Dale's Biggest Bucks

Whenever someone askes me what was the biggest buck I ever killed,I always say it was a nine point buck that dressed out at 230 lbs. Now that is a pretty big buck even for our standards up here in New Brunswick,but as you can see from the photo in this latest post,I've killed deer with much better head gear than the deer I always say is my biggest.The horns are big enough for entry in the New Brunswick record book as a non-typical.But that buck only dressed out at 192 lbs. and I never think of it as my biggest buck. I've killed several bucks that dressed out over 200 lbs. and I even threw the horns away on some of them because I just considered them to be average 7 or 8 pt. racks. So I guess it's safe to say that quite a few hunters consider the dressed weight of their bucks as the guage as to whether its a trophy or not. The 17 pointer that I'm holding was killed in Coal Creek, 7 kms. north of the Pioneer Lodge.This was and still is a great area for large white-tail bucks. There have been a couple of Boone and Crockett bucks killed in this area,both typicals and non-typicals. Old Charlie M. of Coal Creek has killed some great bucks in his back yard,literally. His mother,who homesteaded on Coal Creek and used to spear Atlantic Salmon every fall,killed her best buck when she was 80 yrs. young,a huge ten pt. that dressed out at 240 lbs. This buck was just shy of the B&C record book as a typical. But if you asked Charlie or his mother what her biggest buck was they always say 240 dressed,even though this buck had a great set of horns. With the winter slowly starting to turn to spring,we are getting some reports from the DNR biologists and they say we will experience winter losses of 10-12% of our deer herd.These are fairly normal figures and small deer will make up the largest share of the deer that don't make it.So Ken and I are looking forward to looking up those big bruisers that we have been chasing around and we are predicting another great deer season in 2008. We'll see you all there!

It's That Time of Year Again!

Yes,it's that time of year again.You know,flu season and the time of year when ol' wiley coyote is up to his dirty tricks.I have been out of commission for about two weeks now with a flu that kept me on my back and and out of the bush.I've just been nursing myself back to health by sipping broth and eating Tylonol.But Kenny has been out and about and he tells me that the deer are herded up now because of the snow cover and the coyotes are starting to move in on them,hanging around the edges waiting for a chance to pick off any young ones or those that are showing any weakness. I got one report from the village of Doaktown,which is about 40 kms. to the north,that a pack came right into the village and killed one of the town deer that the locals had been feeding.This is not the first time this has happened,but it's been a few years since the last time. I think when the snow pack reaches a certain level,they find it easier to move in on these town deer and pick them off. The next six weeks will be a critical time for our deer herd here and all we can do is hope for mild weather to take away some of the snow.Ken and I will also be organizing some hunts with the locals to try to thin out the numbers of those howling devils.Our motto up here is kill a coyote,save a deer. That's just the way it is.We have long held the belief that our coyotes up here in the Northeast are more wolf than coyote and recent DNA testing has proven conclusively that these animal are indeed approximately 65% red wolf, 35% coyote and 5% domestic dog. Its too bad the price of fur isn't higher,because we have some very capable trappers up here that wouldn't be long thinning their numbers out,but the price of fuel just doesn't make it profitable enough for serious trappers to go after them. One good thing the deer have going for them is they went into the winter in very good shape,as can be seen in the photo in this post.So we'll be keeping our fingers crossed and we'll be out there trying to call up some of those dirty buggers and try to provide some relief for our deer.The last two weeks of the 2008 deer hunt has been booked,but we still have some good time slots left for any sports looking for one of our big Northeastern Bucks.Just send an e-mail or give me a call and we will fix you right up.

Monster Big Woods Bucks

In a previous post during the bear hunt last spring,I said Kenny Hargrove has large hands when I took a picture of one of the large bear tracks at one of our baits.In this post I've used Kenny again to illustrate just how big some of the bucks in our hunting area are. Kenny and I decided to check out a new cut by a local timber company in hopes of getting some good photos and video tape and we wern't disappointed.This new cut is approximately 5 Kms. from Pioneer Lodge. It's actually comprised of two cuts about 3Kms. apart. We knew there were some good bucks in the area,but we were quite suprised at both the numbers of deer and the amount of buck sign.We saw about 35-40 deer at the first cut and managed to get some good video of a very large buck.This guy didn't have his horns,but we new instantly what we were looking at just by the sheer size of this deer.Although this one deer stood out from the rest,we could tell from the tracks that there was at least two or three more bucks in this area that would dress out over 200 lbs. All the deer seemed to be in good shape so far this winter. We think the deer at this cut are coming from an area of about 4-5 Sq.Kms. When we went to the other cut about 3 kms.away,there was a whole new bunch of deer using that area,including another absolute brute of a deer.The photo on this post is one of this deers track.Deer of this size are in a league all of their own.Ken and I both agreed that this deer and one other were in the 250+lbs. class. Until you get up close and personal with one of these deer,you can't really appreciate their size. We are hoping the weather will remain moderate for the rest of the winter and if it does,we should have a terrific 2008 deer season.Any sports wanting to get in on some of this action,just call or e-mail and we'll set you up on the trail of one of these big NB bucks!