Phil from Maine

I do not really care what he says.. He needs to know Maine as a whole state..

This year there has been quite a few big body deer shot so far.. With a week of rifle season and the black powder we can be expecting more of them coming out of the woods here..

While I am not going to disagree about the logging operations there is still a decent size deer herd here and most of them have big deer.. The logging operations due in fact keep some full grown beach trees and the like within the cuttings to help them keep the mas on..

While it is hard hunting without a doubt they are still getting them.. This 10 pointer was shot just yesterday by some guys from Penn. Most likely handy to 200 lbs.. dressed plus or minus 10 lbs..

BarnesX.308

Bergmann's Rule is the reason northern deer are bigger.

I think age is the #1 reason for the big deer we see around our parts. In those vast areas, where few humans go and there are no roads, deer get very old. Most of our property is overgrown clear cut. That lets deer have all the food and cover they want in the same place. It does it make hard to follow the hunting magazines' advice: get between feeding and bedding areas.

flags

DING, DING, DING, we have a winner.

ojibwa

Lanny and his family have been hunting Maine and the surrounding states for a combined total of well over a 100 years.. I think he knows Maine pretty well..

He did not say there were no more big bucks in Maine, he basically said they were getting fewer and fewer..just like anywhere as habitat is lost and more pressure is put on the deer the avg weights and antler size will drop.. In states like maine it is amplified..when you clear cut a piece of ground it takes a long time to regenerate it was the same way when I lived in MI..It's not like here in the south where it takes only a few years..

Everything I can find and read puts the avg weight of mature bucks in Maine closer to 200#.

That being said bucks up to and exceeding 300# are still killed occasionally.
Looking at recent headlines I see more in the 250# range when folks talk about outsized bucks..

Heck even here in GA we used to see 250# and even 300# bucks killed but the avg now in probably closer to 160#

it's obvious you love your state and I am not trying to take anything away from that.. But the truth is the bucks just are not as big as they used to be.. The biggest buck ever killed in Maine was killed in the 1920s I believe.. The glory days may not be over but they are fading fast..

Phil from Maine

This year there has been quite a few adult deer getting shot in at or near the 200 pound dressed wieght. The biggest that I currently know of is posted here at 254 lbs dressed wieght.. Most all deer here are wieghed after being dressed out..

Now getting back to Lanny.. While I am not trying to slam him or you I still will say he is wrong.. When you take in concideration that Maine has no antler restrictions other than 3 inches high a lot of young deer gets shot.. They are included in the average.. That really is not saying a lot as these deer are only 1 1/2 years old.. They are for the table and some want to get it over with as quick as they can.

Now clear cuts are mostly a thing of the past.. So he clearly has you baffled on that one.. Back in the 70s they were going on almost every where.. So we are talking 30 to 40 years ago.. Times have changed.. But today they still do a few clearcuts where all the wood must be used for hog feul only. These areas would be more of a fire concern than anything that would strongly effect our deer herd..


While our record deer was shot back many years ago.. Our second placed deer was shot either in 2010 or 2012 I will need to look that up for a more certain date and wieght on it.. That kind of blows the theory away as well does it not?

While maine is one of the hardest states to hunt we still have our big deer here. I am hoping to get one of them this coming week myself.. I did come close the other day but as we all know close is not close enough.. We all have been seeing a lot of does this year. So hopefully our herd will be improving.. Only the winter will tell the real story though..

ojibwa

Good luck this next week....

Phil from Maine

Thanks! I am hoping to as I found another excellent area to hunt in..

Phil from Maine

While I never had no luck today because of all the rain and wind we received hopefully tomorrow will prove to be better..

Here is the biggest deer of the season so far is an 8 pointer weighing in at 274 lbs dressed weight..
Maine does in fact still have large deer and Lanny can take a walk out of Maine until he learns exactly what Maine is about..

http://outthere.bangordailynews.com/...-near-jackman/

ojibwa

no hunting for me today it felt like it was a 100 degrees here in GA..