When 15-year-old Jaxson Fontenot departed his hometown of Milton, he had no idea he would be face-to-face with the buck of a lifetime in the next few days. Jaxson is an avid hunter who is no stranger to the deer woods. As a matter of fact, he is an accomplished public land hunter at his young age.
On New Year’s Day, Jaxson and his dad, Sam Fontenot of Ville Platte, set off to hunt deer on Richard K. Yancey Wildlife Management Area in Concordia Parish. He would be spending the next few days hunting with his dad and friends and camping on one of the designated camping areas of the WMA. This is an area that his dad is very familiar with and has been hunting the property for many years.
After uneventful afternoon and morning hunts that included long walks deep in the WMA, Jaxson wasn’t comfortable with the long walk needed to get back to the spots that were scouted.
“The far walk deep in the woods got to me when I got lost and had to climb a random tree,” Jaxson said. “My dad’s friend persuaded me to climb a closer tree that had good buck sign.”
Taking the shot
On the afternoon of Jan. 2, with the temperature in the mid-60s and a light wind, Jaxson used his Summit climber to get 17 feet in his designated tree at 3 p.m.
The action unfolded at last light for Jaxson with a doe and yearling making their way toward him from 40 yards out. Behind the pair of deer, out in the distance, he saw what he believed to be a small basket rack 8-point hot on the trail of the doe. The buck stopped at a nearby tree to inspect where Jaxson had applied a healthy dose of Tinks 69 to the tree.
“The whole process took 10-15 seconds,” he said. “The buck stopped behind a tree and I waited for it to walk out. As soon as it walked out and I saw vitals, I made the shot.”
At just 15 yards, Jaxson’s bullet hit his mark and the buck ran off. Jaxson was so excited that he was barely able to climb down from his perch. He was met shortly after by his father and his friends who were hunting nearby.
“By the time we all got together I had already found first blood,” Jaxson said. “We talked about backing out, but we could tell it was lung blood and it was a vital shot on the deer.”
A trophy buck
They were able to find the buck after a quick 60-yard blood trail. That’s when Jaxson and his dad realized that this buck was not a basket rack 8-point. It was in fact, a 5-year-old 10-point that weighed in at 215 pounds and scored 151 6/8 inches.
“This was not the kind of rack that I normally see on public land,” Jaxson said.
The disbelief that they both experienced was unbelievable and the celebration included hugs, high fives and a bunch of whooping and hollering.
As if shooting a giant buck on public land was not cool enough, Jaxson killed this deer with his grandfather’s rifle. It is the same rifle that his dad used to kill a 138-inch 8-point buck 16 years to the day on the exact same WMA. That was the same year that Jaxson was born.
A tradition that was started by his grandfather and continued with his father is to notch a mark into the side of the rifle with each buck killed. A week before Jaxson’s hunt, his two younger sisters each harvested their first deer with the exact same rifle. It just so happens that Jaxson used a larger notch with this buck than all the others.
