Clayton Flournoy, an oil field worker who lives in Dubach, either got lucky or used savvy beyond his years to decide where to place his pop-up ground blind. Selecting a ridge between two clear cuts that had been planted in pines long enough to create dense thickets worked in Flournoy’s favor in a big way on Oct. 26, opening day of firearms season in Area 2, when a big buck he had never seen stepped out of the thickets.
“I hunt on the Lisbon Hunting Club in Claiborne Parish and I have had cameras out with photos of some decent bucks, so I crawled into my pop-up blind around 2:30 opening day afternoon after putting out feed near my stand,” Flournoy said. “I have two shooting lanes giving deer easy access from either side of the ridge to the corn I had scattered.”
Surprise buck
It became a warm and sweaty waiting game as cloudless skies and temperatures in the upper 80s made for rather uncomfortable conditions. Then, as the sun began sliding toward the western horizon, things started looking up when a doe came out of the thicket at 90 yards to nibble on the corn Flournoy had scattered.
“I watched her for a few minutes and then she did something that got my attention,” he said. “She began looking behind her toward the thicket as if she was seeing something else, probably another deer. The doe started acting nervous when I saw movement coming from the thicket and a big buck, one I had never seen nor had trail cam photos of, stepped out of the thicket and started toward the doe.
“To be honest, I was almost star-struck looking at that rack. First of all thinking it was one of the bucks I had on camera at first but then quickly realizing it wasn’t. I was looking at a big buck I had never laid eyes on.”
Getting the shot
The buck began pushing the doe around obviously showing interest in her but he was presenting a problem for Flournoy. He was reluctant to turn broadside but was either facing away or facing directly at him.
“I decided he wasn’t going to give me a broadside look, so when he turned to face me I put the crosshairs on the base of his neck and hit the trigger of my Browning 30.06,” Flournoy said. “The buck dropped in his tracks. Before going to check him out, I had to get a grip on my emotions because he was so big. When I finally walked down where he lay, he was even more special than he was when I shot him.”
The impressive buck carried 14 points, including a single drop tine. A second drop tine had been broken off earlier.
The buck weighed in at 219 pounds, with a 15-inch inside spread with heavy mass throughout the rack. Taking the buck to Greg Hicks, official scorer for Buckmasters in Farmerville, the antler measurements totaled 144 7/8 inches.
“I noticed the buck had previously been grazed by a bullet across the back and talked with the guy who had fired the shot,” Flournoy said. “He had the buck on camera for at least 4 years, so I’m guessing the buck, whose teeth were worn down, was at least 5 ½ years old.”
