Rack Magazine

Louisiana northpaw learns the advantages of being a switch-shooter.

Jason Archer’s 2013 hunt in Concordia Parish could’ve been a DIRECTV commercial.

When you look at your watch and realize a few hours remain in the day, you go hunting. When you go hunting in hog-infested woods, you might expect to shoot a pig. When you choose where to go, you might sit where pigs are most likely to appear. When you sit in the local sty, you might see something other than a pig.

When you see this other thing, you might become rattled and shoot from the wrong shoulder. When you shoot from a strange position, you might or might not connect, and when you do connect, it might leave you weak-kneed. Don’t let local deer hunters call you Weak Knees. Get rid of cable … unless you need it to winch out a buck that’ll set tongues wagging across the South.

That’s the short version of what happened to the Ferriday, La., hunter on Nov. 9, opening day of his state’s 2013 “primitive weapons” season. The quotation marks mean that Louisiana’s definition of primitive isn’t limited to muzzleloaders. Centerfire rifles greater than .44 caliber, along with breech-loading single-shots in .35 or larger are also legal.

Jason was carrying a T/C Encore in .35 Whelen.

The 42-year-old turbine mechanic, home from his three-week-on job at an Alaskan North Slope oil field, joined some friends that Saturday morning to sight-in their guns. That was a little late perhaps, since the season opened that day, but the deer in Concordia Parish hadn’t been particularly active during daylight hours to that point.

Jason hadn’t seen anything while bowhunting, and all the trail camera photographs he had of deer were nighttime ones.

Nevertheless, when all the paper punching was done, he and a cousin, Wayne Wilson, decided to spend the rest of the balmy (mid-60s) afternoon in deer stands on Wayne’s property.

“My cousin’s land is only about 5 miles from the house,” he said. “I dropped him off at his stand, and then I went to a lock-on I’d hung for bowhunting.”

He’d seen only hogs there in previous sits.

From his perch, Jason could watch a weed-choked, dry pond. His view to the right was partially blocked by a limb he’d deliberately left to help conceal his hiding spot from deer approaching along an old road. Being right-handed, he couldn’t really draw his bow and shoot in that direction anyway, and the extra concealment would allow him to draw and shoot as an animal passed in front of him.

He hadn’t been sitting there long when the first deer he’d seen all year, a young 8-pointer, came out of the CRP and headed into the weeds on the old dry pond. It was followed by a 10-pointer Jason thought might meet the tract’s 140-inch minimum.

If he’d had a clear shot at it, he might have ended his vigil right then.

While the two bucks were milling around in the pond, another one — the biggest deer Jason had seen in 35 years of hunting — stepped onto the levee five minutes later and started eating briars.

“Talk about a case of nerves!” he said. “I was a wreck.

“If it had not been for that limb, I would’ve had a clear shot at the buck, but I had to wait, and I guess that helped me calm down a bit. Or maybe not,” he added.

Jason shoots right-handed, but he didn’t hesitate to pull the rifle stock over to his left shoulder and lean forward as far as he could “to shoot around that limb.”

Following the rifle’s bark, the buck flinched before fleeing.

Or at least Jason thought it flinched.

“I’m sitting there getting more nervous by the second,” he said. “I waited until dark, got down and went and got my cousin, who didn’t believe I’d shot a deer, let alone a big buck. We found only a couple of specks of blood where it had been standing, and even that was on the second pass.”

Jason was discouraged. He wasn’t really sure where he hit the deer, since he’s not accustomed to shooting left-handed.

“However, we continued following the trail and found more blood. We walked up on the buck in the CRP after covering maybe 50 yards,” he added.

Wayne had to actually see the deer before he was willing to believe his cousin had shot a monster buck.

Throughout the search, he was certain they were looking for a big hog.

He was just as elated as Jason, maybe more, when he saw the antlers up close. The animal’s body size was equally impressive, tipping the scales at a whopping 288 pounds.

“I just happened to be at the right place at the right time,” Jason said.

“I’ve never killed any really big deer. My only regret is that we didn’t take more photographs.”

Hunter: Jason Archer
BTR Score: 223 4/8
Centerfire Rifle
Irregular

– Photos Courtesy Jason Archer

This article was published in the July 2014 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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