Big Buck 411 Blog

Maine Event

Maine Event

By Mike Handley

For what it’s worth: A 15-foot-long canoe can ferry 700 pounds.

Wendell Wentworth of Washington, Maine, accounted for 180 of those pounds in the low-riding vessel last fall. Son Christopher chipped in 250. And the whitetail between them weighed in the neighborhood of 263.

There wasn’t a whole lot of clearance from gunwale to water, but the guys paddled slowly and made it back without tipping themselves and/or their cargo into the drink.

The opening-day deer was Wendell’s.

The 65-year-old Wentworth had no idea the bull of the woods was as impressive as it is, but he knows a good looking spot when he sees it. He’d scouted the area before the 2017 season arrived and erected a couple of stands. He went to one of those on Oct. 28, opening morning.

To reach the vantage point required a 20-minute hike, and Wendell was all set by the crack of dawn.

He saw the deer’s head first, thanks to sunlight glinting off its rack. With his cheek to his 7mm-08’s stock, he watched the buck skirting the edge of the woods from 125 yards, across a boggy, weedy swale ringed by alders.

The enormous whitetail eventually stopped to rake some bushes with its antlers, and then it walked into the open at only 100 yards, a chip shot for a seasoned rifleman.

Wendell squeezed the trigger at 9:05. He knows because he’d been exchanging text messages with Christopher.

A second shot ended things.

Two and a half hours after the deer breathed its last, father and son rolled it into the canoe.

The estimated 5 1/2- to 6 1/2-year-old whitetail is about 20 pounds heavier than Wendell’s previous best (by weight), which he shot in 1985. It caused quite a stir in and near Washington, Maine, as the news spread.

“There’s been a lot of talk about this deer. A lot of action,” Wendell said. “I think it’s gotten 500,000 hits on Facebook.”

It hasn’t been measured for the BTR yet, but it’s green B&C score (gross) is 185 inches.

— Read Recent Blog! Once a Naysayer, Not Always a Naysayer: Frank Lemongelli | Missouri | Green score: 226 inches

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