Big Bucks from Maine

[35 Whelen]

Here is old Fred Goodwin, known as the "father of deer horns" to many in the USA. He sold his collections of 1200 Sets ,to Dick Idol, back in late 80's. He is at our lodge when he was 90 years old in this picture. The NT buck between us was a webed Horn NT, my dad shot in 1959.The next pic is of a guide friend pointing to Fred's best buck ever ,and still the State of Maine record for width, at 35 3/4", Fred just said he" was a yard wide", this buck is know amongst deer horn men as the "Silver Ridge Buck"
Also a pic of an old smasher, friend of mine got only a few miles from our place, it has 19 points and dressed 261,
Good genetics I would say

E

 

[SJB358]

Great pictures E. Awesome bucks too. Those old Maine bucks are so danged smart and just impressive critters.

 

[35 Whelen]

Well they are usually ALOT smarter than me! Lol

 

[SJB358]

Well they are usually ALOT smarter than me! Lol

HA... You and I and about 6 million other schlubs...

What did your dad take that buck with E?

 

[salmonchaser]

Outstanding.

 

[JD338]

Those are Maine Monsters.
Great pictures Earle.

JD338

 

[DrMike]

Truly impressive bucks. Great pictures, Earle.

 

[35 Whelen]

Thanks everyone for all the nice compliments!

Scotty,
My Dad came home from WW2 as a USAF ,Bomber Pilot in spring 1946, stoped into Boston Sportsman Show ,after watching Ted Williams cast a fly the unheard of distance of 90ft! Lol, He decided to buy two new guns, so he purchased a model 81 Remington PG in 300 Sav.......(also a little Colt Woodsman I still have!)..in those days there was lots of old burntlands around here..... he thought he would do better with an auto?.?
So that is what he used till early 1960's when one of his old hunters from NYC, gave him a 6.5x55! It had been sporterized , barrel cut to 20" and had lovely little "manlicher" style stock with an oil finish, he mounted a Bushnell ScopeChief 3x9 on it , and for those that that can remember them ? It had a magnetic pop up post , by turning a ring infront Of the power ring, quite a nice set up at that time, he shot nothing but norma 139 gr bullets from it, and had very good luck with that caliber on big Whitetails, He used that Swedish Mauser(model 93???) For about 15 years with great sucess! But I bought a new .270 Win M70 ,and left it in Maine, I think about 1980, and took his old 6.5 to New Zealand. He started killing deer with my 270 , and was so impressed with how it will flatten deer.(sorta like a 6.5 on steroids) That he then bought one for himself, around 1982 and till he passed in 2002 that was all he used..........but that old buck was Actually killed with 300 Sav.( took 3 shots though)(one with a 32 Special, one with a German Luger that came home in a seabag) But thats a Long story I will tell ya sometime.... :wink:
E

 

[Guy Miner]

Thanks for posting! Great examples of some tremendous bucks.

Guy

 

[SJB358]

Great story. My grandpa used a 300 Savage for all his hunting after returning from Europe as a B24 pilot as well. Too darned cool.

 

[longrangehunter]

Wow, those are some huge bucks! Great story Earl, I love to see those old pictures and hear the stories that came with them.

 

[khh]

Great bucks , I've read and watched all the Benoit & Blood books and videos . Have some of Bernier books and a Salerno DVD. I love the stories and Maine hunting tradition, those bucks get huge.

 

[sask boy]

Those are some very good looking Bucks! Thanks for the post & photos Earle .

Blessings,
Dan

 

[35 Whelen]

Khh,
Course I know the Benoits, as they used to hunt right beside us , when we used to take hunters from here up, into the Allagash for early season snow, they used to stay in a gravel pit (right across from Doyle Pd Rd at about mile 88 of the Golden Rd)in one of those old huge old Army tents, Larry had painted a sign and nailed it onto a tree that read "little vermont" and they shot some big deer up there! We base our hunts, just up the road ,at mile 93 ,in a Maple Sugar camp, so saw them around all the time, The Berniers were up there as well. Back in the 1960's Larry cut wood with fellow named Gary Merrill, they lived in the same town, they worked and hunted togeather for years. Gary is actually one of the top Vermont hunters we ever had stay with us! He shot alot of very nice bucks tracking them down, if you ever see the Vermont number plate "Tracker" thats his truck, and your in a darn good spot. Last time I saw Larry was in Kenora Ont, (2009)and he and Shain were up there in grocery store parking lot, Larry was about 80 years old and in very poor health, asleep against The door snooring, of an old rusted out Jeep that looked like it had hit everything but the " daily double"
I asked Lane how he was doing and he said , not good at all, he told me they were done and headed
Home, neither had a deer, and commented he was sick n tired of eating balonga n cheese sandwiches, three times a day, for the last 3 weeks..They had been staying in a small pup tent for nearly a month, and he said they needed to head home......
Sad way to see anyone, but gave me a funny feeling, knowing how fit he once was ,when he made the cover of Field n Stream in 1970's with the caption " Is Larry Benoit the best deer hunter in the USA?"

 

[DrMike]

Remember the cover, Earle. Unfortunately, age has a way of depriving each of us of the strength we possessed in our youth. It always seems as if it is sooner rather than later, when we are the ones who have seen that youthful strength taken. Good memories of great times though.

 

[khh]

35 whelen,

I remember that cover too , I saved the issue for years, it had a huge effect on me as a kid. I have huge respect for anyone that can hunt that style. I hunted in Ontario around Dryden and Kenora and farther south too. I Tracked a few times it didn't take to long to figure out I was pretty crappy at it and that I possibly have the worst sense of direction in history. I never did actually shoot a deer tracking, but I did find some good spots tracking and killed a few nice bucks by sitting. All you Vermont and Maine guys had a huge influence around Kenora . There were a lot of guys tracking when I was up there. I was sad to hear Larry had passed and I was shocked to hear Lane also passed. You must have some amazing memories of hunting Maine at that time. With the lack of snow in recent years it must feel like the end of an era. I wonder how much longer we'll have room to track? When I got the first Benoit DVD I got so fired up I bought a 7600 Carbine, had a lot of fun with it too. Thanks KH

 

[35 Whelen]

Your dead right about the cover Mike......... thats great advice! And I notice myself nowadays, giving up on bucks that even 5 years ago ;I would have just pushed right on thru and stayed right on him........ The Benoit style of hunting is really more practical when there is a bunch of guys hunting togeather to retrieve each other after the sun goes down...........it wasnt uncommon to hear that the Beniots were out half the night blowing the horn in their trucks trying to get each other out of the woods, before we all had gps......
Dedicated tracking is a dying art and probably only suits 5% of all deer hunters, I dont think you will see much of it in the future....... :|
Lanes death last Feb flabbergasted me , one never knows ........

 

[SJB358]

I love those videos and their no non sense way of hunting. They did some amazing stuff.

They took some amazing bucks and I loved when they fired those 7600's up... They weren't shy about putting rounds on target.

 

[35 Whelen]

Shooting bean cans with a 760 pump, made for some interesting reading and video footage, and of course stories can get slightly exaggerated, like the time Larry let Lanny off in the morning, and drove up the road 17 miles to another area and then climbed up to the top of the mountain there looking for monster buck tracks, ad as noon time came around, he looked below him and there was Lanny................??? Did you say 17 miles??? Ok.......
Alrighty then....... I actually heard a guy who was a very experienced woodsman, ask them one time if that was a misprint in the book , and Larry sheepishly said "maybe that was seven miles" and everyone laughed..... however with that said, they were both very capable woodsman.

 

[Darkhorse]

What I could never figure out was how do you find a dead deer, covered with fresh snow, 5 or 10 miles from the truck in the North Woods, the next day with nothing but a compass?
Of course I don't know much (nothing really) about hunting in the snow or the Maine woods, so maybe it's just ignorance on my part.