Hours of tracking in the snow yields a big north woods buck

By Pete Warner, Bangor Daily News Staff

The big woods in northern Maine aren’t known to hold a lot of deer, but they certainly are home to some good-sized bucks.

That dynamic is what attracts hunters not only from around the state, but from outside Maine, to come pursue mature white-tailed deer in November.

Hunter Weaver of Loysville, Pennsylvania, is among the hunters who successfully harvested a deer from the North Maine Woods during the regular firearms season.

“This was my third time being up to hunt deer. I like deer hunting in Maine because I can track them,” Weaver said. “It’s an awesome experience to get into the north woods and hunt white-tail. It’s nothing like hunting them in Pennsylvania.”

Weaver cashed in with the nice buck in the accompanying photo while hunting on Nov. 18 in T7 R15, above Caucomgomoc Lake. The 11-point deer dressed out at 201 pounds and featured a 20-inch antler spread.

“I really enjoy the challenge and he’s the first buck I’ve shot in Maine,” Weaver said. “I’ve seen two other bucks while up hunting and they were just a spike and a 4-point so this one’s big compared to them.”

The harvest did not come without considerable work as Weaver covered some serious ground to make it happen.

“We tracked and stalked him over four miles ’til I finally got him. Thank goodness for the couple inches of snow we had that day,” Weaver said.

Many thanks to Hunter for sharing his photo and his big buck story!
Send your deer photos to outdoors@bangordailynews.com. Please include your name and hometown, the deer’s weight and, for bucks, any pertinent antler details such as number of points or spread measurements.