Matt Robin shows off his second prize-winning muzzleloader buck in as many seasons. Photo courtesy of Glynn Harris.

There’s nothing discreet about Simmons Sporting Goods -- at least, not by comparison with its modest hometown of Bastrop, which is tucked in the extreme northeast corner of Louisiana.

Self-described as the South’s “largest sporting goods outfitter,” Simmons is a camouflaged playground for the outdoor enthusiast, sporting full mounts of alligators, bears and a virtual flock of waterfowl, along with just about every piece of hunting and fishing gear imaginable.

Fittingly, each year after the last deer hunter has emerged from the woods and the season is closed, Simmons plays host to the best -- and biggest -- bucks taken in our state, as well as neighboring Arkansas and Mississippi. Make no mistake: There’s nothing discreet about these deer, either.

The contest to determine the best buck harvested during the 2007-08 season was admittedly sparse in entries, but though quantity might have been lacking, quality certainly wasn’t.

“The top 30 or so bucks entered are probably the biggest we’ve ever seen here since we’ve been hosting the contest,” store owner Jeff Simmons noted. “What is interesting is that, when you stop to analyze it, those bucks that placed in our contest came from all over the state. There was no particular parish or area that monopolized the big-buck production; there are a few big bucks everywhere around the state. You would think that the rich soils along the Mississippi delta parishes would predominate, but actually, that hasn’t been the case. Big deer can come from just about anywhere in Louisiana.”

Here’s a look at some of the most impressive -- and some of the most memorable -- Bayou State bucks from the 2007-2008 deer season.

“MY BLIND’S ON FIRE!”
Scoring 165 inches, Jody Stacy’s muzzleloader buck may have just missed the winner’s list, but his story is too compelling to brush aside. His story fits into the weird-and-wacky category into which fit things that can -- and often do -- happen to deer hunters when they least expect it.

Stacy, 45, is a mechanic who lives in Goodwill in West Carroll Parish. “I was hunting with my 50-caliber Knight muzzleloader on some private land on Dec. 26, a spot where I’d seen good deer for the past several seasons but was never able to get close enough for a good shot,” he began. “I had figured out where the deer were doing most of their traveling, so I made a blind out of cow feed sacks, drove five iron posts in the ground to hang the feed sacks on and put some netting around it to hide my face. My little blind didn’t have a roof, so if I hunted it in the rain, I took along a garbage bag (that) I slipped over my head to keep as dry as I could.

“I was hunting there the day after Christmas this past year when the big buck stepped out at 20 yards. Since he was so close, I knew there was no way I could move to part the netting so I got the bead on the buck and shot him through the netting,” Stacy explained.

What happened next perhaps qualified Stacy’s hunt as one of the most memorable of the year. When the gun discharged, the blast produced not only smoke but fire as well: The netting and the feed-sack blind began burning.