The sport of deer hunting is for everyone.  Young or old, rich or poor, if you hunt deer, then we all share the same addiction.  Such is the case for 69 year old Edna St. Romain of West Baton Rouge.  Edna loves to deer hunt and has taken several nice deer, but the buck she killed on December 5, 2011 topped them all.

Now, let’s set the record straight right off the bat.  Edna is a seasoned hunter.  She hunts alone, she knows how to shoot, but most importantly, she knows how to read a deer’s body language.  Having woodsmanship skills like that is what enabled her to make the right choice of when to move and when to sit still that fateful evening.

It was an afternoon hunt that she and her husband, Lester, decided to make; she in her stand and he in his.  As the sun started to ease towards the western horizon, it became that time that we hunters love to see.   “It was about 4:30 PM when the deer started coming out.  I looked out my window to the left and I saw two yearlings and two maiden does,” said St. Romain.  She watched the four deer feed on corn for thirty minutes and then leave.

This picture shows just how good Edna's deer looked alive.

As soon as the does left her sight, Edna glanced to the right and what she saw was big.  “When the does left, I looked to my right, out this other little window in my stand. I saw this big buck come out first and I said, ‘Oh Lord, look what’s comin’ out!’”, exclaimed St. Romain.

The big buck was not alone and came out to feed with two more deer; a doe and a three point.  Now was the moment of truth for Edna.  Being a right handed shot, she had to turn to her right in order to make a comfortable shot.  This is a hard feat to accomplish with one deer in sight, but when you factor in three deer, with two of them being the smartest animals on the planet, the turn can be nearly impossible to accomplish without spooking the animals.  “I had to ease my gun out of the window to the left and prop it up in the corner of my stand.  Then, I had to ease my chair around so I could face the deer out of the right window,” explained St. Romain.

As deer hunters, we all know that’s a lot of movement, but when you’re as patient as Edna, it’s all part of the game.  As the big buck would raise his head, Edna would freeze, and wouldn’t move again until he’d lower his head to feed.

After what seemed like an eternity of playing cat and mouse, Edna was in position to shoot.  As the buck lowered his head for the last time at 70 yards, she squeezed the trigger on her .270 and watched the big buck stumble to the ground.  “He turned and looked like he was going the same way he came from, but he fell.  It looked like he was going to get back up, so I shot him again,” laughed St. Romain.

Overjoyed, she called Lester on the phone and said, “Lester, come see what I’ve killed!  I’ve killed a big buck!”.  It didn’t take him long to get to her and that’s when she realized just how big the deer was.

“I just started crying.  I’ve never killed a deer this big before.  I’ve killed 6 points and 8 points, but never anything like this,” St. Romain said.

The deer was a huge bodied deer, tipping the scales at 221 pounds.  His rack sported 12 points and had an inside spread of 16 inches.  When I told Edna how proud I was that she’d killed a buck like this, her response was “Yeah, you not the only one!”