Brittany Canterberry and her husband, Chance, seem to be joined at the hip by the way they pursue one of their favorite activities, deer hunting. Their stand, situated on their 89 acres in Union Parish, has two seats, two windows and overlooks two shooting lanes. The couple hunt together every chance they get, Canterberry watching one lane and her husband the other. Several bucks hang on the wall of their Spearsville home as the result of their efforts.
One particular buck, one they named “Big Ten,” has been a point of interest for the pair for at least the past two deer seasons.
“We had this deer on camera last year but never saw images of him during daylight hours,” Canterberry said. “Then this year, beginning in July, we started seeing him off and on during daylight hours, so he became our focus.”
Canterberry owns Brittany’s Originals, a boutique in Farmerville, as well as designing and printing her own line of graphic tees. Her husband works as maintenance supervisor at Foster Farms poultry processing plant, as well as owning his own service station in Farmerville.
On Oct. 26, opening day of firearms season this year, the couple climbed into their stand. Canterberry was watching a short lane where cameras had indicated the majority of bucks were seen, while her husband faced the other direction that overlooks a longer lane. A mixture of rice bran, corn and Delta Magic was placed on both lanes to attract deer.
Big Ten
As darkness transitioned to daylight, Canterberry realized she was looking at four bucks on her lane feeding on the Delta Magic at 100 yards. Eventually she was able to see that one of the bucks was Big Ten standing broadside, but there was a smaller buck blocking her view.
“I could see brow tines and could tell the antlers were outside the ears and knew it was him,” she said. “When the young buck finally moved, I shouldered my Remington .270 Short Mag, put the crosshairs on his shoulder and hit the trigger. He jumped like he was hit and then disappeared into the brush.”
Waiting an hour to give her husband the opportunity to continue hunting, the couple exited the stand, walked down to where the buck was standing and found a single drop of blood. A brief search led them to the downed deer.
The buck, in keeping with his nickname, sported 10 points with an inside spread of 17 ½ inches and weighed in at 202 pounds. Assumed age was 4 ½ years. Taking the buck to Greg Hicks, official scorer for Buckmasters, the tape came to 140 1/8 inches.
“Chance and I have joined with our neighbors who hunt and we have come to an agreement to pass on small bucks and give them time to grow to mature deer,” Canterberry said. “We have those with tall and skinny racks and some wide with short tines and hopefully we’ll get to the point where the two genetics combine to make a heck of an offspring.”
Canterberry and her husband are proving that there is something special about a relationship between a couple who share a deer stand and love to hunt together.
