I wish there were a "story of the hunt" for this magnificent creature but the sequence of events is rather sad and bizarre.
Here in the little village of Ballardvale in Andover MA deer are relatively common and Kathy and I watch them from our kitchen window quite often. I actually saw this guy four years before he died but he was not the stud he was in his old age. I figure this buck was 8 or nine years old when he died. His face and neck were almost white with age...
Long story - shorter...
On November 17 2003 a friend who is a railroad engineer telephoned me at 9 pm saying he had hit a big buck. I asked how bad his car was... He said "I hit him with the train." I replied "You hit a lot of deer with the train, what's the big deal?" He told me "This is the first one I ever felt! I need you to take care of it because he's still alive." I asked him when he had hit the buck and where it was. He said he had hit the buck the night before (24 hours earlier) on the same route at the same time - just a little before 9 pm, and he is 300 yards from the Ballardvale Station. I told him I would take care of the buck and do the humane thing and kill him quickly. I took my Martin compound bow and a broadhead and my mini-mag flashlight and walked up the tracks 300 long paces. Surprisingly, I found the buck - his front end up on his forelegs and quite alert and aggressive but his entire hind end - bones and everything - was like junk in a bag. I put my flashlight in my teeth, knocked an arrow and put it through his heart. In less than a minute he met a very deserved and dignified death. End of story...
His gross typican Boone & Crocket score is 186 3/8" and when I had him measured in 2004 he was the third highest scoring buck ever recorded in Massachusetts - that's why I had him mounted - just for his sheer magnificence... not that I had done anything to be proud of.
Footnote: In order to do justice to the size of the antlers Scott had to get a huge cape from a buck that came out of Saskatchewan. They grow 'em really big up there where it gets really cold and genetically the deer are just bigger to sustain them in that harsh winter climate.
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