Jordon Porter /Ben Bramen co-winners in Buck’s Big Buck contest

 

After three days gone in Minnesota’s 2022 firearm deer hunting season there was only two entries in the annual Buck’s Big Buck contest, the fewest in years.

And one of the entries was a doe!

Ayden DeRosier entered a 105-pound doe in the Buck contest. Meanwhile Cory Christianson, Devil Track Lake, brought in a field dressed buck that weighed 189 pounds. It had a 16 ½ inch antler spread.

Finally, halfway through the contest, Jordon Porter brought in a field dressed buck that weighed 220 pounds. Jordon’s buck had an antler spread of 20 ¼ inches. However, a couple of days later Ben Bramen entered a 220-pound field dressed buck who had an antler spread of 21 ¾ inches.

So, to split the tie Porter was awarded a new rifle for “biggest” buck while Bramen won half of the cash in the drawing for winning the biggest antler spread.

The winner of the heaviest (largest dressed weight) buck receives a new rifle. Half of the entry money goes to the hunter who brought in the deer with the biggest antler spread, and the other half of the money goes to the winner of the drawing, which is pulled from the pool of applicants who paid $10 each to enter.

And the lucky winner of the drawing was Matt Lafreniere, age 13, Grand Marais, had his number pulled on Monday, November 21. Matt is now $1,375 richer than he was before the drawing. Ben Bramen also gets $1,375 for winning the Antler Spread.

Deer hunting 2022

Hunting was slow throughout the county. Opening week of the rifle hunting season saw Cook County hunters joining with 400,000 folks who plied the woods and fields for Minnesota white tail. With warm temps and no snow to track a wounded animal, deer hunting was quiet the first week. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources counted 20 bucks and six does shot over the first three days of hunting along the North Shore. By November 14 the count was up to total of 55 deer taken, nine of those does. One hunter who wishes to be unnamed said no one ins his party of five shot a deer this year. He said there weren’t many signs of deer, but his group saw lots of wolf tracks. He wondered aloud if there would be deer season in the county next year.

Statewide the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported there were 117,557 deer taken by the halfway point of the rifle season. That’s down significantly from the 2021 numbers.