It is a known fact that deer hunters invest great time and effort when it comes to claiming a trophy buck, and Luke Conway of Natchitoches is no different. After hunting a particular buck for the past three years with his friend and hunting partner, Scott Gahagan, all the work paid off when he squeezed the trigger on Nov. 26, 2025.
“Scott and I have been hunting a private piece of land in Natchitoches Parish for three years now and we have cameras setup in certain places,” Conway said. “We were both supposed to go the morning of Nov. 26, but he didn’t get up. I tried reaching him to see if he was going but couldn’t reach him.”
Following his gut
Conway planned to hunt from Gahagan’s stand because of the activity the pair had seen on camera, but his intuition started to erode his plan. It was telling him to change course and hunt a different stand.
“My gut was telling me to go to the other stand as I was driving that morning,” he said. “When I got to the property and started walking to the stand, my gut just kept telling me to go to the other stand. When you are going to the stands, you hit a levee and turn one way to go to Scott’s and the other direction to go to the other.”
Conway listened to his gut and hiked to the other stand even though no evidence indicated it would be the premier hunting seat that morning. At approximately 7:50 a.m., Conway hit a grunt call as the fog lifted from the cold morning and he watched a doe show itself. Then he gasped when he saw five sets of horns following behind it.
“Two were shooters and one was the big buck Scott and I had been tracking for the past three years,” Conway said.
Conway lifted his Winchester 308 lever action, a family heirloom passed down to him by his grandfather. Naturally a leftie, Conway had to maneuver to get the best bead on the buck and shoot right-handed. He fought off any signs of an adrenaline rush, squeezed the trigger and landed a deadly shot to the deer. It ran nearly 15 yards and dropped.
“I didn’t get much time to take the shot, but it felt like an eternity,” he said.
The spider spins again
Conway rejoiced in victory and thought about his father and grandfather. Being a generational hunter, he wanted to share his joy.
“Anytime I killed a deer, I would tell my grandfather ‘the spider spins again,’ but he isn’t with us anymore,” Conway said. “I called my dad and told him. He got a kick out of it.”
Conway’s beast was entered in the Simmons Big Buck Contest and it scored 164 6/8. Over the past three seasons, the buck had always been a mainframe 8-point, but this year he displayed 4 sticker points making him a 12-pointer.
“When Scott finally called me, he told me I was one lucky sucker,” Conway said.
