As an outdoor writer, this is my favorite time of year. I get to write about all the big bucks taken by hunters around the state. People have started referring successful hunters to me, which helps a lot. Another way I find out about these buck slayers is on-line, especially checking sites like Louisiana Deer Hunters.
It was while I was taking down names and getting information from that site when I ran across a post that stopped me dead in my tracks. There was no big buck involved but a hunter had posted photos of taking a nice doe, mentioned loading it alone and was headed back to the woods “looking for horns”.
What is so unusual about that? Deer hunters do that all the time. What grabbed my attention was the smiling photo of the successful hunter. I have written outdoor columns for the past 46 years and while some of my stories have been about female hunters and on occasion, articles have covered the success of black male hunters, I have never, not one time, written a story about a black female hunter, until now.
Meet Johnetta Horton of Shreveport. After seeing her photo with a deer she had taken and loaded herself, I had to talk with this lady. I found her on Face Book, gave her a call and ended up making a new friend who can put the majority of us deer hunters to shame. Here is Ms. Horton’s story…
“I retired from Libby Glass plant in Shreveport after working there for 35 years. Most of my co-workers were white guys and the majority of them are hunters. I would always listen to them talk about hunting and they realized I was really interested in finding out more about hunting. I asked if just anybody could hunt and when they saw I was serious, these guys took me under their wing and were quick to share their deer hunting stories and tips with me.
“When I told them I thought I was ready to hunt, they kidded me, saying I was too much a ‘diva’ to get into hunting. This just lit my fire and I told them ‘we’ll see about that,’” was Horton’s response.
“With the help of my dad, I learned to shoot, then went out and bought all my hunting clothes, found a place to hunt and went hunting. Three years after my first hunt, I got my first deer, a 9 point buck weighing 200 pounds with an 18 ¼ inch inside spread. Everybody was amazed that I got a deer that big and got it loaded and out of the woods all by myself. I was even featured in the Shreveport Times’ Bragging Corner where they show photos of hunters with game they had bagged,” she said.
Today, Johnetta Horton who identifies herself in her email address as “Black Huntress” and at the time belonged to a hunting club in Webster Parish and hunted every day of deer season that she could. She now shoots a Browning bolt action 30.06 and over the past 20 years, she has averaged two to three deer a year. Do the math; that’s 40 to 60 deer, success most hunters would envy.
I saw a post she made last week on Facebook that featured a photo of her and a big doe she had taken. I had to follow up for the latest on this lady so I gave her a call.
“I now hunt on private property near Sibley in Webster Parish where I have permission to hunt. I hunted every day I could without getting a deer and as the season was closing last Sunday, I figured I’d come up empty this year,” she said.
Did she end the season without a deer? Nope – at 5:00 pm on the afternoon of the last day, a big doe stepped out and she dropped it.
Johnetta Horton might be thought of by some to be a “diva”, but in her mind, she’s a “diva in a deer stand”.