JeepGirl's Boone and Crockett

I have a friend by the name of JeepGirl (61) over at my CamoSpace who harvested a buck that made MASTIC #1 Perfect Typical for the State of Maine! How exciting is that! Here's a little about herself in her own words.

I am a late bloomer when it comes to hunting, but, I am trying to make up for lost time. My buck of 2006 made MASTC #1 Perfect Typical for the State Of Maine! I still have buck fever over that one! I love my family and have been married over 30 years to a wonderful patient husband! I have three wonderful grown daughters and six grands. My husband and I work summers for North Maine Woods, managing Henderson Gate up near Jo Mary Lake in Brownville area. And Yes! I love my Jeep, can you tell by my user name! I am an avid four wheeler person, live to wheel in the spring, summer, and fall, nothing like it, when I get too old to hang on they best find a seat belt for me!

Here is the story about her great hunt.....
The Morning of December 9th 2006 was the last day of muzzle hunting in Maine, and it was with little expectations of getting my deer for his season that I headed for my tree stand as soon as legal light would allow. The morning turned out to be a crisp cold one with maybe a couple inches of snow from the day before, just enough to track, but, tracks are sometimes misleading and take a long time to follow to a successful find, so with that in mind I knew the tree stand would be my only option on this day. We have just under ten acres of land behind our home in Levant, a mixture of cedar, evergreen, oak and beechnut with some popular, good food for the wildlife.

There is a large swamp just behind out property for the deer to yard and hide, so they have many options to avoid hunters. Once on my tree stand I reflected on the long month gone past and of the two deer my husband Val and I had missed the day before, due to damp powder in our loaders, we will always be wary of that from now on and take precautions to prevent that ever from happening again. We are quite new to muzzle hunting, this is just our second year so I guess you learn as you go, we did. Our nephew Brad had been hunting with us that season and he was nice enough to share his ammo for the powder guns with us. I had been on my tree stand maybe 15 minutes or so when I saw the doe come out of the trees into a small clearing, she was maybe 40 yards away or more, and had not a clue I was anywhere near, she stopped and paused long enough to sniff the ground and then walked casually away into the trees on the other side of the small clearing. I had her in my cross hairs for a second time in two days, this time I let her walk away, with the thought maybe a buck would be following, and then the nagging thought followed that I probably just let the only deer I would see today get away, I had no excuse, I had my doe permit, she was there, but, I let her walk away. About five minutes later I saw the rack first moving through the trees, (I had been telling my husband, and nephew about this buck with a monster rack I called the walking tree, but, since up until that day I was the only one to see him, it was chalked up as a hunting story). The buck stepped into the clearing, I was in awe of his entire presentation, the body, the rack, What a Rack, there was only 8 points, but, the mass of those 8 points made his head look undersized to me. I had to take several deep breaths and calm myself down to keep my heart from jumping out of my chest. The buck walked almost in the same tracks as the doe had minutes before, he stopped and sniffed the ground almost exactly where she had, that was his mistake, my gain, I had him in the cross hairs as he picked up his head and looked right towards my direction, I took one last deep breath and pulled the trigger, The shot hit with a thump sound and the buck did a slight backwards drop then with tail down he took two leaps and was gone. As sure as I was that I had him dead to rights I could not wait to get to the spot where he was standing when I shot him. I called my husband on the cell phone and told him I had shot the walking tree, he paused just for a second before asking which direction did the walking tree run? My husband was hunting on the other side of our property so we agreed which direction we would take and go from there. I climbed down from the tree stand and went to the spot where I knew the buck had been standing when I shot and could not find one trace of blood, my hopes were sliding away. But, I followed the first two leaps that we so evident, then the following tracks after there, which was no easy feat as there were so many other deer tracks, I am not a tracker, not like my husband who could find a spot of blood in a bed of fall leaves! Soon I heard my husband whooping and hollering and making these sounds that did not sound human to me. I yelled where are you and he yelled back, MOM! come and see what you shot!!! As soon as I stepped into the area where both husband and deer was he grabbed me and lifted me clear off the ground and twirled me around, and I was like, put me down so I can see it! The buck had not dropped any blood until just before he dropped, I am not a good judge of distance, but, I would guess that he ran maybe 600 yards, but, don't take that to the bank. My husband is such an awesome tracker! I was so proud to find the spot I aimed is exactly where I hit. I always scope a deer, then check my site, then the scope to be certain of my aim, depending on the distance I have to make the shot. I had the best teacher in the world, my husband! He will tell you men, be careful what you wish for if you want your wife to hunt.
What a buck, what a RACK, 2007 best offer something good to top this, I don't see it happening, but, I am so anxious to see what that big doe brings to the woods, I hope she made connections with my buck before he made his connection with me.

We took pictures, then to the tag station, it took us a while to get out of there as everyone wanted to see the buck, and of course they all wanted to congratulate my husband for such a trophy deer, and for the third year in a row he had to tell them that his wife, not he, had shot this buck.

Be careful what you wish for men!

We took the deer to have it weighed and it did not quite make the big buck club, but, it came close. When we got home from the weigh station, being the nut that I am I went out in the woods and scooped all his insides into a container and bought it home and weighed it, minus the blood it weighed a little over 40 pounds! the man at the weigh station told us if I had shot this buck at the start of hunting season he would have carried at least 25 or more pounds more, so I am guessing that in early hunting season on hoof this guy would have gone at least 250 easy!

If our 2007 hunting season weather starts out like the last couple I am going to wait and hunt the muzzle season again with my trusty Thompson 50 caliber black power rifle again. I have shot three bucks in the last three years and two of them have been with the same muzzle loader, great gun! I must add that this buck would not have been bagged if it were not for our nephew Brad loaning us some ammo, he jokes with us about it being a group effort buck, his powder, my husband loaded the rifle and I pulled the trigger, way to go teamwork wins every time!
I have to admit as much as I love to hunt, I have not yet tried to load my muzzle loader, I do have to learn how to do that. As for hunting with my regular rifle I have no problem loading and unloading, old hat at that.

I have always bought my deer down with one shot, if I don't get it with the fist I don't take another, I won't take a running shot, I have to know my target, and I don't want the deer to suffer or be bait for a predator. So hunting with a muzzle loader and only having one shot is not an issue with me.

I am having a shoulder mount done of the buck. A taxidermist from Frankfort, Toby Montgomery came highly recommended to us and we are so glad that he did. Toby is a genuine person who goes out of his way to accommodate you and his knowledge of deer is so incredible. I love to pick his brain! He was nice enough to come right to our home to cape out the buck, he is an official measure for Boone and Crockett and MASTC. My total points for Boone and Crockett after the sixty days drying period was 164 2/8. Toby helped me with all the paperwork and guided me through what I need for pictures, he always has gone above and beyond to help us, and we are very happy with his service, we for sure would use him again!

Congratulations JeepGirl!