While the Massachusetts state record-weight buck was a bruising 272 pounds field dressed and an estimated 350 pounds-plus live weight, that could fall by the wayside this season as our deer are just getting bigger and bigger. The Bay State has recorded the largest number of mature bucks 3½ years old and older this decade than any other state in the Northeast.

That region not only includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island, but also such well-known whitetail states as Pennsylvania and New York. The record animal was shot on the heels of another buck in 2002 that field dressed at 245 pounds and would have been the new weight record for the state. Don’t get weight records confused with the rack records, of which the Bay State has a number. Rick Morrell downed the state record animal by bow in a swamp in Sutton. He had scouted the area a number of days. While the animal had a live weight of 312 pounds, it would have registered much higher, perhaps more than 350 pounds, if it had not been very active during the rut. The neck measured 33 inches around, and from rack to hoof was 8.5 feet long and completely filled the bed of an eight-foot truck. Bob Arcott of Chicopee bow-bagged a 10-point buck that field dressed at 245 and would have set a new weight record by several pounds. Whitey Sovinski shot the highest scoring rack in state history in 2002 while hunting adjacent to Quabbin Reservoir, where he had hunted for more than 40 years. It has a gross score of 204‰, an amazing total, with a Boone and Crockett net of 193~. It had an inside spread of 25 and 4.8 inches with main beans of 27¨ and 29 inches. It was one of the top racks recorded in the nation that year. Peter Kiendzior set a state non-typical record in 2002 as well in Franklin County. It scored 203¼. Thirty percent of Massachusetts bucks are 3½ or older, a percentage that leads the northeast in the taking of mature bucks.

original post by By Frank Sousa

Author: mkmcst

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