LouisianaSportsman.com user kills 140-class 8-point hunting in Bossier Parish.
A shot in the gloaming was all it took for Michael Golden to get his shot of a lifetime.
After 25 years of hunting with his father Ronny and both trying to kill a big buck, the younger Golden literally was down to the final minutes of his Dec. 9 afternoon hunt. He had been sitting in a stand overlooking a cutover with a small planted strip and was getting ready to pack up.
“Someone shot and when they did, the deer raised its head in that little strip where it had been feeding,” Golden said. “If they hadn’t shot, I’d never have seen that deer.”
The buck was about 70 yards away, and it was a dandy 8-point that later green scored more than 140 inches Boone & Crockett.
The deer just looked around when the shot sounded, and then resumed feeding. Golden, who goes by his real name in the LouisianaSportsman.com forum, had his eyes glued to it the entire time.
“When he put his head down, he was facing me and all I had was a shot into the spine above his shoulders,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t shoot the antlers. I took the shot and he didn’t move.”
The buck fell right there, hammer-dead, from the 165-grain bullet sent from his .30-06.
Golden excitedly called his father and told him to hurry over because he had a good buck down. The anticipation was nerve-wracking for the 35-year old, who had been hunting with his dad for 20 years.
“When the deer raised his head, I could see the antlers gleaming and knew he was a good one,” Golden said. “But I wasn’t sure how good.
“I didn’t go to it until Dad got there so we could go together because I wanted him to be with me.”
Ronny Golden has a vascular disease that impacted his kidneys. Because of his treatments, Michael said, “it’s hit or miss if he can get out and do anything.”
That’s why Michael Golden wanted to share the recovery of the deer with his father.
“This was one of those days when he could get out together,” Michael Golden said. “He was the one who taught me everything I know about hunting. We try to hunt as much as we can.”
The day before, they had hunted on their 700-acre Bossier Parish property. Michael killed a nice 8-point and Ronny shot a doe.
But what they found on this evening in the cutover knocked their socks off.
Lying there was a high-racked 8-point that green-scored 142 2/8 and weighed 175 pounds. They celebrated as only a happy father and son can.
Golden, who won the December edition of the Nikon Big Buck Photo Contest with a photo of the massive 8-point he dubbed “Skyscraper,” had never seen the deer in that area of their property. His hunting partners, however, had 20 to 30 trail cam photos of it on the other side of the tract, and a neighbor on Lake Bistineau had one photo of it from three months earlier.
Golden said they’ve hunted that 700 acres for 17 years and this is the biggest buck ever killed on it. He’s talked with several taxidermists who also said it was one of the biggest they’d ever seen in the area.
The tall rack was uncharacteristic, he said, making it more unique.
“Most of our deer have width but not the height like this one,” Golden said. “I had seen one of the photos back in October when my buddies had 5 to 6 photos then. They’d been hunting it pretty hard.
“No one ever had seen it during daylight hours. I’ve been hunting since I was 10 years old, and this is the biggest one I’ve ever killed. We broke down … it was one of those really special moments.”
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Everyone who enters, no matter how big or small the buck, is eligible to win a set of Nikon Monarch ATB 10×42 binoculars (valued at more than $300) to be given away in a random drawing after the close of the hunting season.
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