As hunters, we all dream of the day when we’ll get the chance to shoot that buck of a lifetime, but most of us would never imagine it to take place right in our own back yard. For Andrew Norris of Denham Springs, that’s exactly what happened October 2nd when he bagged a buck scoring 143″, a mere 278 yards from his doorstep—within the city limits of Denham Springs.

Norris and his neighbor had both become very familiar with this particular buck they called ”Big 8.” For the past four years they had both been getting massive amounts of trail camera photos of the deer, but never had an opportunity to harvest the buck.

Like most enthusiasts, Norris was in the tree October 1st, crossbow in hand, dead set on taking ”Big 8,” but as luck would have it, the only visitors he had that day were two small dogs breeding just in front of his feed pile. “I knew my hunt was over at that point,” Norris laughed.

This 143" monster buck was killed within Denham Springs city limits by Andrew Norris.

October 2nd set a different scene; it was Friday night, and Norris could hear the Denham Springs marching band playing in the distance as he was trying to concentrate on his hunt. At around 6:50 a doe came in, followed by two large bucks, one of them being ”Big 8.” “I knew that there was plenty of light left and that I had time on my side,” Norris noted. The smaller of the two deer stayed positioned in front. “I was so nervous that it felt like I fumbled with the safety for two minutes,” Norris recalled. He waited patiently until “Big 8″ finally presented a shot, not hesitating a second, he dropped the 143″ 8 point in his tracks.

The biggest contributing factor to being able to keep up with this one particular deer so well, for so long, was Norris’s commitment to feeding and taking the utmost means to do so discreetly. Norris and his neighbor had been feeding this particular tree for around 15 years. “After feeding this same tree for such an long time, I believe the deer think that it’s actually producing the feed,” Norris commented.

One of Norris's trail camera photos, taken just two weeks before harvesting "Big 8," seen here.

From monitoring his trail camera pictures so heavily, Norris was able to take note of the deers’ patterns and considered them to follow those same patterns like clock-work year after year. “I knew if I didn’t get a chance at this deer before November, there wouldn’t be one later in the season,” Norris said. Come the end of November, the deer that spent most of the summer feeding at this spot will only be seen a few times in a month.

It’s rare to see a buck this big in Louisiana, even rarer to have the opportunity to harvest an animal like “big 8.” The fact that Mr. Norris took this animal in his own backyard makes it even more memorable; truly, a buck of a lifetime.