Fifteen-year-old Asher Rhodes, a 10th grade student at Quitman High School, had a choice to make. He was set on going duck hunting on the morning of Nov. 28. Fortunately for him, at his granddad’s prompting, he decided to forego duck hunting for a chance at a big buck that was showing up on cameras on the 80 acres his family leases in Jackson Parish.
“The buck had been showing up on our cameras a few weeks earlier but all of the photos except one had been made at night,” Asher said. “With the rut going on, my papaw was pretty insistent that I could go duck hunting later and that I should go deer hunting because of the chance the big buck might show up.
“He also cautioned me that if I decided to go ahead and go duck hunting he was going to sit on the stand and shoot the buck if it came out,” Asher said laughing. “That was enough for me to decide to deer hunt instead of duck hunt.”
Spotting his opening
Asher and his grandfather got on the deer stand, a two-man ladder stand, before daylight that morning. The stand was located at the edge of a clear cut with a few openings out front. At about 7:15, a doe came running through the brush.
“My papaw said I needed to get my gun up because it was likely she was running because a buck was chasing her,” Asher said. “Sure enough, the buck was hot on her trail.”
Asher learned his gun had malfunctioned on an earlier hunt so his granddad handed him his 7mm.08 to use instead.
“I got the gun up, and there was an opening about 90 yards ahead of the deer I put the scope on, thinking that even though the buck wasn’t stopping, I could have a chance at him when he hit that opening,” Asher said. “As soon as the buck entered the opening, I shot and he dropped on the spot. I don’t know who was more excited, me or papaw.”
Taking the buck to Simmons Sporting Goods in Bastrop to be measured and entered in that store’s Big Buck Contest, they found out the buck weighed 200 pounds, sported 14 points and had an inside spread of 19 inches. Simmons scored the 4 ½-year-old buck at 167 inches, good enough to put Asher’s buck in first place at that time.
“I finally got to go duck hunting a few days later,” he said, “but it took me awhile to settle down enough to want to go. The fact that my papaw had threatened to deer hunt that morning and shoot the buck himself if he had a chance was another incentive to hunt bucks instead of ducks that morning.”
