The Biggest Bucks of 2019 – and the BIGGEST of the Biggest!
An estimated 170,000 whitetail deer hunters take to the Maine woods each year. Last season, 17% – nearly 30,000 – were fortunate enough to “get their deer.”
However, only 3/10ths of 1% of all hunters brought home a truly massive buck, meaning an animal that field-dressed out at over 200 pounds. Qualifying hunters applied for and received red “Biggest Bucks” club patches, and the names of those 500 successful hunters from the 2019 season are listed in the February, 2020 issue of The Maine Sportsman magazine (pages 46 – 50).
The hunters who brought home the “Top 10” biggest bucks from last season – whitetails ranging in size from 245 to 255 pounds, representing the harvest of just 6/1000ths of 1 percent of all hunters – are featured in the issue’s center spread of trophy photos.
But make no mistake – this is not a male hunters-only club. Female hunters are a force to be reckoned with, and this past season proved that fact beyond a doubt. The “Biggest Bucks” list contains many hunters’ names such Brenda, Jennifer, Jessica, Sarah. Jenna and Amy Marie. The February issue celebrates those women’s success with an outstanding “reader story” from Emily Bastian (page 41), and a pictorial of seven happy female hunters and their trophy bucks on page 43.
However, this edition of The Maine Sportsman is about more than just deer. See, for example:
- Bill Graves, on ice fishing and coyote hunting in The County (page 9);
- Model A and Model T “Snowmobiles” from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, in sepia photos supplied by Bill Pierce, our friend at the Oquossoc museum;
- A description of Maine’s “multi-use rail trails,” by Steve Carpenteri (page 20); and
- The wild tale of a snowmobiling “business trip” by “Making Tracks” author and brewmaster Matt Weber.
All this, plus grand slams, big trucks, northern pike, beaver and otter trapping, firearms, and the best jokes and cartoons this side of the Mississippi.
So look for us at your nearest newsstand. Get a print or digital subscription at www.MaineSportsman.com, or by calling 207 622-4242.
And finally, mark out Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 27 – 29 on your calendar. It’s the State of Maine Sportsman Show at the Augusta Civic Center, the largest such show in the state, and you’re invited. More than 100 exhibitors, seminars, and on Sunday, the return of the State’s surplus firearms auction. DON’T MISS IT!
