Dusty McGehee was in a blue funk earlier this deer season. He had hunted hard around his dad’s home in Union Parish for a particular big buck he’d had his eyes on since last season. However, there was no venison in the freezer or rack for the wall to show for his hours upon hours of effort. McGehee was in a slump.
“I decided to take a break from hunting around here and went to some property my family owns in Texas around Tyler. I killed a couple of bucks out there, including a really fine 8-point buck that scored over 150,” McGehee said.
Apparently the adrenalin rush from his Texas two-step put the fire back in his belly for the big buck he’d hunted for two seasons, a buck that he’d captured numerous times on trail cameras on his dad’s property near Downsville.
“I first learned of this big buck when a neighbor shared a trail-cam photo of the buck,” McGehee said. “Fortunately for me, the buck moved from the neighboring property to our 220 acres because his picture began showing up on my cameras.”
Click here to see more photos of the buck.
The deer was a real bruiser, and grew more impressive each passing season.
“Last year, he had 11 points but, when I got his pictures in September of this year, he was a 13-point with a drop tine,” McGehee said. “A month later, trail cam photos showed he’d broken the drop tine, and was now a solid 12-point trophy.”
It took some time to narrow down where the buck was hanging out.
“I had planted spring and summer food plots on Dad’s place, but he didn’t show up on camera until I set a camera around the bow stand I used last year,” he explained. “I put out some corn and rice barn, and that’s where he showed up this year.
“He had a couple of other bucks running with him, and I set out to try and waylay this buck.”
The work paid off early, well, almost.
“I hunted him hard during bow season, and was very careful to play the wind and not hunt my bow stand if the wind was wrong,” McGehee said. “I was sitting on my stand late one afternoon when he showed up with two or three other bucks, but by then it had gotten too dark for me to see my bow sight.”
All McGehee could do was sit quietly in the dark and listen to what was going on beneath his stand.
“The big one got into a serious fight with another buck, and I heard him tearing up brush,” he said. “The bucks finally drifted off, but even after it was over and they left I sat in my stand for two hours in the dark, making sure he wouldn’t detect me.”
It was about this time that he left to take out his wrath on the Texas bucks. When he returned, though, his spirit was renewed and he was once again ready to do battle with the big Downsville buck.
“This past Saturday, (Dec. 11), I spent most of the day catching deer hounds that were running across our property; I didn’t want them disturbing the buck,” he said. “The next day, after a cold front had come through, I eased out to my stand with my rifle late in the afternoon.
“About half an hour before dark, I looked up and there he was 200 yards away eating wheat on the plot. I shot him, he ran about 50 yards and fell.”
McGehee’s buck carried 12 points with a 17 ½-inch inside spread and impressive mass that continued from base to tips of the tines. Each base measured approximately 6 inches, and McGehee estimated the rough score to be around 160.
“Nobody had ever seen a buck like that around Downsville,” McGehee said. “My dad has hunted this property for decades, and he’s never seen one like this.”
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