Have you ever had a deer that seemed to play games with you? One that, while you lay awake at night in bed, seems to know where your trail camera is located and then poses almost like a statue in front of it? John Lovell III of Winnfield, Louisiana knows first hand how a deer like that can get under your skin. On Thanksgiving Day 2009, he took a deer that he knew all to well and the wait was definitely worth it. Scoring a jaw-dropping 179 3/8″ BTR, this typical 10-point was one that Lovell had been seeing in his dreams for some time—three years to be exact. Three years worth of trail camera pictures have haunted him like something straight out of a science fiction novel. Lovell’s son, Johnny, laughed when I asked him about the pictures. “Dad is crazy about his trail cams. He’ll run out and get them every few days to see what’s on ‘em. When this buck showed up on there in 2007, I thought he had played a joke on me because it was the last picture on the SD card. We were both shocked at what we saw.” The deer was a good deer then, but the next year he was even better. “I would almost bet that last year he would have scored better because none of his points were broken off,” Johnny explained. “Part of the main beam’s tip was broken off as well as one of the G3′s.”

On the morning of November 26, 2009, Lovell’s wife had told him not too stay hunting very long because it was Thanksgiving. As he settled into his box stand sitting on a highline, the only thing he could think of was getting comfortable. “I lit my heater, poured me some coffee, and had put on my reading glasses to read a book when I looked up and saw some does cross the highline,” Lovell said. Then, close to thirty minutes later, an old friend decided it was time for the two to finally meet in person, as the buck he had so many pictures of walked out on the same trail the does had been on. Lovell tried hard not to look at the size of the antlers—just the deer—but it was almost impossible. Taking the best aim he could with his 7.57 Mauser rifle, he fired one single shot, sending the deer into the woods on the other side of the highline.

After three years of hide & seek with this monster, John Lovell of Winnfield, LA took maximum advantage of his first opportunity to take the deer.

Johnny, who was hunting with his daughter in another stand close to his Father, heard the shot. “I sent him a text asking if he shot. Instead of responding yes or no he called and I immediately knew something was wrong,” he explained. Knowing his father was color-blind and would have trouble if the blood trail were small, Johnny instructed him to stay put and he would be right over to help.

As Johnny reached the stand his Dad was hunting, he asked him where the deer was standing. Lovell thought for a second and said that he was not certain where the deer was at because it all happened so quickly. They soon found fresh tracks where the deer was standing and followed them into the woods, where the first blood was found. The searching continued, winding through the woods until Johnny spotted the deer about 70 yards from where his Dad had taken the shot. “I told Daddy that I found his deer and when he walked up, his chest was poked out so far he couldn’t have zipped up his coat if he’d have tried,” Johnny laughed.

When I asked Mr John how long he’d been hunting this deer, he chuckled and said, “Sixty-six years!” Deer hunting’s like that sometimes; some people can go to the woods a few times and walk out with a trophy, but those who are truly blessed wait sixty-six long, hard, and well deserving years. Congrats Mr. John.