Woodseye, now that is what I am talking about!!!
I use to hunt around Crystal, Island Falls and Hersey until my wife' s Uncle died.
I use to hunt with him a week every year and have seen some real monsters in the areas we hunted. I spent a lot of time with a light in the pre-season just looking around for big deer and have seen one that looked a lot like that buck your buddy killed. I have seen several big deer in that neck of the woods, but they do not get much for snow in the early season, so I am heading for Ashland this year and maybe Clayton lake area. They usualy have snow and I know the areas well. I do not take a track unless I have circled the area by vehicle and know that that buck is still in that piece of woods he entered and has a good stride with a wide stance. I do not rely much on track size, but do take it into consideration if all the other sign accompany' s it. After all, I dont want to waste a day on a 200 pound doe or a big footed youngster, I have been there and done that !!!

Rhody, I dont want to sound like fields are a waste of time, but if you are hunting around Freedom, I would stick to the bog hunting. I have spent countless hours and years bowhunting the fields around Freedom and if another hunter does not come in and screw you up, it would be a miracle.
If you want to hunt a good field, I know of one that has produced some good bucks in the past years and is not far from Hussey' s general store. Last year I saw 2 real good bucks in that field during bow season, one that is nicknamed Bullwinkle by the locals. He is near 200 B&C as far as I can figure from his sheds that were found in a nearby bog.
I would suggest hunting the bogs overall, the deer around here are very nocturnal and heavily pressured.
The bog road is prime deer hunting if you know where to sneek in before other hunters hit the woods. Let them push the deer around, you just sit tight along the edge of the bog and you will see plenty of deer. The smallest Buck I have killed on that road was a 197 lb. 8 point when I was 15 years old, it is one of my favorite places to hunt and always produces good numbers of deer.
Let me know when you are coming and I will get a topo map to you with a few good spots.

Later guys,

Marlin