Center Feature:

Top 5 Buck Tales of 2009

Staff Article

The weeks following deer season are an exciting time at Outdoors Magazine. Pictures and success stories from the previous season start to roll in and the magazine staff compiles its “best bucks” list. These aren’t necessarily the biggest deer taken, but rather the ones with a compelling element behind the hunt. Sometimes “Lady Luck” is to thank, and on other occasions it is the hard work of the hunter that brought his whitetail dreams to fruition. 

Vinnie Trask of Sidney, Maine, celebrated Veteran’s Day a few hours late in the North Maine Woods. He did it in style with a trophy that carried 8 points and weighed 250-plus pounds.

Trask was staying at Pine Grove Lodge in Pleasant Ridge, and was a guest of the Pine Grove Program, which gives hunting, fishing, and outdoor-related trips to people with disabilities. Trask is a Vietnam-era veteran who lost both his knees while working on aircraft. These days he gets around on prosthetics with the use of a cane.

Early that morning Trask was working his way into a “hot spot” when he caught the flag of a deer in the distance. As he waited for more light he slowly worked up a logging trail for a better vantage point.
As Trask topped a small hill he spotted the heavy-racked buck in the distance and fired. The deer disappeared and Trask continued to slowly make his way along. In a short time he caught the deer standing about 150 yards away looking back at him. This would be the big buck’s last mistake. As Trask’s gun again disrupted the quiet morning air the deer dropped out of sight.

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