Thirty-year-old James Letlow of Oak Ridge had taken off the week before Christmas from his job as Maintenance Technician for Walmart to deer hunt. He had one particular buck in mind that he had seen on his trail camera for the past two years.
“Last year, the buck was impressive as a big racked 10-point,” Letlow said. “During the week I hunted, he was the only buck I wanted so I passed up several that week as the rut was going on. I let them go because I had this one big one on my radar, the only one I was after.”
Crash in the thicket
On the afternoon of Wednesday, Dec. 27, Letlow decided to give it one more try. He hunts on family land of some 300 acres in Richland Parish. He wanted to pull the card on his camera at the site and decided to mount his ladder stand thinking it would probably be a long shot at a chance at the buck. After all, he had hunted hard a week earlier and his target buck never showed up.
“I got on my ladder at 4:20 that afternoon,” he said. “I have a food plot on an old road out from the stand that sits in an oak thicket. I had just gotten settled in the stand when I heard a loud crash in the thicket out front and a doe burst out. I looked behind her and all I could see was horns. I said ‘Good gracious; it’s him!’
“The buck took like what seemed like 30 minutes to clear the thicket, but in reality it was probably no more than a minute. The buck paused to drink at a mud hole in the old road (just 15 yards away) and I got on him with my Remington 700 .308. I hit the trigger and he dropped on the spot.”
Letlow’s father was hunting from a nearby stand.
“After I shot, dad texted me asking if the shot he heard was mine,” Letlow said. “I responded with three words, ‘I got him!’”
Near perfect
The buck was a near perfect example of symmetry. Seven points on each side of the balanced rack with main beams being the same length, 23 2/8 inches. Bases were each over five inches with an inside spread of 15 5/8 inches. The buck was believed to be 5 ½ years old and tipped the scales at 200 pounds.
Letlow took the rack to Simmons Sporting Goods in Bastrop to have it measured and entered in that store’s Big Buck Contest, where it measured at 184 5/8 inches.
“I learned that hunters on neighboring clubs had pictures of this buck for the past couple of years,” Letlow said. “For me to go out one afternoon and 25 minutes after getting on the stand, to kill this buck at 15 yards, I think I should have gone and bought a lottery ticket.”