Shawn LaPrairie, 30, who lives in Colfax, headed to the woods with his crossbow with one goal in mind; take a doe for the freezer. He never saw a doe, but he had no hesitation to hit the trigger of his Raven crossbow when a high and wide racked buck stepped out.
“I work building gas turbines but I knew I had to be in the woods on Oct. 1, opening day of archery season,” he said. “I hunt on public land, the Kisatchie National Forest in Grant Parish, and the area I like to hunt is piney woods with an oak bottom adjoining the pines.”
Getting to the woods and placing his climbing stand on a big pine around 6 a.m. that morning, he was waiting for a doe to walk out. However, an hour later, he noticed a deer walking through the woods headed for an oak that was dropping acorns.
“I realized it was not a doe but a buck with a really nice rack, and I ranged him at 40 yards,” LaPrairie said. “Getting my bow ready, I had to wait because the buck stopped behind a big pine and just stood there for a good 10 minutes. I was starting to get anxious as I couldn’t tell if the deer would continue on or turn back to the woods until he finally stepped out, took a few steps in my direction before turning broadside. That’s when I released my bolt at 32 yards.”
Tracking the buck
At the shot, the buck kicked up and took off, running about 50 yards before stopping behind a big pine.
“I was expecting him to fall but instead, he started easing back into the thicket,” LaPrairie said. “I got down and found a little blood but no deer. That’s when I decided to call Jason Iles who has tracking dogs. Iles lives some 30 minutes away and brought his dogs. The dogs found the buck down. He had run about 130 yards.”
The buck was rough scored at 146 5/8 inches of antler and had a 19-inch inside spread. It weighed in at 211 pounds and was estimated to be probably 4 ½ years old.
“I had hunted him last year when he was an 8-point so I recognized it as the buck I had been after since last season,” LaPrairie said. “He was an even better buck this year.”
It had to have been an opening day surprise for LaPrairie to be hunting for a doe when a wall hanger buck came out instead.