Bart Sturgis of Carencro, La. does not know the meaning of quit.  The Iraq veteran and Purple Heart recipient knows that when you want something bad enough, you’ve got to go through hard times to get it.  On December 3, 2011, the prize at the end of his long awaited rainbow wasn’t a pot of gold, it was a 173 inch trophy buck.

The story begins before hunting season last year, when Bart was doing some maintenance on his hunting property in St. Helena parish.  While he was cutting some roads around the land, he was also looking around for deer sign and came upon some in a Streamside Management Zone, otherwise known as an SMZ.  Bart was excited when he saw the amount of sign in the small wooded area and set up a stand to bow hunt from for that season.

“I hunted that spot all last season, with my bow and some with my rifle, and I never saw him.  Heck, I never saw a deer from that stand,” laughed Sturgis.

This season, Bart went back at it, scouting and setting up stands, hoping that this year it would pay off.

Opening day of rifle season 2011 found Bart trade in his bow for a boom stick and once again, he was on the monster buck.  After a morning hunt, he was headed to his truck when he jumped the deer of his dreams from his bed right behind a fallen oak tree.  While Bart was disappointed that he didn’t get a shot, he was also optimistic about his chances of finally getting the buck.

“I figured that I knew where he was at, so I set up my climber right close and finally got to hunt that spot two weeks before I killed him.  I had to wait for a south wind because I knew that any other direction would possibly spook him,” said Sturgis.

Finally, Bart decided that it was time to hunt the new spot and he went in with high hopes that this would be the day.  The morning had just begun, when Bart decided that he’d rattle, just to see what would happen.  “At about 7:00 AM I hit my rattle bag and the woods came to life.  The buck was not 60 yards from me, but it was so thick that I couldn’t see him.  He was thrashing around and I just knew that I was going to get him, but I didn’t.  I don’t know what happened,” said Sturgis.

This picture shows the uniqueness of the bucks rack.

Two weeks later, Bart, his son, and his Father decided that they hunt the area again.  Bart’s plan of attack was to do the same thing he’d done the hunt before and see if it’d work.  “We were kind of laughing about it.  It was looking it two years of hunting that spot without seeing a deer and I’m still hunting it hard,” Sturgis laughed.

Morning number two found Bart back at it, as hard nosed as ever.  After he’d gotten settled into his climber, Bart went through the same process again, but this time things were a bit different.  Ten minutes after he’d done his first rattling sequence, three deer came walking through, a doe and two fawns.  At 7:45 AM, Bart decided that this was a good opportunity to use his bleat can to hopefully lure the buck from his post.  Sturgis held his breath as the does walked off, unaffected by the bleat call.  He knew that if the big buck was going to come in, it’d probably be down wind, so that’s where he focused his attention.  Then, it happened.  “I heard a branch snap, not 15 yards from me and I saw the rack,” explained Sturgis.  The whole process happened so fast, that Bart didn’t have time to get nervous and thank goodness his mind was clear when the cross hairs hit the big deer.  “When I got him in my scope, I almost started to shoot him in the neck but thought better of it, so I waited for him to come out a little more and when he did, I took the shot,” explained Sturgis

The tenacious hunter watched as his long awaited trophy took off, nearly taking everything in his path with him.  “He ran about thirty yards and I watched the whole thing.  Heck, he almost took out a 6‘ tree when he crashed into it,” Sturgis laughed.

The deer was amazing as he had three main beams, 12 points, and scored 173 inches.  “We had a father and son combo that day because my son killed a really nice 10 point that afternoon.  I was fortunate to get this deer.  I tried to hunt when the wind was right, but with the swirling Louisiana wind, there’s no telling how many times he smelled me and went the other way,” said Sturgis.