High-fence escapee tapes out at 226 inches Boone & Crockett.
When Jacey Broussard saw the buck of her dreams a few weeks back while she was riding horseback, it was almost as if the deer had fallen out of the sky.
After she finally got her hands on it this weekend, she discovered it almost kinda had.
Broussard hunts her father-in-law’s 480-acre tract near Moss Bluff in Calcasieu Parish, and she’s been fortunate enough to kill two deer, including a 4-point buck.
This season, she took up bow hunting, and vowed to put some meat on the table the old-fashioned way.
But those plans went out the window when she first saw the incredibly massive buck.
“I just got the bow this season, and I made every hunt with it, but I put the bow down to get serious about this buck,” Broussard said.
Serious indeed. She shoots a 7mm Mag.
The buck began to pop up on trail-cams scattered throughout the property, so Broussard’s father-in-law, Albert Broussard, got to see with his own eyes how big the deer was. He’s an avid deer hunter.
“He was my competitor,” Jacey Broussard said. “We both wanted to get this buck.
“Every moment that I wasn’t at work or sleeping, I was in that stand trying to get (the buck).”
Two more times, the beast showed himself at Broussard’s favorite stand, which is located 27 yards from a feeder.
“The first time, he walked within 10 yards of me,” she said. “I had the gun pointed toward the feeder, and he came out to my left. He was staring right at me. I was too scared to move. I didn’t want to scare him off.
“Finally, he just moved toward the trees, and then ran off. I was sick.”
The next morning, she went to the same stand, and the deer ran across the clearing far too quickly for Broussard to get off a shot.
“I was the only one to actually see the deer in person,” she said. “Everyone kept asking me, ‘Is his body big?’ I said, ‘I’m sorry. I can’t get past those horns. I have no idea.'”
That would change on Nov. 26. Broussard packed a lunch, and got to the stand early in the morning.
“I was staying in the stand no matter how long it took,” she said. “I kept thinking somebody else was going to get him.”
The morning was uneventful, and the hunter was playing games on her cell phone to keep herself awake.
“To my right, I heard him moving,” she said. “He would always come through the woods sounding like a freight train.”
Broussard got her gun ready, and waited. Within seconds, the deer popped out 15 yards away, trotting across the opening, and Broussard pulled the trigger. The deer kept running, but fell 20 yards away.
“I kept following him with my scope,” she said. “I was going to shoot him again if he didn’t fall.”
A second shot was unnecessary.
“I couldn’t believe he was laying there,” she said. “I was in shock. I was so excited.”
She called her father-in-law and husband to relay the good news, and then just about sprinted out of the stand.
Her trophy was a 226-inch 3 1/2-year-old that weighed only 160 pounds.
Jacey would later learn that the animal had escaped from a high-fenced deer enclosure a mile and a half from the property.
“He had to swim over a river to get here,” she said, “and it’s interesting that he hung around for three weeks.”
See other bucks killed this season – and add photos of your own – in the Nikon Big Buck Photo Contest, which is free to all registered users of this site.
Not a member of the Sportsman team? It’s free; just fill out the short registration form to get started today!