Maine does not have many deer..
 

At least up our areas we do not have many and they are very hard to hunt.. But, what we do have is some really nice monsters in the line of whitetails.. This buck was shot last year up here and is quite impressive by all standards.. Someone will have another big buck like these yet as quite a few gets tagged during our season and this year is looking like one of the best seasons in quite a few years.. Not much in line of corn or soybean fields in the woods up here.. http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/big...edHCU66XjOG.01

The one above was shot last year.. Here is a 19 pointer taken this year with a dressed weight of 254 lbs.. Taken this year..
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/memb...19-pointer.jpg

This 11 pointer with a dress weight of 204 lbs.. Taken this year

Not to be left out is this rare doe with 8 points.. Taken this year..


http://bangordailynews.com/2014/11/0...e-8-point-doe/

The farther north in latitude you go, the larger the bodies on whitetails. Couple that with not only big woods, but very big woods that makes it hard to hunt and you wind up with older very big deer.

Our winters kill a lot of deer off with our predators.. Mainly the coyote is what keeps the population down during the winter months.. then during the spring it is bears and coyotes killing a lot of fawns off. That is not to mention bobcats and Canadian lynx getting a few either..
Also most northern states have a breed of white tails that grows larger than most southern states have along with the beechnuts and oak builds mass to help get them threw those long winter months.. We also have some smaller deer as well. That mostly is a southern part of the state where it is more populated..

AKA, Bergmann's rule
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Bergmann's+rule

At least you have trophy size deer. The rest of the east coast has freezer grade deer.

Whups, sorry for deleting that under y'all. I thought I'd gotten it quickly enough. I decided it was kind of a dumb question, but thanks for answering anyway.

I'm guessing that having fewer competitors for food and shelter also encourages larger animals?

No, latitude causes larger animals.

Well short track, since you decided to cast an insult at what are normal sized deer in most of the country and only have been castigated since the advent of TV hunting shows and high fence hunting where deer are turned into freaks,I will say this, I am perfectly happy to kill an average buck or a nice fat mature doe. The insane afliction to lots of bone is ruining sport hunting in my opinion. I wish all states would ban breeding deer for the express purpose of freak antlers and big dollars. Then we can get back to hunting as a fun pass time and a way to put venison in the freezer rather than a tight butt activity where people compete so they can say, mine is bigger than yours.

Phil, those are some nice deer! Here in Missouri, we had a bad drought the last two years, which triggered an EHD breakout , Missouri lost thousands of deer to it. I went from getting 200-250 pics a week, with as many as 8 deer in the pic to 12 pics a week with only 1 or 2 deer in a pic. My area where my 80 is located was one of the hardest hit areas in MO. My son and I have let all does walk now for the past 3 years in an effort to help out with bringing back the numbers. Needless to say, no deer yet for us this year.

Western PA had an EHD outbreak a few years ago. When the weather is right to allow the midges to prosper along comes EHD. The only good part is it is not contagious from one deer to another.

Thanks guys.. Maine has some real strict laws on bringing game into the state to help prevent any diseases from getting at our game animals. The only real issues we have had is on our moose which has taken a dive in numbers last winter because of ticks and brain worm. Other than that we had a few turkeys that got diseased. As long as the EHD is not contagious then that is not as bad as cronic wasting disease I do not think anyways as I am unsure about any of that here.. Our deer population is low and has always been compared to most of the other states.. Our winters has been the big player in that though. Then of course came the eastern coyote and our numbers have dropped even more.. But they do appear to survive..

Yep. As was previously noted there is a biological theory that confirms this. Larger bodies are easier to keep warm and smaller bodies are easier to keep cool. That is why deer etc... are bigger the farther north you go. If you take whitetails as an example, a whitetail in FL is biologically exactly the same as a whitetail in ME. However the ME deer will be at least twice the size. The reason is to combat the cold. Take that ME deer and put it in FL with the temps down there and it will be in serious trouble from heat because the mass of the body will not allow it to cool properly. Conversely, the FL deer would have a very hard time surviving the cold in ME because the small body sheds heat rapidly.

Believe it or not, this even falls true with elephant. The body size of elephant near the equator in places such as Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon etc... is a lot smaller than the body size of elephant in places like Botswana, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. A big bull elephant in Southern Africa will often weigh 5000 lbs more than a bull from the equator regions.

All areas are not the same
 

Some areas have fewer hunters. Some areas have larger winter kills. Some newbies are going to experience that for the first time.
Some areas have wall to wall trees and hold fewer deer per square mile.
Fewer deer per square mile; fewer hunters and good genetics, a few big deer will survive.
I think there is less timbering in Maine these days, and the wall to wall of growing trees makes hunting tougher.

What is wrong with "freezer" deer? I've never yet seen an antler that you could eat. And filling a freezer is a very honorable and respectable reason to hunt. The obsession with big racks is taking hunting in a direction that I don't care for.

For what it is worth, I've hunted in 13 states, 2 Canadian Provinces and have gone to Africa 5 times. My take on game animals is 68 species and I've gotten to the point that I don't care a whit about antlers or horns. Give me a nice tender doe any day over a wall hanging monster. Meat trumps trophies any day.

And I'll bet not one of them was taken on private posted land over a pile of corn or under a feeder. The way hunting should be. Also, all these deer were listed with their weights and points, not with a B&C tape measure. Nice Deer!!!

Most all our deer we weigh dressed weights and there is no legal baiting of deer here.. While the southern parts of the state is posted most of the northern part is former paper company lands and is used for hunting purposes without any issues.. Yes they are still cutting everywhere just the same.. What is not used for the paper companies gets turned into wood pellets..

I left for hunting late today and where i was heading a guy shot a real nice 10 pointer I am guessing would go close to 200 lbs. plus or minus about 10 lbs.... by only about 3 minutes to my arrival LOL.. I congratulated him ad took a few pics with my cell phone and went to find another area..

watching a recent interview with Lanny Benoit he outlined the state of the deer herds in Vermont Maine and New Hampshire..

Basically what he said was because of logging and over hunting in some areas big bodied older deer are getting few and far between, unless you can find a big swamp or other remote untouched area the days of bagging outsized bucks are almost over..

here is the interview..

Interview with Lanny Benoit





This past winter at a busy Sportsman's show, where the Benoits held several seminars, I caught up with Lanny Benoit for an interview. Lanny is considered by many to be one of the most talented and successful deer hunters around. His father, Larry, and his brothers, Lane and Shane, will agree that Lanny is the best at what he does, shooting big deer year after year.

GNP: What does it take to become a successful trophy buck hunter like you?

Lanny: Well it takes a whole lot of things to make you a successful trophy hunter.You need to have great eyesight. You have to be selective; you can't shoot spike horns or four pointers. You can't get discouraged because like I say, "Just around the corner you might shoot your big buck".

You don't have to be a tracker to be a trophy buck hunter. It doesn't make a difference if you're an ambusher or a stand hunter; basic hunting techniques apply no matter what your method is when it comes to hunting big deer. You don't have to go out into the wilderness to shoot a trophy buck.

There could be big bucks chose to town; it's just easier sometimes to find the big deer in the remote areas. You've got to be willing to go places where no one else dares to go. You really need a good four-wheel drive, not always but you do in a lot of cases.


GNP: How has hunting in Maine changes from when you first hunted there?



Lanny: Things have changed quite a bit since I stated hunting Maine in the early 70'S because they've logged most of it off. There are a lot of new logging roads and there are no real remote areas left in the Maine. The logging roads have allowed the hunters to get back in there and it's been hunted pretty hard. The deer don't have the wintering ranges that they use to have, plus Maine had a hard winter last year and that really hurt the deer herd. Lanny Benoit with his reliable four-wheel drive Suburban he calls Casper Years ago, we shot a lot of bucks up there that were 3 1/2 to 8 1/2 years old. Now, it's really pretty hard to find the older mature deer in Maine.

GNP: How has hunting changed in Vermont from when you used to hunt there, and what could be done to improve it?

Lanny: When I was a kid hunting in Vermont, we had some woods in the northern part of Vermont where people didn't hunt in very much. We could take 180lb to 230lb bucks; not with ease but we could shoot one each year. Vermont deer herds just don't have as many mature bucks as they use to. Most of the deer are 1-1/2 year olds and that's not good for the herd.

There are still some big bucks in Vermont; you have to hunt high and get away from other hunters to find them. What we need to do in Vermont is to somehow get racks on these deer. If we had a four point or better antler rule that would help. When I was a kid I didn't shoot spike horns; I shot racked deer because we had them. Now a kid or hunter in Vermont, all he sees is spike horns, he's shooting last years born. We've got to stop doing that. If we stopped shooting 1-1/2 year old bucks in a few years we'd have lots of big deer. We're sportsmen not killers.


GNP: What's your best advice to someone who wants to take a mature buck in New England next season?

Lanny: I guess the best strategy would be to try in find some big swamps where people don't go into or find some mountainous areas where hunters don't crawl up. There aren’t many remote areas left in New England. You have to cover a lot of ground to find where there are some big bucks; it could be close to town or on a mountaintop.

GNP: Why did you start using a scope last season?

Lanny: I used a scope last year because I was shooting long range and my eyesight is not what it used to be. I started seeing two front sites; I just put the deer in between the two, which still works at close range but not at 150 yards or further. I plan on using a scope in the future when I'm shooting long range.

GNP: What's it like to hunt with cameramen and has it interfered with you shooting a buck?

Lanny: It's pretty interesting, sometimes they get cold and they’re wet, they don't have enough food with them, or their shoe laces are untied so you have to stop and get them all fixed up. {Laughs} The cameraman sometimes makes a racket but it's not their fault because they're carrying and looking through the camera and they can't see where they're walking. When they fall down you have to go back and pick ‘em up and tell them it's ok. {Laughs} I can honestly say that they have not affected the way we hunt or our success in shooting deer very much.

Sure, we've had to wait to shoot some bucks so that the cameraman can get it on film, but otherwise it's no different hunting with a camera guy then it is hunting with one of my brothers or my son. It's kind of fun to have a camera guy with you because when you film something that day you can go back and see it and show other people.


GNP: Why did you and your family change your hunting coats to camouflage?

Lanny: We've always hunted in green my grandfather hunted in checkered green we just decided that we'd like to hunt in a different color. We decided that we wanted a camouflage coat with the orange sewn right in because we have to wear orange where we hunt. Beagle wear makes wool clothing that's water repellent and that's another reason why we switched. You can walk around in the rain and snow and you don't get all soaked up.

GNP: You are considered the scout for your family. Describe your scouting tactics?

Lanny: Yes I'm the scout because I'm always wondering around looking for new country to hunt. I always like to see what's over the next ridge. I guess I'm just a free roamer; sometimes I'll get bored and I'll drive fifty or a hundred miles just looking for some new country. I'm always trying to find remote areas with few hunters. I’m always looking for that really big buck.

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..

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. :D

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..

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..

Good luck this next week....

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

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/

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