Forty-nine-year-old Brad Adams of Monterey, a technician at Goldman Equipment, is a strong believer in prayer. His conviction is that it took prayer to lead him on Dec. 30 to the trophy buck he shot on Dec. 28.
Adams hunts on family property in Concordia Parish and his trail cameras had revealed a big buck with unusually wide antlers that frequently visited the property. Neighbors had found the buck on their cameras as well but Adams only had one daytime photo of the buck; all other pictures were at night.
On the afternoon of Dec. 28, Adams climbed into his box stand around 3:30 p.m., a stand that overlooks his food plot.
“I had only seen one other deer that afternoon, a small 6-point that came on the food plot, as we hadn’t been seeing very many deer,” Adams said. “At 5 p.m., I looked up and saw a big buck coming through the weeds headed for the food plot. I immediately recognized it as the big one because of the wide antler spread. As soon as he stepped on the food plot, I took a shot. The buck bolted and ran toward me before turning and heading into the woods.”
Losing sleep
Waiting about 15 minutes, Adams gathered his gear and walked down to where the deer was standing when he shot his .300 Win-mag. After hearing a “whap” sound when he shot, he was certain he had hit the buck. However, the longer he waited without finding any blood or other evidence of a hit, his doubts began creeping in that maybe he had missed.
“I walked down to where the deer was standing and could find nothing to indicate I had hit the deer,” he said. “I could plainly see his tracks where he tore out so I followed them about 50 yards, when suddenly, I spotted the buck as it took off. I walked to the spot where he took off and noticed he hadn’t laid down and could find not a drop of blood or anything. By then, it had gotten dark so I gave up and went home assuming I had missed this big buck.”
The next day, Adams went to a hunting camp in Mississippi to hunt, but the big buck was occupying his mind so much he was unable to sleep for two nights, so he went home.
“I decided to go back one more time on Monday just to be sure,” he said. “I went back to where I had last seen him, stopping at first to pray. I asked the Lord that if I missed him, to just let me know and I could live with that. If I had hit him, I prayed that I’d be able to find him. I walked a little way, looked up and there was the buck lying dead on the ground, 200 yards from where I shot him.”
An impressive spread
The bullet struck the deer in the flank and didn’t exit, which resulted in no blood trail to see. Because the buck had laid there for two days with the temperatures fairly warm, the meat was not salvageable.
Adams caped the buck out in the woods and took it to Simmons Sporting Goods in Bastrop to be measured and entered in the store’s Big Buck Contest. The rack carried 13 points with main beams being 28 and 27 inches, bases were 5 inches each with an impressive inside spread of 24 5/8 inches. The buck’s estimated weight was nearly 300 pounds. The rack was measured at 163 7/8 inches.
“I firmly believe,” Adams said, “that after I prayed, God led me to the buck.”
