Seventh-grader calls dad when big 9-point buck steps out.
Berl Lawson’s dad erected a deer stand at the edge of a pasture on the family’s cattle farm 25 years ago, a stand the elder Lawson hunted until his son was older. Now that Berl has a 13-years-old son, Lewis, the youngster is claiming squatter’s rights to the stand, and with good reason.
On Dec. 8, the teen downed a huge 170-class 9-point buck from the stand.
The original stand was destroyed when a tornado came through the area this past spring, and has been replaced with a sturdy all-steel box stand.
The Lawson’s live on the family’s 400-acre cattle ranch near Hall Summit in Red River Parish. The area the family hunts is predominately pasture lined with sweet gum thickets. Obviously, there are good genetics here, as well as good management since Berl Lawson shot a 168-inch buck from the stand earlier.
“We’re very selective on what we shoot on the farm,” the elder Lawson said. “My son is very patient, and he has watched several 120- to 130-class bucks he never considered shooting.
“Our rule is if you shoot it, you mount it.”
The story of this year’s conquest actually began last year when Lewis, then a 12-year-old, shot a fine 145-inch 10-point from the old stand.
“I was at home when my phone rang; it was Lewis calling to tell me he was looking at a big buck,” Berl Lawson said. “After he described the buck to me, I told him to put down the phone and shoot the deer!
“He said, ‘Okay; hang on.’ I heard the shot, and Lewis picked up the phone again to say, ‘I got him.’”
Fast forward to this season: Lewis was sitting in his nice, comfortable new steel box while his dad was preparing dinner.
Berl Lawson phone rang. It was Lewis. Second verse; same song.
“Dad, there’s a huge deer over here,” Lewis whispered to his dad.
The youngster had called earlier to report seeing several does, so his dad asked if it was a big doe.
“No sir; it’s a buck,” the teen whispered back. “A BIG buck.”
What followed was a repeat from the year before.
“I told him to lay the phone down, take his time and shoot the buck,” Berl Lawson, as he walked out to his truck.
“Lewis lays the phone aside, and I get to hear the whole thing,” Berl Lawson said. “I hear the shot first over the phone, and a couple seconds later I hear the actual shot from his stand three quarters of a mile away.”
Lewis Lawson, a seventh-grader at Elm Grove Middle School in Red River Parish, remembers another detail to the saga.
“When I called my dad and he told me to shoot, I told him to get in the truck and come on over here because we were going to be hauling a big buck out in a few minutes,” the younger Lawson said.
A big buck, indeed.
The 180-pound deer sported 9 points with very nice brow times and a G 2 on one side measuring 13 inches. The rack was rounded off with an impressive 20 1/8-inch inside spread.
TP Outdoors in West Monroe green scored the beast at 170 Boone & Crockett.
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