John K. Flores: Young brothers bag bucks an hour apart
After Thomas Theriot and his father Scott got settled into their deer stand over the holidays, the 11-year-old Central Catholic student said to his father, “Dad! I’m feeling a little lucky today!”
Thomas’ feeling soon turned providential, because it wasn’t 20 minutes later when the first group of does started to come out into the field where father and son were hunting.
Meanwhile, some quarter of a mile away, Nathan Theriot, Thomas’ 13-year-old brother, who attends Berwick Junior High, and 27-year-old sister Shannon were doing the same thing.
The Theriot family are members of a hunting club just south of Natchez, Mississippi, an area known for its excellent deer hunting.
About the time Thomas was looking at does, Nathan saw a big buck that possibly met the club’s strict age, weight, and horn harvest standards that appeared to be chasing does. Unfortunately, the buck never really gave the teenager an opportunity for a shot.
It wasn’t long before some does came out into the open, followed by more does later.
Nathan said, “I thought he was going to start chasing those does, but he never did and eventually more does came out far-far to the left side of the field about 400 to 500 yards away.”
At the same time, on their stand looking over what appeared to be no less than 12 does, Thomas says to his father, “Dad, I think-I think I’m feeling good! I think a buck is going to come out and come chase one of them.”
Over the next few minutes father and son would watch does come and go in and out of the field, but there was one big one that was inside the wood line along the edge.
Right about then Thomas’ father said, “Ga-dang! I see a buck — I see a buck!” to which his son excitingly replied, “No way!”
Over the next few minutes Thomas started to get ready to shoot as the big buck came out into the field. Only, the buck hadn’t turned broadside and that’s when the young hunter began to get nervous.
Before he turned off the safety, Thomas started going through a little meditation routine; something he says he learned on his own. Relaxing, Thomas pulled away from his scope and closed his eyes. Then, like a Yoga pose, he put his hands together all the way from his shoulders and inhaled and exhaled to calm himself down before he looked back into the scope.
Now that he was calm and prepared to take a shot, the buck passed in front of a young deer. Thomas stopped. It would be no less than 30 more seconds before he could shoot.
Finally, Thomas was able to shoot and upon the gun’s report, the big buck ran from the field into the woods.
“I kept asking my dad, ‘You think I got him? You think I got him?’ I was super excited and he said, ‘Yeah, I think you got him real good,’” said Thomas.
Father and son got out of the stand to look for the deer but weren’t able to find any blood in the late afternoon.
Scott contacted the club’s property owner who brought his dog Beans with him to help search for the deer. Beans worked the field and woods when suddenly, the dog heard something that sounded like crawling.
The dog went from trotting around to a sprint, says Thomas, right to the deer.
Thomas said, “I was kind of losing hope, like not shooting the deer in the right spot. I kept telling my dad, ‘I don’t know about it. I don’t think I got him.’ And the next thing you know I hear the property owner say, ‘No — he’s right here. Beans got him.’”
Thomas made a 160-yard shot on the deer with a 6.5 Creedmoor round. Though he had previously killed four deer, this was his first buck that happened to be a dandy!
By now it was getting late, and Nathan was still on the stand with his sister. About 5:45 p.m. the big buck he had seen earlier walked out into the field.
Nathan said, “I told Shannon, ‘That’s the one!’ I had that deer in my head the whole time. I said, ‘If he walks out again, I’m going to get him!’”
The big buck had its head down as it entered the field in front of the stand, but immediately was alerted when Nathan put his rifle through the window and started to run.
In the intensity of the moment, Shannon said to her brother, “Nathan, he’s running you better shoot him!”
Nathan, a seasoned hunter having killed 15 deer, gave a “bleat” call, which slowed the buck long enough for him to shoot.
In his post-shot excitement, Nathan said he began to worry if the buck he shot met the club’s size standards. What’s more, when the buck ran following the shot his uncertainty made him say to his sister, “Shannon! You think I got him? You think I got him?”
Calling his father he said, “Dad, I just shot a buck.” To which his father replied, “Yeah, we heard it!”
Getting anxious, Nathan walked around for a while and then proceeded to call his father a second time saying, “Are y’all coming? Y’all coming? Hurry up!”
Replying, his father said, “You just called me Nathan!”
They found Nathan’s deer five yards into the tree line. He had killed his buck just one hour after his younger brother killed his. And, like his brother Thomas, Nathan shot his deer with a 6.5 Creedmoor at a very manageable 100 yards from the stand.
Their father Scott estimates the older brother’s 9-point buck to be a 130 class Boone & Crockett buck and Thomas’ 8-point to be slightly lower, perhaps 125.
Both boys’ bucks were big-bodied deer with Thomas’ weighing 190 pounds and Nathan’s 205.
In reflecting on the hunt, Scott Theriot said, “I’m just a proud dad. I was with Thomas, and he was nervous, but he calmed himself down. That was huge.”
“And Nathan, to be with his sister, was pretty big,” Scott Theriot continued.
“He’s seen plenty of 3-1/2-year-old deer that he’s passed on. But, on this one he made the call on that deer all by himself. In fact, both deer were 5 years old or older. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.