Saturday, Nov. 18, has been a special day for the Futrell brothers from Colfax. It had always been a special hunting day for older brother Hunter, who sadly passed away a year ago. Matthew and his younger brother, Connor, had planned a duck hunt for that day this year.
“Connor and I had planned to go duck hunting that day,” Matthew said. “However, when I called him early that morning, he told me he was sick and unable to duck hunt. He suggested that I go deer hunting because the date, Nov. 18, was special to our older brother because he always killed a buck on that date.”
Matthew, age 20, is a logger and hunts on private land his boss had given him permission to hunt in Grant Parish. Instead up grabbing his shotgun and waders to hunt ducks, he gathered up his deer hunting equipment and headed for his climbing stand on the property.
Phone pinged
Futrell’s boss had suggested that he hang some cameras on the property and start putting out feed to attract deer to the area. On the way to his tree where he was to hang a climbing stand, Futrell’s phone pinged and a big 6-point buck was standing just out from the stand. By the time he got to his stand, the 6-point had gone. He was not disappointed because his target buck was a bigger 9-point he had started getting photos of in daylight.
“I got into my stand in the dark, my phone pinged again and there was the big 9-point standing by the corn pile I had out,” Futrell said. “He was right out there in front of me, but I couldn’t see him because it was still dark.”
Daylight came, the big one had disappeared, but Futrell noticed some does walking through the bottom.
“The 6-point showed up and was messing with the does,” he said. “I could have taken him, but I knew the bigger one was in the area so I just watched him and the does and let him walk.”
Worth the wait
At 7:15, Futrell looked up the hill and saw the big 9-point tending the does. When the buck got to 75 yards, he raised his Remington 700 .243 rifle and squeezed the trigger.
“When I shot, he ran up the hill but then stopped and staggered a bit like he was about to fall,” Futrell said. “I put another round in him, he ran back down the hill and then fell dead.”
A case of nerves set in on the 20-year-old as he had to calm down before going to check on the fallen buck.
“I stayed in the stand probably 30 minutes before I felt calm enough to climb down,” he said. “Also, I was thinking that today was Nov. 18, the date Hunter always seemed to kill a buck. Instead of going duck hunting, I’m really glad I decided to sit in my stand on this special day.”
The buck sported a rack of 9 points and had an inside spread of 20 inches with main beams being 25 inches each. Bases were 4 ½ inches each and the buck, estimated to be 5 ½ years old, weighed in at 185 pounds and measured an even 151 inches.