A late-season duck hunt turned up more than birds for some southwestern Ontario hunters.
Adriano Corsini, owner of the Mud Creek Hunt Club on Lake St. Clair and guides Tyson and Allan VandeVelde were heading through the marsh on December 15 when they noticed something odd.
Amid a swath of beaten-down phragmites and cattails lay a dead deer, seemingly stuck in the
mud. On investigation they discovered the buck was a world-class specimen that had previously
eluded them.
They had trail cam pictures of the buck and even a set of his 2021 sheds, but all three men were floored by the sheer size and mass of the creature. After the 60-day drying period, the buck was scored as a non-typical by an official Foundation for Recognition of Ontario Wildlife (FROW) measurer at a whopping 207 2 ⁄8 inches.
Its gross score is 2215 ⁄8 inches. Though a little bloated, the buck was completely intact and appeared to have gotten stuck while fighting another buck, indicated by all the beaten-down cover.
Although this would have been a prize for any hunter, Corsini said, “You know it was kind of nice that we found it together. If one of us had shot it, there might have been some hard feelings. Now it will be mounted and placed in the Mud Creek lodge where we can all enjoy it.”
The deer is the 22nd largest non-typical on record in the province.
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