Ingram and Deschampe win Buck’s Big Buck contest

Conner Ingram’s 230 field deer held up as the largest buck entered in the 2021 Buck’s Hardware Big Buck contest.

Ingram, from Grand Marais, received $250 for his win.

With a massive antler span of 23/4 inches, Trevor Deschampe’s buck won the largest antler spread category. Joe Kill from Ham Lake, Minnesota, had his ticket pulled for the drawing and he received $1,690. Trevor Deschampe received $1,690 for winning the largest antler spread.

Some 338 people entered the contest. Each person throws $10 into the pot to join. Half of the prize money goes to the most massive antler spread, and the other half of the money goes to the lucky winner of the drawing.

The Minnesota firearms season ended Sunday, November 21.

In other deer hunting news, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported that hunters shot and registered 58,370 deer over the opening weekend of 2021, which was down 15 percent for the five-year average for the opening weekend. After the first two days 13,333 deer were registered from Northeastern Minnesota, which was down 20 percent from last year. Statewide, about 60,000 deer were taken over the first two days of hunting. The DNR said the deer harvest over the two-day opening weekend is about half of the take, which means roughly 120,000 deer were taken during the rifle season. By the time the season ends in December the DNR is hoping to reach a goal of 200,000 deer taken by firearms, muzzleloader and archery hunter One of the things that slowed the hunt was that deer don’t move much in warm weather. Temperatures were in the 60’s in northern Minnesota at the start of the hunt.