Once upon a time, Homer Miller held deer grunt calls in the same regard as Magic 8 Balls and fairy dust. Now he won’t leave for the woods without one, whether he’s hunting with a crossbow or a rifle.
“I’d never had much confidence in them before Nov. 12, 2018,” the Louisiana hunter told John Phillips, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine. “I grunted up two nice 8-pointers – both shooters – that day.”
He didn’t harvest either, however, because he was gunning for a much bigger specimen that roamed the 320 acres behind his home. He’d nicknamed it Big Boy.
Homer collected the first of probably 30 trail camera photographs of the giant in early September. In October and early November, he was getting images almost daily.
When he hit the woods at 3:30 on Nov. 14, Homer decided to use his grunt call every 30 minutes. Just before he could do it a fourth time, the deer of his dreams stepped into the clear at 80 yards, easy-breezy for a flat-shooting .270 rifle.
The buck, which field-dressed at 185 pounds, was estimated to be 4 ½ years old. At 179 6/8 inches, the 5x7 is the largest rifle-killed Semi-irregular ever recorded from Sabine Parish, Louisiana.
“After this hunt, I’ve become a staunch believer in the philosophy that when you’re not seeing deer, you have nothing to lose by grunting,” Homer said.
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