Ken Bordelon has certainly killed plenty of deer, but he had yet to score a real bruiser when he climbed into a ladder stand overlooking a food plot on the Avoyelles Parish farm he helps his father manage.
“The biggest deer I’d even killed was an 8-point that was 14 inches wide,” the Vick hunter said.
When he left the stand Jan. 3, Bordelon had set a new personal best. One that he’ll likely never match.
Bordelon was settled into the stand by about 2:15 p.m., and it wasn’t long before he was watching two yearling does being chased around by a young 4-point.
“He was a lot more fired up about breeding than (the does) were,” Bordelon laughed. “I watched them play all afternoon.”
A button joined the group about 4:30, and the two little bucks busied themselves trying to prove their manhood.
Things became more interesting when a big doe stepped out about 15 minutes later, and Bordelon decided to play with a rangefinder he received for Christmas.
“The rangefinder said she was 235 yards away,” he said.
And then something else appeared that almost made him drop his new toy.
“While I was watching her, he stepped into the view of the rangefinder,” Bordelon said. “It didn’t take me long to know that I needed to shoot it.”
The buck was massive, with heavy antlers going everywhere.
“When he stepped out, I could see those antlers going backwards,” Bordelon said.
He picked up his rifle, but wasn’t able to do anything with it at first.
“It took me a few minutes to calm down enough to take a shot,” he said.
Fortunately, the buck wasn’t about to leave the doe.
“He wasn’t really running her, but he was definitely with her,” Bordelon said.
Once he slowed his heart rate a bit and swallowed the adrenaline that was seizing his throat, Bordelon placed his cross hairs on the big buck and squeezed the trigger.
“He reared up like they do when they get shot, but he didn’t run off,” the hunter said. “He sort of trotted into the weeds, and then he turned and looked back at the doe.
“He acted like nothing had happened.”
This time, there was no hesitation.
“I thought, ‘I shot you for horns, not meat,’ so I shot him again,” Bordelon said.
The deer collapsed, and almost immediately Bordelon’s phone was ringing.
“My father was hunting in the next stand, and he wanted to know what I shot,” he said. “I said, ‘I really don’t know, but he’s got a LOT of points on his head.’
“I told him it was probably about a 14-pointer.”
After hanging up, Bordelon settled back to catch his breath and ensure the deer was dead. However, he couldn’t stand the anxiety of the wait.
“I said I was going to wait five or 10 minutes, but I probably just jumped over the shooting rail and ran over there,” Bordelon laughed.
When he reached the deer, it was still alive.
“He was still flopping around and trying to get up, so I shot him again,” Bordelon said.
Every shot had connected, but it was the third one that finally put the massive non-typical deer down for good.
And that’s when the hunter really got to inspect the rack. He was floored.
There were 23 scoreable points on a super-heavy frame of antlers that measured about 6 inches at the bases and held mass measurements of at least 5 inches all the way out.
“I knew he had a lot of points, but I really had no idea that it was going to (score) over 200 inches,” Bordelon said.
In fact, it wasn’t until his wife posted a photo on her Facebook page that the enormity of the kill began setting in.
“My phone didn’t stop ringing until 11 o’clock that night,” Bordelon said. “People were saying it would score 180, 190. I said, I didn’t know about all that.”
Simmons Sporting Goods later taped the 18 ½-inch-wide rack at 242 4/8 inches Boone & Crockett.
Bordelon said the 225-pound buck was aged at only 4 ½ to 5 ½ years old.
“I probably should have let him walk, but I don’t know about all that,” he joked.
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