Dalme’s big buck scores 167 inches
If Adam Dalme scored his Dec. 17 deer hunt like a basketball game, the 24-year-old hunter would have to give an assist to a big doe that led a 13-point buck off of neighboring property right onto his shooting lane.
Dalme’s Remington .30-06 did the rest.
“I was sitting around the house that afternoon, checked the time and decided I since I had nothing better to do, I’d go get on my stand,” Dalme said.
Although he is a member of a hunting club between Natchitoches and Many, Dalme has access to property much closer to his home in Clarence just east of Natchitoches.
“My parents own 60-plus acres of land near where we live,” he said. “The land is basically a cow pasture, but has about 5 acres of woods adjoining it. I have an old box stand on the ground in the woods at the back of the property.”
Dalme has had a big buck on the trail cameras there for the past three years.
“I hunted him hard for two years without success and this year the construction work I do has kept me out of the deer stand more than I’d like,” he said. “I did manage to take a couple of cull bucks off the lease I’m in west of Natchitoches, but the big one here close to home has just eluded me.”
Getting to his ground blind around 4, Dalme settled back to see if by chance the big buck would show itself during the brief window of time before darkness settled.
“About 4:40, I had a big doe cross my shooting lane and I heard her walking toward a fence behind me that separates our property from neighboring land,” he said. “She jumped the fence and as soon as she did, I heard a buck grunt.”
Getting a glimpse of the buck, Dalme knew it was the one he had been after — but unfortunately, it was off his property.
The doe, however, had another idea that played perfectly into Dalme’s hands.
The female deer jumped the fence back onto his parent’s property, went through a ditch behind him and came across his shooting lane at about 172 yards.
“As soon as she crossed, I saw the buck right behind her,” he said. “I got my rifle up and as he darted across, I was able to quickly get him in the crosshairs and shoot him on the run. He hit the ground but then got up and ran.”
Sitting in his blind for 10 long minutes, Dalme began doubting his accuracy, and started feeling like he may have made a bad shot on the deer.
“I walked down where he was running when I shot and I found no blood or evidence of a hit although I knew I’d hit him because he hit the ground before running off,” he said. “I got my light, shined it out in the direction he ran and got excited when I saw him laying there just off the lane. Thankfully, I didn’t have to blood trail him at all.”
The buck, which weighed 200 pounds, had a rack with 13 points that featured a 19 ⅛-inch spread with impressive mass throughout. At Simmons’ Sporting Goods in Bastrop, the rack measured 167 ⅜ inches.
