Deer had not been showing up around the box stands on the Cavin family property near DeRidder in Beauregard Parish. Eighteen-year-old Cade Cavin, an ag-business major at McNeese State University, opted to sit in a chair similar to the ones used to turkey hunt to have his best chance at a buck he had been seeing on his cameras.
“I had been watching one particular buck for the past two seasons and watched him grow up,” Cavin said. “The first year, he was big but didn’t have brow tines so I decided to pass on him. After finding his shed antlers the next year, I could tell he had really blown up and this year I planned to take him if given the chance.
“I had been hunting nearly every day for two weeks and decided to go again on Dec. 30 even though it was raining. My trail camera had indicated the buck had not been out to feed the night before and I felt that if the rain ended, he just might come out.”
A chair with a view
By sunrise, the rain had ceased and Cavin settled down in his turkey chair sitting behind a post giving him a good view of the area out front. The area he was watching was a pasture with rye grass planted along with both corn and rice bran he had placed in front of where he sat.
“I watched a small 8-point and four does come out to feed, when suddenly they all spooked and ran and I knew something was about to happen,” Cavin said. “I watched the buck I was after step from the woods to the pasture and begin feeding. I used my range finder to show he was 220 yards from me. I admit being a bit excited because when I saw his tall rack I knew it was him but I settled down, picked up my Ruger .308 bolt action and as he was quartering a bit toward me, I got on him, hit the trigger and he dropped on the spot.”
Calling his dad to tell him what he had done, his dad wasn’t able to answer so he called a friend who had been keeping up with the buck with him.
“I didn’t go to check on the buck at first because I could see he was down,” Cavin said. “I rode my Ranger back to my house and waited for my friend and the two of us drove down to recover the buck.”
The buck’s stats
The buck, which only weighed about 165 pounds, had apparently lost weight from chasing does during the rut. The rack contained 10 points with an inside spread of 15 4/8 inches. Adding to the statistics of the rack, bases were 4 and 5 inches each with main beams being 23 inches. The buck was taken to K&K Taxidermy in Ragley to be scored with the green score coming out to an even 158 inches.
This just shows that sometimes sitting on a chair on the ground in the rain can produce results when a perched-in box stand doesn’t.