Tyler Jordan Bags Potential Louisiana State-Record Buck

Tyler Jordan’s monster typical whitetail, shot at Honey Brake on December 5, could be the new Louisiana state record typical. Realtree Media Image

Back in 1943, hunter John Lee shot the Louisiana state-record typical whitetail in Madison Parish. The 12-point buck scored 184-6/8, and we have a few vintage photographs of the deer from Boone & Crockett. But the details of the hunt seem to be mostly lost in history.

Interestingly, Lee’s buck net-scored only a half-inch more than the previous Louisiana-record typical, which was shot by H.B. Womble in Franklin Parish in 1914. Since Lee’s buck, the most serious competition for the state record title came in 1961, when game warden Earnest McCoy shot another giant typical in Bossier Parish that netted 184-4/8. Still, for 81 years, Lee’s record has stood. That’s a long time in a state that’s full of hardcore deer hunters.

The John Lee buck, taken in Madison Parish in 1943, has been Louisiana’s typical record for 81 years. Image courtesy of Boone & Crockett.

There’ve been some other big deer taken in Louisiana, of course. The non-typical record fell in 1994, and there have been several additional entries in the 2000s. Still, a close look at the B&C records for Louisiana reveals that many of the state’s biggest bucks were taken “back in the day.” In fact, of Louisiana’s 91 total entries, 25% were shot before 1975. And a few, such as Joe S. Rolfe’s 172-4/8-inch typical, taken in 1900, are among the oldest whitetail entries in the books. (For reference, B&C was founded in 1887, and the first world-record non-typical whitetail was entered in 1905.)

Little is actually known about the Lee Buck, shown on the far right, but it was taken in the same fertile delta region of Northeastern Louisiana. Image courtesy of Boone and Crockett.

Sleeper state is a phrase that’s used a little too often by whitetail reporters, but Louisiana snoozed for a pretty long time. Recently, though, it has blipped the big-buck radar. Along with neighboring Mississippi and Arkansas, Louisiana has become one of the top states in the nation for the highest percentage of 3 1/2-year-old-plus bucks in the annual harvest. Despite a long hunting season with generous bag limits, hunters are getting pickier about the bucks they shoot there, meaning more deer are living to maturity. When that happens, a few are bound to sport big antlers, particularly in a region with good genetics and quality habitat. (Check out this article on the South’s big bucks from last fall.)

Northeastern Louisiana, with rich soil along the Mississippi River Delta, is just such a region. It’s where most of the state’s record-book bucks have been taken, including Lee’s and McCoy’s. It’s also where, on Dec. 5, Realtree’s Tyler Jordan shot a buck that could finally topple the 81-year-old record.

OUT OF THE BRAKE

Louisiana has been particularly good to Jordan. Although the Georgia native has taken several book bucks through the years, he shot his biggest one to date in December 2020, a 190-4/8-inch buck, at Honey Brake in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. Honey Brake is well known as a duck hunting destination, but Realtree has leased the deer hunting rights there since 2019. The habitat is classic Louisiana: flat, thick, and swampy. Jordan says there are few trees anywhere for hanging a stand, and so most of the hunting is done from elevated box blinds or pop-up ground blinds. But there are ample food plots and, with good management and good neighbors, many of the bucks live to their maximum potential.

Tyler Jordan’s buck, nicknamed Stomper Jr., is a mostly symmetrical 12-point that has been rough scored at 203. Realtree Media Image

Jordan was plenty familiar with this buck when it showed up on a trail camera late at night earlier this fall. He’d first gotten pictures of the deer several seasons ago, in 2021, and had watched it balloon into a giant whitetail in the years since. The buck’s antler characteristics were strikingly similar to Jordan’s 2020 buck — a deer they’d nicknamed “Stomper” — so this deer was soon named “Stomper Jr.”

Jordan knew that Stomper Jr. was world-class this year. Realtree Road Trips co-host Bryan Brown, who was filming Jordan, even suggested that the deer could be a Louisiana state record. But their hopes for actually killing the buck were low. In fact, Jordan says most of his attention was focused on a couple of other bucks, both 8-pointers. One of those 8s was particularly big, and Jordan says they’d logged 50 sits trying to kill him. They’d had a few close calls but no success. All the while, they were hoping Stomper Jr. might show back up, but the few photos they’d gotten of the deer had been in the wee hours of the morning. “Honestly, I didn’t even think he was a possibility,” Jordan says.

But in early November, the smaller of the two 8-points daylighted in a nearby food plot. Without a good spot set up for bowhunting, Jordan says he and Brown made a quick run to Academy Sports + Outdoors, picked up a Game Winner ground blind, and got set up for the 8-pointer. Two minutes after the end of legal light that evening, the hunters were shocked to see Stomper Jr. step into the plot.

“He ended up coming in to 20 yards, but it was five minutes past legal by that point,” Jordan says. “We had a good wind, but I think he saw the light from the camera inside the blind. He blew out of there pretty bad.”

After that encounter, Stomper Jr. disappeared from trail camera for two weeks. “We were afraid he’d left the property, and we knew the neighbors were after him, too,” Jordan says. “We really thought we’d missed our opportunity. So, we loaded up and came home.”

ROUND 2

Eventually, though, the big buck seemed to settle back down and started appearing on trail cameras again. As the calendar ticked into December — closer to the rut, which is usually around Christmas in northeastern Louisiana — Stomper Jr. even made a daylight appearance in a chicory plot, albeit with just four minutes of shooting light left.

Don’t Miss: Where and How to Hunt the Southern Deer Rut

Jordan and Brown knew they had to be careful, but a cold front was coming, so they decided to try to hunt the deer again. But just as before, they needed a new setup to put themselves in the chips, because there wasn’t an existing stand nearby. They made another trip to Academy to pick up another ground blind. There was a blustery north wind blowing, and Jordan says that helped mask the noise of setting up the blind — something they probably couldn’t have pulled off had it been calm. But after getting the setup ready at midday, they climbed inside to begin hunting. This time, Jordan had brought along his Franchi Momentum in .308.

Jordan shot the buck with a Franchi Momentum Elite, chambered in .308, from 130 yards. Realtree Media Image

“We got in the blind at 2:30, and last legal light was 5:34,” he says. “We started seeing deer almost right away, and some pretty good pre-rut activity. Several little bucks were cruising around and sparring, but there was one group of six does that were at the end of the field, away from the bucks. They all came to attention and were looking at the wood line. Within a few minutes, he stepped out.”

Jordan wasted no time dropping the buck in its tracks with one round from 130 yards. “It was a pretty awesome feeling, not having to sweat that one out and follow a blood trail,” he says.

After spooking the buck in early November, Jordan and Realtree Road Trips co-host Bryan Brown used a stealthy ground blind setup to get another opportunity in early December. Realtree Media Image

Stomper Jr. is an incredible main-frame 12-pointer that’s symmetrical, save for a split G2 on the left side and a split brow tine on the right. Preliminary measurements put the deer’s gross score at 203. Jordan thinks it will net within 5 to 7 inches of the John Lee buck, when the rack is officially scored after the 60-day drying period.

Because Louisiana’s current top three typicals are separated by just a half-inch of total antler, 5 inches — if it’s on the high side — would comfortably move Jordan’s buck into the state-record spot. But would it be enough to stand for another 81 years? Time will tell, but one thing is for sure: Louisiana isn’t a sleeper state for big bucks any more.

Check out the full hunt for Stomper Jr. on Realtree Road Trips!