me.”
Up until that point, Gean had no real strategy for hunting the his property.
“We hunt a private lease on the edge of DeLoutre bottom north of Farmerville, and I knew there were some decent bucks on the place,” he said. “However, I just sort of took pot luck when it came to deciding where to hunt.”
The cameras were placed back in the summer and over a two month period, Gean was astounded at the fact the cameras had snapped over 700 photos. But two of the frames showed something that really aroused his interest.
“Of all the photos we had, there were two of this really nice buck, and they were taken at like 3:00 in the morning,” Gean said “I was definitely interested in the fact we had a deer like that here, but frankly I was doubtful we’d ever see him, especially since there were no daylight photos of him.
“Colby swore me to secrecy, asking me not to tell anybody about the big buck in the pictures.”
Click here to see a trail-cam photo taken Oct. 10.
Deer season opened and Gean hunted opening day without having any luck.
On Nov. 4 he decided it was time to make a move.
“I picked Colby up from school and we headed to the lease,” the elder Gean explained. “I told Colby I was going to hunt the stand where the buck’s photo showed up.
“Actually, I didn’t feel very encouraged because I doubted the buck would show up while it was daylight.”
Crawling into his metal box stand around 4:30 p.m., Gean had hardly gotten settled when a doe came out to a feeder and fed around for half an hour or so. Suddenly, she spooked and ran toward him; something had obviously frightened the doe.
Gean’s interest was piqued.
“I knew the doe hadn’t winded me, so something else had to have caused her to take off like that,” Gean said. “Then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and saw another deer – a big deer – moving behind the hardwoods 30 yards from my stand.”
Gean couldn’t see any specifics about the buck’s rack, but he saw enough to be impressed.
“I saw that it was a decent buck, so I put the scope just past a tree he was passing and when he did (pass the tree), I squeezed the trigger,” Gean said. “He only ran 15 yards or so, fell and when he tried to get up, I shot again, putting him down.”
When Gean walked up to the buck, he knew it was not just a good shooter – it was the one the camera had revealed.
The buck weighed in excess of 220 pounds and sported 9 points with an 18 1/2-inch inside spread. Simmons Sporting Goods in Bastrop green scored the buck at 141 5/8 inches Boone & Crockett.
“After loading the buck in my truck, I drove around to pick up Colby,” Gean said. “Deciding to have a little fun, I asked him to go around to the truck bed and get me a cold drink.
“When Colby saw what I had he just about freaked.”
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