Patience pays off with trophy Claiborne Parish buck

On Jan. 3, Matthew Waggoner shot this Claiborne Parish 10-point after 27 days of hunting for it.

Matthew Waggoner, a fireman for the Bossier City Fire Department, lives in Haughton, but his eyes are on a particular plot of ground in neighboring Claiborne Parish. Waggoner and his family lease a tract of land south of Homer and one particular buck had captured his attention.

“Last year, we had this big buck on camera and everybody in our group had him in our sights,” Waggoner said. “He was a big 8-point last year, but although we had numerous photos of him, they were always at night.

“This season, things changed a bit when he started showing up during daylight hours. I believe it was because he was zeroing in on his home range, which was smaller. Maybe as he got older, he had found a spot where he preferred hanging out.

“I started seriously concentrating on and patterning him with the hope that I might be the fortunate one to actually down this big buck, which had improved significantly since last year. Several times, I would be at work and would be frustrated when he showed up on my camera standing in front of my stand and there wasn’t a thing I could do but wish I was on my stand instead of being at work.”

Waiting for the right one

Waggoner, 21, hunts out of a box stand that overlooks a shooting lane in front with an area that had been clear cut next to the lane, an area that had grown up into brush and briars. Waggoner believed that this is where the buck would lay up during the day and only come out for food and water late in the day.

“I hunted this buck from my stand for 26 days and never laid eyes on him until day number 27,” he said. “I would see plenty of bucks I could have taken but I didn’t want to waste a buck tag on one only to have the big one step out the day I had killed a smaller buck. You can’t take but one buck per day, so I just waited for a chance at him.”

There was something Waggoner had noted as he sat on his stand. That just about every day he hunted, a doe and yearling would come out, and those nights after he had left the stand the big one would show up on camera.

“I got on my stand Friday, Jan. 3, around 4 p.m. on the 27th day I had hunted the buck,” Waggoner said. “This day, however, the doe and yearling didn’t show up like they always had and I had this hopeful feeling that since they didn’t come out, maybe he would.”

The right time

Sure enough, about 10 minutes before end of shooting time, Waggoner’s heart began pounding when he looked up and saw his target buck come out of the clear cut and step on the lane at 60 yards.

“I already had my gun on the window – I shoot at Remington 700 30.06 – I got on him and hit the trigger and he dropped, but then got up and ran about 30 yards where I heard him crash,” Waggoner said. “I immediately started calling my dad and several others that were hunting, walked out to the road to meet them and we piled into two pick-ups and drove to where the buck was last heard, finding him piled up.”

The buck was indeed impressive sporting a symmetrical rack of 10 points with an inside spread of 18 ¼ inches with the G3 measuring over 13 inches. The buck weighed in at 225 pounds and was aged at 5 ½ years old. Putting the tape on the rack, it came to 167 5/8 inches of antler mass.

One has to admire the patience of Waggoner who hunted the buck 27 times before finally laying claim to his trophy.

About Glynn Harris 536 Articles
Glynn Harris is a long-time outdoor writer from Ruston. He writes weekly outdoor columns for several north Louisiana newspapers, has magazine credits in a number of state and national magazines and broadcasts four outdoor radio broadcasts each week. He has won more than 50 writing and broadcasting awards during his 47 year career.