Chloe Slayter follows up January’s 14-pointer with an even bigger buck at Bayou Cocodrie NWR on Dec. 14
The current Louisiana Female Youth Hunter of the Year closed out 2013 the exact same way she started it: by taking down a big-horned buck at a youth lottery hunt.
Hunting with her uncle, Billy Porche, in the Cross Bayou Unit at Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge in Ferriday, Chloe Slayter shot a big 11-pointer on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 14.
That follows the big 14-pointer she shot in January at a lottery hunt at Red River Wildlife Management Area (now Richard K. Yancey,) that scored 143-inches inches Boone and Crockett.
“She’s been very fortunate with the deer she’s taken,” said her father, Jay Slayter. “I’ve been hunting all my life, and she’s killed two deer that I’ve never even seen.”
Slayter, 44, was hunting with Chloe’s 14-year-old brother Chase on a lottery hunt at Buckhorn Wildlife Management Area in Tensas Parish on Dec. 14, so father and daughter stayed in touch via text throughout the day.
“We were texting each other back and forth, and of course my phone wouldn’t download pictures being I was in the woods out there. They sent me a picture and I texted them back to tell them I couldn’t open it up, and I asked what it was, and they said an 11-point,” said Slayter, an investigator with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office. “I said, ‘Well, who killed it?’ And he said Chloe did.
“I said, ‘There’s no way after what she killed last year. Are you being serious?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s a monster.’”
After an uneventful hunt at Bayou Cocodrie that morning, Chloe, a 7th-grader at Pineville Junior High, said she liked her chances when the kids returned after lunch to draw afternoon stand locations.
“I pulled number two. It’s my lucky number,” she said. “I have it for softball, and if I have to pick one through ten, I would choose two. It’s just my favorite number.
“I told my uncle I felt good about it. I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to get a deer. I don’t know if it will be a doe or a buck, but I’m going to get one.’”
It was a tough day for hunting, with a howling wind and a steady drizzle. As the afternoon wore on, Porche told her the conditions were tough and they probably wouldn’t see any deer that day.
“Right when he finished saying that, the big ‘ol buck comes out and it was just walking, kind of sniffing and stuff,” said Chloe, 12.
The buck was facing the stand, and eventually turned broadside, but stayed on the move as he attempted to cross the lane about 130 yards away around 4:15.
“When it turned broadside, I couldn’t get a shot on it because it was walking, and right when the head got into the woods, he (Porche) told me to shoot because it was walking away,” she said.
“I usually gut shoot, but I shot it in the shoulder while it was walking,” she said. “That was kind of scary.”
The buck didn’t even flinch when she fired her brother’s 7mm-08, so she and her uncle eventually made their way down from the stand to check for blood.
“I started to get sad because I couldn’t find any,” she said. “And we walked back some and it looked like somebody got a can of red spray paint it was so much blood. I almost screamed I was so excited.”
Her shot was perfect, right behind the shoulder, and they found the big buck piled up about 20 feet away.
The 11-point weighed 210 pounds and green scored 145 6/8 inches Boone and Crockett, with an inside spread of 17 5/8 inches and 21-inch main beams.
Unfortunately, Chloe’s brother Chase didn’t see any deer during his lottery hunt that weekend at Buckhorn.
“My brother always gets mad because he’s been hunting his whole life and I just started three years ago,” Chloe said. “The biggest deer he killed is a 7-point, and I killed a 14-point, so I guess I’m pretty lucky.
“My brother said I need to stop using his gun, because he said his gun is lucky, not me.”
Don’t forget to enter photos of your bucks in the Nikon Big Buck Photo Contest to be eligible for monthly giveaways and the random drawing for Nikon Monarch binoculars at the end of the contest.
Read other stories about big bucks killed this season by clicking here.
