As daylight broke on Tensas River NWR, it was apparent that adjustments needed to be made.  As Carl Duhon of Moss Bluff, La. lowered his climbing stand to clear the limbs that blocked his view, he saw him. Carl sat there with a smile on his face because at roughly 140 yards, was a buck. This was shaping up to be a stellar year.

If Carl’s season had gone any different, he probably wouldn’t have even been in that particular tree staring at that particular buck.  See, Carl had already had a great season hunting Louisiana whitetails before he’d even filled out a self clearing card at Tensas. The rifle opener for Area 3 found him face to face with a great 10-point, and then on Thanksgiving weekend at Clear Creek WMA, he took a nice 8-point, so when it was time to go to the Big Buck Capitol of Louisiana, he didn’t hesitate.

Duhon poses with the 10 point he killed near Singer, La.

“My son had found this spot the weekend before we went for the lottery hunt. It’s in an area that I’ve hunted before that’s usually got a lot of rubs and scrapes,” said Duhon.

As his hunting party decided on who’d hunt where, Carl offered to take the lowest spot on the totem pole and hunt where no one else wanted to.  Why?  “My niece took the best spot, my son took the second best spot, and my brother took the third best spot.  I just went on down passed them to get out of their way because I thought that there was no way in the world that I would do any better than I already had,” laughed Duhon.

At close to 7:00 am, Carl realized that a few branches were right in his line of vision, so he decided to lower his climber just a few feet.  Almost immediately after he made the adjustment, he saw a buck standing in the brush.  At that distance Carl couldn’t tell that it was a record book buck he was eye balling; all he could tell was that it was a good deer.  “The deer was so far away and so large that I had no clue he was as big as he turned out to be,” explained Duhon.

Duhon shows off his second Louisiana trophy of 2011.

With the debris field between he and the buck being thicker than day-old gravy, Carl patiently found a clear spot, aimed his 30-.06, and then squeezed the trigger.  The buck tore out and left Carl wandering if the shot was a good one or not.  “After about fifteen minutes, I looked back towards where I had shot him and I realized just how much brush I had to shoot through.  I honestly started to doubt whether or not I had made a good shot,” Duhon said.

After doubt began to set in about the shot, Carl decided to give the deer time to expire, and after a two hour wait, he went to inspect the area for signs of a hit.  He wouldn’t have to trail long, because the buck’s final steps were only thirty yards from where Carl had shot him.

“I had no idea that his horns were this big because his body was so large.  They weighed him at the check in station at 205 pounds field dressed and quick rough measurement and came up with 171 3/8 inches,” said Duhon.