Big Buck 411 Blog

Deer-palooza

Deer-palooza

By Mike Handley

In 46 years of hunting deer, I've had exactly three days – once in Nebraska and twice in Kansas – when I was in the middle of a deer-palooza, when I saw so many deer I dared not blink.

Garry Ward of Crowville, Louisiana, found himself in such a situation while hunting public ground on Dec. 18, 2015.

He might not have seen as many as I did in the Midwest, where whitetails are forced into the few standing woodlots, but the parade he saw in the vast palmettos was every bit as flashy.

Garry's day began slowly. He was aloft in a climber before dawn, surrounded by buck sign, deer droppings and falling acorns. When he hadn't seen a deer by 10 a.m., he was incredulous.

"I texted my son, Josh, and told him the pin oak acorns were raining down around me," Garry told Lisa Price, who is writing the story for Rack magazine. "He wasn't seeing anything either."

Things changed after lunch.

"A 7-pointer came running in, grunting loudly and looking around. I remember thinking it was a pretty buck," he said. "But that deer was on me so quickly, and then gone, that I couldn't get a shot.

"Then another buck came, a 5-pointer, and did the exact same thing; took the same route, then gone. And then a 4-pointer took the route: same thing, grunting and running," he continued. "They were trailing a doe, or trying to trail one, and they had lost her."

Ten minutes later, a doe appeared and began snuffling up acorns. After a short time, she ran away like she was on fire.

The next deer he saw was much bigger.

"I could tell that rack was 20-plus-inches wide," he said.

"That's a big ol' deer, I thought, even though I couldn't see all the points. I knew it was huge." Garry said.

The rest is history. The buck, which has a BTR composite score of 232 6/8 inches, fell within sight of Garry's stand.

— Read Recent Blog!

Throwback: Mark Lunsford / BTR Composite Score: 207 5/8

Copyright 2024 by Buckmasters, Ltd.

Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd