Concern for his fellow hunters was rewarded for Charlie Lusco Dec. 1 when the Kenner hunter shot a buck that may be the largest ever taken in the Bayou State. (The story appeared on www.nola.com/outdoors/ first. )
Lusco told louisianasportsman.com he had spent all day putting out trail cameras, hoping to capture images of the buck that had grown to legendary status on Diamond Island. At 4 p.m., with remaining hunting time running short, Lusco hopped on a stand overlooking a pipeline because he didn’t want to disturb any of the other hunters in the woods.
And wouldn’t you know it, that’s where the monster deer walked out.
“We didn’t know where the deer was at all — no one had a clue,” Lusco told the website. “We hadn’t had him on film in at least two weeks. So we spent the whole day putting cameras out to find him, and I just went and jumped on a stand.”
The deer came out 200 yards from Lusco, and he did a double-take.
“I put my gun out the window, and I was about to shoot him, and then I said, ‘Let me make sure I’m ID’ing this thing right,'” he said. “So I pulled the gun back in and studied him some more. So I knew he was a shooter buck; I just didn’t know if that was the deer I was after.”
Lusco took one shot with his .270, and the deer ran back into the woods. He felt good about the shot and didn’t want to push the deer, so he slipped out the stand, ate dinner and returned at 9 p.m. with some of his camp mates.
They found the deer 90 yards away from where Lusco shot it.
“Oh God, it was like a big party in the woods,” Lusco said. “Everybody was high-fiving and slamming knuckles.”
The deer weighed 260 pounds, but even more impressive was what it sported on its head. The 11-point rack has been green-scored three times, and has ranged between 185 and 188 inches, all of which would break the state record for typical deer. Currently, a 184 6/8-inch buck killed in Madison Parish in 1943 by Don Broadway holds that title.
The deer cannot be officially scored until after a mandatory 60-day drying period.
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Story by Todd Masson can be reached at tmasson@nola.com.