With the final day of Maine’s deer hunting season approaching Saturday, it seems safe to say one hunter has secured bragging rights for the heaviest buck of the year.
Austin Carver of Easton tagged a massive 291-pound 11-point buck in wildlife management zone 6 near Presque Isle, a deer that now stands as the heaviest reported in the state for the 2025 season.
Carver said the hunt was a year in the making.
“My dad, brother and I spent a year scouting this buck, and my persistence paid off when he stepped out of a brush pile and gave me a clean shot in the neck with my 7mm mag. The 11-point buck dropped dead in his tracks,” Carver said.
The deer was weighed on a certified scale at Spartan Arms and Ammo in Presque Isle.
Carver shot the deer on Nov. 8 after hunting on foot every day since the season opened. He had spotted the buck in the same area the previous season and spent months scouting, even without trail camera photos or any certainty he would see it again. He expected the buck to weigh around 215 pounds, not the massive 291 pounds it ultimately reached.
“This is my second 200 plus pound deer,” Carver said.
“My first was taken last year, so I took the rest of the time to scout for this season.”
He made the shot from roughly 300 yards across a freshly rototilled field. The terrain was so rough, he said, he was surprised he didn’t break anything on his truck driving in to retrieve the deer.
“A hunt of a lifetime, for sure,” he said.