What is a "Big Woods Buck?": Hal Blood on the challenge and reward of chasing mountain bucks

I still remember my first excursion to Northern Maine to go deer hunting over forty years ago. I was 23 years old and had just gotten done with my four-year stint in the Marine Corps. Before then, all my deer hunting had been done in southern and central Maine. My hunting there was done in rural areas and old grown-up farm country. The deer were fairly predictable about where you would find them. There were certain areas they seemed to be drawn to and those areas held deer year after year. The bucks as well as the does would be found in the same areas. There would be deer trails going to every old apple tree in the woods. Even though I was in my learning years of deer hunting, it wasn’t very hard to figure out what the deer were doing and where they were going. We could hunt blocks of woods separated by old roads and grown-up fields. There were also enough deer to keep my interest up, and I would generally see deer every day.

That first trip up north was an experience to say the least. The spot I chose to hunt was where we would always see plenty of deer tracks on our annual fishing trips. The area was about twenty miles back in the woods from the town of Jackman. It was wild country with only a couple of old logging roads in the whole area. I talked my father into going with me that first year, and as the week went on it became apparent that he had no idea what he had got himself into. Dad was the type of hunter who just liked to putter around the tote roads and didn’t want to venture too far into the woods. He liked to have coffee and a sandwich back at camp or in his truck. I on the other hand was there to get a deer no matter how far into the woods I had to go. Consequently, I ended up leaving dad to his own demise for the day as I struck off for parts unknown.

I walked a lot of miles that week and actually saw a few deer before shooting a spike horn at the end of the week. After that week I realized that hunting deer up north In the Big Woods, was nothing like any deer hunting I had done before. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to where I would see a deer, and I couldn’t find any trails that would indicate deer were feeding in an area. One thing was for sure, I had been afflicted with the bug for hunting the Big Woods and that’s where I intended to hunt from then on. I think what got me hooked, was the combination of the vastness of the woods and the huge rubs and scrapes that’s I had found. In any event those Big Woods is where where I wanted to be.

Over the next few years of hunting up north I began to realize that I was dealing with a totally different deer than I was used to hunting and I had to learn the ways of this deer. Boy did those bucks ever teach me a few lessons. I kept on chasing the big boys and trying to figure out why they were doing certain things and going to certain places. I did manage to shoot a few bucks over the next several years, but the coveted 200-pound buck always seemed to escape me. At that time, I was building my lobstering business and didn’t get a lot of time to hunt. Finally, after eight years, I shot tracked down and shot a beautiful ten pointer that weighed 213 pounds field dressed. After that everything seemed to come together for me, and I began shooting a buck over 200 pounds most every year. That’s when I decided to make a change in my life and move north and pursue the life of guide and outfitter.

All those years when I headed north, I referred to it as going hunting in the "Big Woods." That phrase stuck with me so when I decided to write a book about hunting bucks in the big woods, it was a natural title for the book. 

After hunting bucks in the big woods for all of these years, I have come to the conclusion that they are by the nature of their environment a totally different creature. So, you might ask how they are different. There are many ways in which these deer are different, but the reasons all stem from the same factor. Deer in the big woods do not have access to agricultural crops or a suburban type of environment where feed is in the same places every year. That is to say a true big woods buck does not rely on humans for food, cover or safety. A buck that travels to farm crops because the does’ are feeding there does not qualify as a true big woods buck. When a buck is able to live out his entire life without much human contact and his habits and survival tactics are learned from his experience with predators and the elements, then he is truly a Big Woods Buck.

Anyone that hunts bucks in the big woods will tell you that they are the hardest bucks to kill but they are also the most rewarding. Suffice to say, that if you’re hunting bucks where there are no man-made constraints, you’re probably hunting the “Big Woods."

Gear up to hunt the Big Woods near you with Big Woods Bucks wool hunting gear.