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Bagging a Buck in Maine vs. Minnesota

November 05, 2008 - I got an e-mail last fall from a friend, Steve Gruber, who lives in Bemidji, Minn. He wanted to share some pictures of the deer he and his two sons killed on the opening weekend of their firearms season.

Even before looking at the pictures I was a tad jealous, and skeptical. Three hunters in the same family all tagging out on the first weekend is pretty incredulous. I was even more astounded when I opened the attachments and saw that all three had killed mature bucks of eight points or better.

"That's not unusual," Steve said when I called him to confirm the story. What was unusual was the buck his younger son killed, a legitimate record-book specimen. "I was proud of him," said Steve. "He passed up several good bucks waiting for that deer."

That's hard to fathom when you hunt in Maine. In any given fall, fewer than half of our deer hunters will even see a decent buck, or any buck for that matter. Only 10 percent will be successful at taking any deer. Slightly more than half of them will kill a buck, the majority of which will be less than 2 years old.

In 2007, 204,099 licensed Maine hunters killed 28,884 deer, including 16,103 antlered bucks. Roughly 50 percent were yearling bucks sporting their first set of antlers. About 13 percent were mature bucks.

MORE ANTLERED BUCKS

In contrast, an estimated 482,613 Minnesota hunters killed 260,434 deer, including 108,623 antlered bucks. At 86,943 square miles, Minnesota is almost three times bigger than Maine.

But even if we triple our deer kill, we only get 87,000 deer and 48,000 bucks.

Several months later, I bumped into a couple of writers from Wisconsin at the SHOT show in Vegas. I was bemoaning another tough Maine season when one chimed in.

"My daughter came home from college for the weekend this fall to bowhunt with me," he said. "She passed up eight bucks the first evening and saw 15 the second day."

I cringed, ashamed to admit that most Maine hunters won't see 15 deer of any sex or age in an average season, or even several seasons for that matter.

Maine has always been an exceptional state: sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. That is certainly the case when it comes to deer hunting.

Once, it was considered one of North America's premier whitetail destinations, one of the few places where hunters had the odds of killing a mature buck.

The odds of success on such a deer have always been low, but on a relative scale compared to the rest of the country, Maine ranked pretty high. Those odds haven't changed significantly. What has changed is the rest of the country.

While deer populations and odds of success on mature whitetails have remained relatively stable in Maine, they've skyrocketed just about everywhere else, particularly in the Midwest and upper Midwest.

Wisconsin hosts an estimated 1.4 million whitetails with densities ranging from 15 to 45-plus deer per square mile, and leads all states and provinces with 5,093 all-time Pope & Young Club entries (for archery) and seven of the top 10 overall record book PYC and Boone & Crockett (firearms) entries.

Illinois has a deer herd of 800,000, and from 1980 through 2001 produced more firearms entries than any other state. Iowa boasts eight of the top 20 archery bucks and is second only to Illinois in the number of firearms entries from 1980 to 2001 (507).

Kansas has produced 10 of the top 20 nontypical archery-record whitetails, and from 1980 to 2001 yielded 235 firearms entries -- seventh-best in the nation. On average, Mainers take two or three B&C firearms bucks per year. In terms of P&Y archery records for typical bucks, Maine ranks 38th out of 43 states.

Granted, you can't compare Maine to Midwestern states that are farther south and dominated by agricultural land. Maine has much poorer habitat and more severe winters.

You can, however, compare Maine to Minnesota. Bemidji, where my friend lives, is about the same latitude as Fort Kent.

I asked him just how good the hunting was.

"On a five- or six-day hunt, assuming good weather, it should be no problem to kill a good buck," he said. I saw the photos, and I know what he means by good buck.

FIREARMS SEASON FACTOR

What's the difference? A University of Georgia study provides some enlightening results. Nine of the top 10 B&C states have regular firearms seasons that are 16 days or less.

States with regular firearms seasons after the rut's peak had nearly 10 times more B&C entries than those with seasons before, or during, the peak of rut. States that allow shotguns only during their firearms season had nearly eight times more B&C entries than those allowing rifles. Maine's 25-day rifle season spans the entire rut.

Before all you irate readers sharpen your pencils or fire up your desktops, let me qualify my intention in providing this information. I am not recommending or even suggesting that Maine shorten its firearms season, move it outside the rut or limit hunters to shotguns only. I'm merely pointing out what hunting would be like here if we did.

Bob Humphrey is a freelance writer and Registered Maine Guide who lives in Pownal.

BOB HUMPHREY, Portland Press Herald, October 30, 2008


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