About three years ago, Logan Langlinais decided he wanted to try bowhunting for deer, something many of his buddies enjoyed.

The 22-year-old Youngsville outdoorsman who was born and raised in New Iberia practiced shooting the bow for a month or so before each hunting season and then focused on hunting deer with a rifle and ducks with a shotgun. An avid hunter and fishermen all his life, starting at a young age with his father, Brent Langlinais of New Iberia, he hunted ducks mostly until deer hunting got into his blood more and more the past few years to the point now it’s about even between the two.

Louisiana’s archery season for deer opened Sunday in District 7. Four days later, while hunting in the Four Bayou area, Langlinais killed his first deer with a bow and arrow and the experience left him on Cloud Nine.

‘It wasn’t tough at all. That’s the first time I ever draw back and shoot at an animal. It was awesome, definitely a better feeling than shooting one with a rifle,” Langlinais said Friday afternoon, noting he has killed four or five deer in his life with a rifle, with the first being a doe at a ranch in Texas.

 “It’s great, man. It’s more of a challenge. It’s rewarding, actually, to kill one (with a bow),” he said.

The New Iberia Senior High graduate was using a Mathews compound bow he bought from a friend in 2014. He uses Easton arrows and New Archery Products (NAP) Mechanical broadheads purchased at Cajun Guns & Tackle in New Iberia.

The 9-point buck weighed approximately 150 pounds. Langlinais plans to do a European mount of the rack himself once he finds a suitable piece of cypress.

Langlinais, a junior petroleum engineering major at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, shot the deer while hunting with his long-time friend, Brennon Bourgeois, on property that has been in the Bourgeois family for generations. Bourgeois, 20, also graduated from New Iberia Senior High and is majoring in civil engineering at ULL.

“My family’s been back there close to 100 years,” Bourgeois said, starting with his great-great-grandfather, Carlisle Bourgeois.

“The first memories I have back there are running dogs with my dad …, 4 years old and in an airboat,” he said, remembering those trips with his father, Allison Bourgeois of New Iberia.

Bourgeois and Langlinais got out of class and made an afternoon hunt Wednesday, Langlinais said, then returned bright and early Thursday.

He was in his deer stand about 10 minutes before the sun came up, he said. Ten minutes later, deer were on the move around him and the adrenalin started flowing.

First, he said, “Two does came underneath me and grazed around. I watched them. Then a smaller buck came out. Then they all left. After they left, a smaller doe came out.

“Then I heard a grunt in the brush, a real light grunt. I knew right away what it was,” he said.

“It” actually was two bucks, Langlinais soon saw.

“I knew they were coming after the doe. The brush moved and I saw a 6-point, a much younger buck. The bigger buck came out behind him,” he said, noting the bucks were traveling left to right in front of him.

“They both were kind of trotting, competing for the doe. I drew back. I didn’t take time to count points,” he said, adding that he zeroed in on more mature buck.

Both deer paused about 30 yards away, he said.

“When they stopped, I put the sight on the buck where I shot, right behind the front shoulder. I heard a big thump. He jumped up. I saw blood come out of him. He ran back in the direction where he came from but crashed about 40 yards away.”

Langlinais waited about 30 minutes before getting out of the deer stand. The excited bowhunter called Bourgeois.

With a chuckle, Bourgeois said it was all he could do to persuade his buddy from leaving the deer stand any sooner to go check on the deer.

“I said ‘Wait it out.’ He was ready to go,” he said.

“Oh, yeah, I was pumped. I was ecstatic,” Langlinais said.

After what must have seemed like an eternity, Langlinais climbed down and hurried to the downed deer. Then he hauled the buck to an airboat trail and loaded it on the airboat driven by Bourgeois.

They brought it back to the camp, where the 9-pointer was field dressed.

Despite unseasonably warm daytime temperatures, the deer hunting scenario was good early that day, Bourgeois said.

“It was a pretty morning, cooler. Those deer back there are rutting right now. It’s prime time. The bucks are running the does,” Bourgeois said.

The area the buck was killed is a mixture of swamp and marsh with more of the former, Langlinais said.

“It’s different out there, mostly swamp but butted up against cypress trees and stuff like that. It’s beautiful property they have,” he said.

Bourgeois said they were hunting in the Brulee Swamp area on the family’s property. It’s well-suited for bowhunting for deer, as opposed to other typical marshy areas, because it has cypress trees that are spaced out.

“It’s got good vegetation at the bottom. The deer like it in there. As far as bowhunting in the marsh,” he said, it’s uniquely ideal.

Since Bourgeous has been hunting the area, he has a doe and a spike to his credit while bowhunting, he said.

“Not that many and nothing like Logan’s. That’s a pretty good kill with a bow. I was excited for him. It was a perfect shot. I was impressed,” he said.

Langlinais confided that he, too, was impressed with his first opportunity with a bow and arrow. He was proud of the results.

“My freezer’s been empty on deer meat for quite a while. I brought home the groceries and got one with a bow for the first time and I’m pretty pumped about it,” he said.

He said the next bowhunt can’t come soon enough.

“I’m ready already,” he said.