Plenty of deer hunters have told tales about hunting trophy bucks over a period of several years, watching them grow bigger in trail camera photos over the course of several seasons until they truly reached gargantuan sizes – whether they ever killed them or not.
Keith Manuel of Grand Prairie condensed that story considerably hunting a huge buck this year – a 161-inch 12-pointer – for a whole 5 minutes.
“We had been hunting all week, and we never knew this deer existed,” said Manuel, 51, who made the trip up from St. Landry Parish and dropped the huge Concordia Parish buck with a single shot from his .35 Whelen.
“It wasn’t until after I killed him that people started sending me photos and videos. They’d been hunting him for a couple of years, but I didn’t have any clue he lived there,” he said. “There was some sign – some pawing and some hooked trees – but we never had him on (trail) camera.”
A different spot
Manuel left his camp around 2:30 on Friday, Dec. 29, walking into the woods with his son and a nephew. On the way, he decided he would hunt in a completely different place than he’d hunted all week.
“I woke up that morning, not feeling good, me and my nephew,” Manuel said. “We went to urgent care; he tested positive for the flu, but I didn’t. We got some shots, and we didn’t leave camp until 2:30 to walk into the woods. My son and nephew were in front of me, and I pointed to where I was going. I walked to an area I hadn’t hunted by myself, just went off by myself. I walked about 150 or 200 yards off the trail, climbed a tree and sent a group text to let them know where I was.”
Manuel found a sturdy oak tree overlooking a sure-enough by-golly thicket. He got up between 10 and 12 feet off the ground in a Summit climber, and he wasn’t even sure he could find a place to shoot.
“It was so thick that when I was climbing, I didn’t even think I’d have a shot anywhere, but I got to a spot where I could maybe get a shot,” he said. “I was in the stand maybe 5 minutes, when I heard him coming. I didn’t see him until he was about 30 yards, then he walked another 5 yards into this little clearing, and I shot him. He put his head down, and I was high enough that I could shoot down between his shoulders. I broke his neck, and he went right down.
“I still had my phone in my hand when I shot him. The gun went off, the deer fell, and I dropped my phone.”
A popular deer
Manuel’s buck weighed 225 pounds and carried a basic 6×6 frame with some small sticker points around the bases. The deer had a 17-inch inside spread, and the G-2s and G-3s on both beams were between 8 and 10 inches. The G-5 on the right beam is broken off an inch or so off the beam, but it still matches up with the G-5 on the left beam.
Manuel said from what other hunters who had a history with the buck told him, the deer was likely 5½ or 6½ years old.
“One of the guys who sent me pictures said the same tine was broken off last year,” Manuel said. “People sent me some good pictures and videos. It’s good that other people were hunting him. I think he had been in there; I think he was just getting away from (hunting) pressure.”
The big buck was the capper on a big week for Manuel and his hunting buddies.
“It was buck-only week, and we had a great week,” he said. “My son and nephews all killed bucks. And I killed the biggest deer of my life.”