A New Iberia boy never will forget the second morning of the 2023-24 still-hunt only firearms season for Area 3 in western Louisiana.

Cole Olinde shouldered a .223 AR15, took deliberate and careful aim and killed the first-ever deer of his life while hunting with his father, Jeremy Olinde.

The area’s rifle season got underway Oct. 21, a Saturday. Cole and his dad, Jeremy Olinde, 37, traveled to private family property spanning less than 100 acres 10 miles west of Oakdale.

They settled into a stand around 3:30 p.m., a late start due to the young hunter’s Iberia Soccer Association semifinal match at noon in which he excelled as goalkeeper during every minute of an overtime thriller in a U12 semifinal game at the Louisiana PepperPlex.

The Olindes hunted till dark that evening and never saw a deer. After an evening at the camp, the father-and-son outdoorsmen climbed into the 4×6 homemade box stand, one of six such structures with real windows and metal roof built by the elder Olinde, at 6:25 a.m.

There was no sign of deer for the first several hours, which meant the young hunter had time to read a book he brought along for the trip or to enjoy a Nintendo Switch. At approximately 9:45 a.m., however, two does walked out.

“I said, ‘Cole, be quiet.’ He laid low,” Olinde said. “Cole had to kind of shoot in front of me. He had to lean over me to shoot because the deer was on the right hand side of the stand and Cole was on the left side.”

Cole waited, then slowly put the .223 AR15 to his shoulder, picked out a deer, breathed softly, squeezed the trigger and “took a great shot.”

Olinde, manager at Southern Pipe & Supply Co., said his son’s shot at about 60 yards hit the deer in the shoulder/heart area. The doe ran approximately 20 yards before collapsing.

Father and son outdoorsmen high-fived immediately.

Cole said, “He said I hit it and I did not say anything back. I was too nervous.”

“Yep. He got it done,” his father said, proudly. “I just felt excited. I think I was more nervous when it (the doe) came out than he was. I was excited for him to shoot.”

His son said it means a lot because over his first 1 ½ seasons of deer hunting he had few opportunities.

“I saw a bunch of deer but never got a chance to shoot them,” Cole said.

Cole, the oldest of three sons born to Jeremy and Elizabeth Halphen Olinde, celebrated his 10th birthday on Oct. 24, two days after his memorable day in the woods. The fourth-grade Catholic High School student who plays football and soccer has been practicing marksmanship and safety the past few years at a shooting range in St. Mary Parish, according to his father.

Still, his son said, the thought he might miss crossed his mind as he sighted in on the doe. He wasn’t nervous in the moments leading up to the shot, he said.

Cole’s brothers, Luke, 7, and Beau, 5, who also play in the Iberia Soccer Association, usually join him and their father on Mike Halphen’s property in Allen Parish.

One day one or more of the brothers might get a buck like “Jeff the Deer,” a 10-pointer shoulder mounted on the wall above the television in the living room at the Olinde residence. The 200-pound buck was Olinde’s first deer ever, one he shot two years ago.

There are some multi-antlered deer on the property, Olinde said.

“Yeah. We’ve got some out there. We see a bunch on camera,” he said.

The boys’ mother grew up hunting with her dad and has a button buck and some does to her credit, her husband said.

The Olindes and other family members will be at the camp over the Thanksgiving holidays, a tradition, Olinde said.

More memories are on tap, no doubt, for the family that enjoys sports and the outdoors.