Hunter Kim Finck from Washington Missouri with her 15 point stag she harvested with her 50 cal. black powder rifle on 10/16/04.
Her husband Jon harvested a 284 lb. female with his bow.
PS...............Jon and Kim sent these kind words to us to share with our readers:
posted October 26, 2004 09:16 AM
Kim & I recently returned from a great trip to hunt with Mark Luce at Hindsite and hiking in Acadia National Forest near Bar Harbor, Maine.
The Hindsite Red Deer Hunting Preserve provides a unique opportunity to hunt a non-native species in a very challenging environment. It is also a valuable and TRUE economic benefit to the local community...(off on a tangent here....positive economic growth ONLY occurs when a natural resource is utilized to provide a consumable product.) This kind of entrepreneurial spirit is something I can whole-heartedly endorse.
Mark and Joanne's operation is top notch - beginning with an active herd breeding and management plan. The breeding stock remains wild and instinctively aggressive - prone to fight or flight at the sight of a human. (You better watch yourself around these stags - they WILL attack if they feel threatened.) The hunting preserve area is maintained to provide an over-abundance of shelter, browse and feeding areas. It is much like a person would choose to manage property for a Quality Deer Management program for whitetails, only tailored for the aggressive nature of the Red Deer and the charateristics of the Maine woods. It is SO THICK in most places that you cannot walk through it.....maybe if you got down on your hands and knees, or crawl on your belly there would be some space to squeeze through... The hunting areas/stands are accessed by trails hewn selectively into the forest. There a small areas - 30 to 50 yds. - that are 'thinned out' enough to be able to hunt from stands.
Kim hunted with her muzzleloader from a box blind. I hunted from an open (large 2-person) ladder stand with my bow....more about the hunt in another post.....
Matt and his son-in-law escorted us to and from our stands. This was as much for our own physical security as it was to show us the way. We remained on stand until they came to get us.....now, not to say that we were scared of the stags or anything, but the Red Deer do display a very aggressive nature and the possibility is there for a confrontation. As host and guide Mark and Matt take this responsibility seriously.
When we downed our respective beasts, we communicated by radio for Mark to come and get us out and retrieve our quarry. He used his mighty John Deere tractor with a loader on it to transport them out of the preserve to the 'processing' area. With chain and winch, each was weighed and inspected before the 'fun' began....
Suffice it to say that in every detail our hosts went above and beyond to make our experience one that was enjoyable from start to finish. I only wish we had had a little more time to spend with Mark and his family - they are a lot of fun too. Although, by the end of the day I think we were all pretty well whipped....and bloody....well one of us was bloody...
Being the first time 'out east', the logistics of travel, vehicle space, and keeping the meat frozen were uncertainties that made this trip sort of a 'test'. Our next trip will have fewer concerns after having sorted those things out. We hauled the meat back 'on the bone' so every nook and cranny of the Bronco was packed tight with freezers and coolers and all our other stuff. The skull of Kim's stag was trussed up with twine, the nose of the beast resting on the console between our seats, the antlers directed up and back supported at the top by the pile of cargo behind. Mark even had some water pipe insulation laying around which was applied to the more 'dangerous' protrusions. Mark had expertly caped the skull, shrink-wrapped it and put a heavy platic bag over that. The plastic bag was well sealed with duct tape at strategic places like the base of the antlers and wrapped muzzle-like around the nose. By the time we reached home 2 1/2 days later, it had only a slight, albeit noticeable, odor.... (Thank goodness we had purchased half a dozen balsam fur sa'chets while we were at Acadia National Park
).
I was surprised that when we got home, the meat in the coolers was still hard frozen. Two of them 120 qt. coolers with three bags of ice. There was only about 2 cups of melted ice water in each. That is good to know for the next trip.
All in all a wonderful experience which we will look fondly upon until the next time......
