Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
Waylon Bourgoin is only 7 years old, but he already has a 225-pound deer to his name.
The young hunter shot his first buck Saturday evening during Maine’s youth hunting days while hunting with his father, Tyler Bourgoin.
Waylon shot a doe last year, but this season he had a bigger goal in mind. He wanted to shoot a buck — and a big one at that.
On Friday, the pair passed on several young bucks while holding out for one of the larger deer they had captured on trail cameras. One of the bucks they hoped to harvest showed up Friday afternoon at another hunting spot, prompting them to move stands for Saturday.
“Lo and behold one of the bigger ones we’ve been watching stepped out and he made it count,” Tyler said.
Waylon shot the buck with a 6.5 Creedmoor from an elevated hunting tower on their family farm in Corinth, which was farmed by Waylon’s great-grandparents many years ago.
Tyler said he and his son had spent plenty of time practicing shooting together.
“Right after I said he went down, he started crying saying he just shot a huge buck.”
The family is submitting Waylon’s deer for his first “patch buck” recognition through The Maine Sportsman.