Odds are that a big buck shot at and missed one afternoon shows up in the same place the very next day might approach those of winning the 5 Powerball.

Taking that into consideration, the 1 in in 11,688,054 chance walked into Anna Baquet’s field of vision again the afternoon of Dec. 28 in Chatauqua County, Kansas, just south of Elk City. The biggest deer she’s ever seen returned to feeders in a large clearing with nearly two dozen other deer.

As adrenalin raced, Baquet blocked out the disappointment from a day earlier, shouldered a borrowed Scorpyd crossbow and sighted in with the Vortex XBR scope after measuring the distance at 25 yards on a bitterly cold and windy day. The deer was standing broadside just before turning at a slight angle away from Baquet.

“I decided to aim more at the stomach” rather than a typical behind the shoulder shot, she said, with the intent to hit more vital parts. She took a deep breath, said an “Our Father,” then pulled the trigger to send the Black Executioner bolt bearing a 100-grain Slick Trick Magnum Broadhead speeding to the buck.

“I heard the thump,” Baquet said about the impact the bolt made on the deer.

A few giddy minutes later she looked and saw the bloody arrow on the ground. After getting hit, the deer ran 40 to 50 yards and crumpled.

Baquet, 19, had the one buck per season allowed by the Kansas Wildlife and Parks Department, a heavy one with 10 points and three kickers. It was only the second deer kill of her life with the previous at age 11 while hunting on public land in Kansas.

It was a very special time, indeed.

“Oh, yeah, I’m feeling really blessed, super …. The odds were not in my favor,” she said.

“It was worth the wait. It was a nice Christmas surprise.”

Her parents, Dr. Shawn Baquet and Jeneen Jarrette Baquet, and other family members decided to leave New Iberia at 8 p.m. on Christmas Day and arrived the morning of the 26th. She hunted the first afternoon and saw does only.

For the next three days the Baquets and others hunted ducks each morning on Bee Creek Lake, took a midday break for lunch and quality time before heading for deer country.

That miss a day earlier still bothers the LSU sophomore majoring in construction management, however.

When the family hunts up there during Thanksgiving vacation, the deer hunters catch it at a time when deer are in rut, she said. They see deer, she said, but most of the time the animals are “just running by.”

The Catholic High School graduate (Class of ’22) who played four standout soccer seasons at CHS, believed the miss Dec. 27 kissed her chances goodbye at harvesting a buck this season in Kansas. Her crossbow “shot low,” she explained.

“I was really annoyed. I was just, like, ready to give up. I just wanted to go home. It came so close, just standing so close,” she said.

Her mother’s cousin, Mark Antley of West Monroe, offered the unhappy outdoorswoman the use of his crossbow, the Scorpyd. Antley, the son of the late Patsy Antley, a pioneer in women’s professional bass fishing, and others convinced her to hunt the next day.

“I’m really glad they did,” she said after bagging the buck.

There will be a head-and-shoulders mount made of her biggest deer, she said.

Baquet was born into an outdoors-loving family, one of two girls and a boy. Her older sister, Allyson, hunted a few times before giving it up. Jarrett shares just as much passion for hunting and fishing as his parents and Anna.

They all take traditional trips to Kansas, staying at a camping area during the early years and later on family property in a cabin built by her cousin. The Baquets also have a lease in Tensas Parish, where Anna might get in at least one more deer hunt before returning to LSU on Jan. 18.

As for their niche of heaven in Kansas, the Tri Delta Sorority member said, “I just love going up there. It’s beautiful. It’s family tradition. We always go up there and spend time together. It’s somewhere we can go where there’s not all the craziness.”

Mom and pop are proud, for sure, of her and her biggest buck.

“I’m just glad that Shawn has a story to tell his patients. Shawn is beyond proud,” Jeneen Baquet said.

There’s no doubt, though, that mom is the proudest Baquet.