Chris Lafitte, 35, owner of a fitness gym in Bossier City, hunts on a 200-acre plot in north Caddo Parish, property he has permission to hunt. He and his dad had been after a particular big buck for two seasons there before his dad died two years ago.
“After dad passed away, I set out on a mission to down this big buck to honor my dad,” Lafitte said. “I gave the buck the name, ‘Pops.’ I also made the decision to hunt this deer with one of my dad’s rifles, a Weatherby 7 mag that dad had wrapped in the patriotic colors of red, white and blue.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 29, Lafitte hunted a two-man ladder stand, but before climbing aboard, he tied rope to a low hanging limb 70 yards from his stand and soaked it with a doe in heat product, TT Buck Wild out of Church Point. He didn’t see anything that afternoon and work prevented him from hunting Thursday morning.
“It was foggy with some light showers that afternoon and I decided to go to another stand half a mile from where I had hung the rope saturated in scent,” he said. “At 4:56, my phone pinged indicating something had triggered my camera near the stand where the rope was hanging. I could make out the big body of a deer with a big set of antlers from that stand.”
On the run
Lafitte made a decision that may have been prompted by the fact that he owns a fitness gym and no doubt utilized it himself. He decided to leave the stand he was on and take off and sprint to the other stand half a mile away where the yet unidentified buck was hanging out. At 5:00, he climbed down and took off running.
“I got to the other stand at 5:10 and felt I had no more than 10 minutes to hunt before it got too dark,” Lafitte said. “I climbed into the ladder stand and was turning around to get seated when I looked up and the buck I had seen on camera was there, circling the rope I had hung. I still couldn’t identify the buck.
“I was afraid that after a night and day of drizzle and fog, the scent had been washed away, but it was obvious the buck was sure there was a hot doe somewhere around. He paid me no attention as I got settled, got my dad’s rifle up, put the scope on him and fired. I had gotten on my stand at 5:10 and shot at 5:12.”
Down in its tracks
At the shot, the buck collapsed in its tracks. Lafitte still hadn’t identified the buck as “Pops” as he climbed down and walked toward the fallen buck. As he approached the buck and could see the rack, it was obvious that this was Pops, the buck he and his dad had hunted so hard.
“I laid on the ground and cried my eyes out for several minutes before I could get control of my emotions,” he said.
The old buck with teeth worn down to the gums, determined to be maybe 8 ½ years old, sported a rack of 15 scoreable points. The inside spread was 17 5/8 inches with bases near 5 inches with mass throughout. The buck weighed in at 220 pounds. The rack measured 155 5/8 inches.
“To kill this old buck my dad and I had been after before he died and to shoot it with my dad’s rifle,” said an emotional Lafitte, “was almost more than I could handle.”
One can’t help but imagine that somewhere up there, a smiling father was looking down, proud of what his son had accomplished in his honor.