Giles Island makes like-father-like-son wish come true

Michael Rogillio downed a beautiful 10-point typical buck at Giles Island about two months after his dad nailed a 175-inch non-typical brute at the same place.

Son kills 160-inch deer two months after father kills 175-inch behemoth on same property.

Michael Rogillio was happy when his father Ricky Rogillio downed a double drop-tine whitetail trophy on Nov. 30 while hunting at Giles Island Hunting Club. But the 22-year-old never dreamed he’d have a chance to find out what the saying “like father, like son” meant 61 days later at the same place.Michael’s dad, hunting with guide Mike “Spike” Martin, had downed a 175-inch non-typical monster buck in November. The elder Rogillio’s deer had 16 scoreable points, including double drop tines on the left main beam – one of which taped 8 inches and the other 10½ inches. The rack had a 19 1/2-inch inside spread

The younger Rogillio left the island after a Jan. 11 hunt with a 160-inch buck hunting with the same guide as his father.

Michael Rogillio, an employee of MMR Group electrical contractors and a senior in construction management at LSU, said he and guide Martin tried hunting at several food plots without any luck that morning.

“Spike decided to move, and we went near the river and put up a pair of climbing stands,” Rogillio said. “We were in the same tree, but he was above me with a camera, and he was filming the hunt.

“I could see the river. There were some deer trails nearby, and Spike said he’d seen some good sign, scrapes and rubs, but I didn’t see that.”

They’d got in the climbing stands about 3 p.m. A logging road snaked through the woods, and the two men could see up and down the road and into the woods.

“We were watching the woods when we saw a 6-pointer, but he was too small,” Rogillio said.

That was just after 5 p.m.

At 5:35 p.m., with darkness about to envelop them, Martin whispered he saw a large buck in the edge of the woods behind the 6-pointer.

“He said, ‘It’s a big one you can shoot,’ ” Rogillio said.

The hunter shouldered his .325-caliber Browning rifle topped with a Leupold scope and found the animal.

“I guess I got a little nervous because he was in the woods and walking, and I was waiting for him to reach an opening where I could shoot and when he did, I shot and missed,” Rogillio said.

That’s when a large portion of luck dropped out into the stunned and disappointed hunter’s lap.

“I think the buck didn’t know where the shot had come from because he ran into the road and started coming toward us,” Rogillio said.

The second bullet from the Walker, La., native’s rifle found the deer’s shoulder and dropped the beautifully antlered buck 30 yards from his tree.

The trophy whitetail, which weighed 200 pounds, has a 5×5 10-point rack with a single half-inch abnormal point near the end of its left main beam.

“It’s been scored at 160 4/8 inches; the rack is really massive and pretty symmetrical,” Rogillio said.

Giles Island Hunt Club manager Jimmy Riley scored the antlers.

“I knew they had a lot of good bucks at Giles Island because of the one my dad killed, but I wasn’t expecting to see anything like this,” Rogillio said. “It’s my best trophy buck.”

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