This Richland Parish bruiser, or at least its buddy, couldn’t resist the tickling of ivories.
The rattling bag Geoffrey Henry bought just prior to the Oct. 1, 2017, bow opener was worth every penny.
The deer hunter from Start, Louisiana, picked it up at Simmons’ Sporting Goods in Bastrop, after a couple of buddies in the store’s archery shop suggested the buck fight simulator might get him a shot at a giant whitetail photographed by his trail cameras.
Geoffrey first became aware of the deer when he retrieved a partial trail camera image of it in July. He could see only a bit of the thick, point-studded beams, but he was smitten.
“I had to get him,” he grinned.
By that, he meant he wanted to shoot it with a bow. While a good many hunters take advantage of all seasons, Geoffrey has been bowhunting exclusively for nine years.
Bewitched by the photo, the 25-year-old security guard wasted little time in hanging a couple of stands.
He collected the first clear image of the giant buck in September. After that, the deer stepped in front of the lens regularly.
“I probably got 2,000 photos of him in a week’s time,” he said. “My wife named him Harvey after the hurricane. When it was blowing through, we had pictures of him every day.”
Harvey had a smaller traveling companion, a buck that might’ve received plenty of attention any other year.
“I say small, but it really wasn’t except by comparison,” he said. “It was probably a 140-incher.”
The big guy ran off all other deer that tried to invade his space, but it tolerated the 140.
Although Geoffrey was working the graveyard shift the night before opening day, he left the Delhi aluminum plant at 5 a.m. and went immediately to his treestand. He couldn’t wait to try his hand at deerspeak.
“My friends said, ‘Take a grunt call and your rattle bag,’ so I said, ‘Alright, I’ll give it a shot,’” Geoffrey said. “I did that opening day, and I didn’t see anything. So I didn’t do it the second day.
“I passed up several deer from 3 to 60 yards in those two days,” he added.
Geoffrey didn’t have to work on Oct. 3, so he was in his stand between 30 and 40 minutes before sunrise. He pulled the memory card from one of his cameras en route to the tree.
The card showed Harvey had passed through there at 4 a.m.
“I figured he was bedding pretty close by,” Geoffrey said.
“Around 7:45, I blew my grunt call for a couple of minutes, real low, then I did some light rattling with my bag. I was trying to sound like two small bucks pushing and shoving.”
A few minutes later, a buck – Geoffrey was sure it was Harvey’s buddy – ran to within 20 yards of his setup. He was astounded because he’d never lured bucks of that caliber.
Geoffrey was in a lock-on-type stand 30 feet up an oak tree, within shooting distance of a corn buffet. The tree was in the woods at the corner of a soybean field.
He knew he might not get another chance to stand if he didn’t rise when the young buck looked away, so he eased upright as soon as feasible, a smart move.
“When I stood and looked down, that big buck was about 40 or 50 yards away, and he just came barreling in there, too,” he said. “They met up, both at 20 yards, but I couldn’t get a shot because they were facing me.”
The younger buck eventually turned and walked through an opening at 35 yards. Geoffrey hoped Harvey would take the same path.
"I just went ahead and drew my Mathews bow. I thought, That big buck HAS to follow the other one. And sure enough, the little buck moved farther into the tree line, and the big one followed right behind it,” he said.
Geoffrey hollered to stop the deer, and then he took the shot. It was straight-up 8:00.
“I gave him a good yell, and then I let him have it,” he said.
As soon as the Rage broadhead hit home, the buck rocketed into the bean field, where it died 40 yards into its retreat.
“I hit a little forward, but I saw the blood,” Geoffrey said.
“I called my wife, Lexi, afterward. I was so worked up that she was freaking out; she thought I had fallen out of the tree,” he said. “I couldn’t breathe.
“I was like, ‘No, babe. I killed the big one. I killed Harvey,’” he added.
Henry never weighed the deer, but a veteran game warden told him the animal was a 300-pounder, which aren’t uncommon in that part of northern Louisiana. The taxidermist said it was about 41/2 years old.
The 21-pointer was the 26th deer Geoffrey had in range in three days of hunting. He believes other people were pursuing it, but he doesn’t know if anyone else has trail cam photos.
This article was published in the Jan/Feb 2018 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.
Read Recent RACK Articles: • No Joke: Arkansas naysayer has a little crow to go along with his venison.
• WMA Monster: Breaking a sweat to escape well beaten paths puts this Oklahoman in the record books. Grunting at noises helped.