My First Bow Buck

by Alexa Loa

My dad, Thomas Loa, and I were hunting our lease–at the time–in Throckmorton, TX. It was already pretty close to the end of the rut, but we just happened to be sitting in the right spot that night.

My dad has always been really good about stand location. He had set us up in what we call our “redneck blinds” that night. Let me elaborate on our redneck blinds for a second. We got the campers off of multiple eighteen-wheelers and spray painted them camo, bought some long foam pieces to make the bench comfortable and then set each one up in areas with the highest deer flow. Talk about a luxury DIY ground blind. The redneck blind we sat in that night was between the river and a wheat field, it was a perfect spot for a stand and feeder.

We sat in that blind many times that season but never saw anything mature enough to kill, saw plenty of nice bucks but they were all too young so we would pass them up every time. I was always taught management is the key on any successful free range lease; we always liked watching our deer grow. To us it’s exciting to see our deer go from babies, to potential shooters, to great mature deer over the years. That evening we were covered up in doe, they were everywhere. We both had our fingers crossed a mature buck would follow one in and two real nice shooters did.

The two bucks came in chasing some does. We watched them for a while, they never left the area and they both had given me a perfect 30 yard shot many times. I couldn’t tell you how many times I glassed both of those deer, I had to make sure I was making the right decision on which one to shoot. My dad kept whispering for me to shoot the bigger one, of course. I just couldn’t do it, there was something about my deer I just knew I had to take that one. So I did, the shot was a little further back than I would’ve liked but the 2.5″ 100 grain expandable Xecutioner Broadhead I was using got full penetration with my little 45 pounds I’m pulling on my TNT bow. He ran maybe 30 yards and was done. My deer ended up scoring 150 and was 19″ wide. My personal best and my very first buck kill with a bow!

I was overwhelmed with excitement. Not just because I had shot the biggest deer of my hunting career, but because I got to share the experience with the person who introduced me to hunting at the age of two and to take it with my family’s product was even cooler. I like to think of it as such a huge blessing to have the opportunity to do what I love to do. I love having such positive support from my parents, and little brother who’s starting to get into it, but also from my loved ones, friends and complete strangers congratulating me on social media. I can’t thank my dad enough for working so hard to provide us with the land we hunt and teaching me everything I need to know to be a successful hunter. This will always be something I enjoy doing with my dad. Nothing beats putting in the work to raise up quality deer with a great hunting partner like him. Hunting is and always will be a huge part of my life and having the opportunity to share my story makes it even more special.

This hunt will always be one of my favorites; I can’t wait to see what next season brings!