Above: Wendy Ford brought in this 2016 pound buck to Buck’s Hardware Hank last Wednesday and for a time she led the contest for heaviest deer. Wendy is currently in second place in Buck’s Big Buck contest.
Grand Marais hunter Shane Smith’s tenuous hold on first place in Buck’s Big Buck contest with his 212-pound entry is over.
Kevin Olson of Zimmerman, Minnesota brought in a 275-pound beast. No word on where he found this goliath, but when he brought it in to weigh it. “There was a lot of calamity surrounding the weigh in by the public who appeared out of nowhere to take a look at this buck,” said an attendant at Buck’s Hardware.
While there have been many significant bucks entered in this contest over the years, this is by far the biggest in recent memory.
Currently sitting in second place is Wendy Ford’s 215.4-pound entry. Smith is now in third place, but his deer’s antler spread of 20¾ inches is still in first place. Brian Perman’s buck registered an antler spread of 19 inches, and Bruce Carlson’s buck had an antler spread of 18 inches for third place.
The contest runs from November 4 to November 19.
Left: Kevin Olson has good reason to give the “thumb’s up” sign. His 275-pound field dressed deer leads the big buck competition at Buck’s Hardware Hank by a large margin.
If Olson’s buck stays in the lead, he will win a new rifle for entering the largest field dressed deer.
Half of the prize money will go to the hunter who brought in the most extensive antler spread, and the other half of the money will go to the lucky winner of the drawing.
Hunt is up 10 percent
In other deer hunting news, Minnesota firearms hunters registered 145,054 deer through the second weekend of deer season, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
Preliminary results from the second-weekend show deer registered was up 10 percent from 2016. Of the deer harvested, 54 percent were bucks, compared to 63 percent during the same period in 2016.
In Zone 1, in northeastern Minnesota, total firearms harvest was up 25 percent. In Zone 2, which covers the majority of the state and runs from Canada to Iowa, harvest was up 6 percent and Zone 3, in southeastern Minnesota, was down 12 percent.
“It appears as though deer harvest improved substantially since the first weekend,” said Steve Merchant, wildlife populations, and regulations manager. “Getting more corn out of the fields and a bit drier weather likely helped.”
Based upon the number of antlerless permits available and the number of permit areas that allow multiple deer to be taken, the DNR is projecting the 2017 total deer harvest to be around 200,000. The 2016 total harvest was 173,213.
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