Louisiana Teen Uses 6.5 Creedmoor to Tag Big Delta Buck

“I shot my first deer when I was nine,” 14-year-old Alexa Hilderbrand said. “Since then, I have hunted almost every chance I get.”

Along the way she has taken plenty of bucks and does, but none of them come anywhere close to the deer she tagged on November 30, 2024.

Alexa hunts her dad’s 980 acres in Madison Parish, Louisiana — an area long known for producing trophy whitetails. Her weekends and afternoons after school find her in the woods at every opportunity. She has her own rifle — a 6.5 Creedmore — which she knows how to use very well, getting her share of the venison every season. Simply put, she is a deer hunter!

During the start of the 2024 season, Alexa took three does as she waited on a good buck to reveal itself. She was looking for something better than the younger bucks which were showing up then. It wouldn't take long for her wish to be granted on the afternoon of the 30th.

Alexa’s Dad dropped her off a short distance from a box blind built on the ground. She was overlooking a food plot of clover and playing a game on her phone to pass the time. While considering whether to move the chair, she propped her rifle across the corners with the barrel pointed into the field. That move seemed insignificant at the time, but it proved to be of great consequence a few minutes later when a giant buck popped into view.

“He came out of the woods and was moving into the field when I looked up,” she remembered. “I’m not sure I could have gotten the rifle up to make the shot if it hadn’t already have been in position. I was telling myself, that is a really big buck!”

The mega-massed monster was moving, sniffing the ground like he was searching for a doe, so Alexa let out a “Meh!” to stop him. That brought his full attention to the blind, increasing the shaking inside as she took aim.

“My crosshairs were on his shoulder, but they were moving in a circle,” she added. “Finally, I pulled the trigger!”

At the fire of the rifle, the 250-pound whitetail mule-kicked and dashed into the woods, leaving Alexa shaken but confident she had just killed the biggest buck she had ever seen.

“I was worried my Dad would think something was wrong with me when I called him — I was breathing so hard," she explained with a laugh. "So, I started with 'Dad I’m okay!'”

With that call, he headed back to the field to see what Alexa had done. A heavy blood trail started at the shot site and led them into the woods a few yards.

Dad exclaimed, “That’s a monster!”

And it truly is! The most impressive feature of the rack is mass that carries all the way out on both dark-colored beams. Heavy beading on both bases is a real eyecatcher, too.

The tale of the tape said 177 inches — certainly a great Louisiana buck!

---