As any Father who takes his kids hunting will say, it’s more about the experience, rather than the kill and Steve Powell of Ville Platte La. is no different.  The only thing that separates him from the rest of us is that he got the best of both worlds on November 25, 2011, when he took his 24 year old daughter, Lindsey, hunting in Bossier Parish and then ended up killing a monster Louisiana buck in the same trip.

The week before they made their fateful hunt, they scouted the area they intended to hunt and the game plan was made.  “We scouted the week before and set up a place to hunt for the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving afternoon I decided that I was going to scout for a place to hunt closer to the camp during halftime of the LSU/Arkansas game.  When I went out to the stand and looked around it, I saw this deer leaving a downed treetop, going away from me.  I could tell it was a good deer and I told Lindsey we were going to go sit there during the halftime,” explained the elder Powell.

As soon as the Tigers went into the locker room with the lead at the half on Friday, Steve and Lindsey started towards their two man ladder stand, near the home of the deer Steve had seen the day before.  “At halftime we started getting ready and I told her that we needed to be real quiet going in because he could be laid up in one of those tree tops again,” said Steve.

Steve Powell's monster buck prepares for a trip to his taxidermist.

The sit was a long one for the duo but in just a heart beat, the tempo quickly began to increase.  “It was getting a little late and I was showing her some really nice binoculars that I borrowed from a guy at the camp.  She pulled on them, to look through, and when she pulled, I looked to the left and I could see the deer coming,” Steve explained.

He immediately began to coach Lindsey on killing her first buck ever, but the plan wasn’t working out like they had hoped.  “I told her ‘Here comes a deer! Get your gun!’ but she was fighting to get her gun up because her sling was hung up,” Steve said.  As the deer kept coming, Lindsey kept trying to shoulder her rifle, but it was to no avail.  Buck fever had consumed her.

“The deer kept coming from our left, going right in front of us.  I kept telling her to shoot but she didn’t.  He just stopped and looked at us at about 40 yards.  I never took my eyes off the deer, so I had no idea what the problem was.”

But Lindsey knew exactly what was going on.  “I told him, ‘I can’t get my sling undone! It’s stuck! It’s stuck!’”

This presented a fork in the road for Steve and he only had a split second to make his decision; wait and hope that Lindsey could get her sling undone while the deer is still within range or take the 168 inch deer himself.

“The deer started trotting again when she was saying her gun was stuck but then he stopped.  When he turned his head like he was going to run, I pulled the trigger,” said Steve.

“Right as I got the butt of the deer in my crosshairs, Daddy shot.  He had no idea how close I was, because I was panicking and saying, ‘I can’t! I cant!’”, said Lindsey.

As they watched the deer take his final breath by way of Steve’s .270, wife and mother June Powell, who was hunting 300 yards away, knew something had happened.  “June could hear Lindsey screaming from where she was hunting.  You should have seen her come up on the bike to see us.  I wish I’d have had my video camera!” laughed Steve.

The deer was a beautiful 12 point typical that weighed 195 pounds and has an 18 3/4” inside spread, which is very good for a 3 1/2 year old deer.

November 25 is a day that will always be special to the Steve Powell family and it isn’t just because of this buck.  “I killed him on Lindsey’s birthday and man how I wish she could have gotten this deer,” said Steve.