Want Great Off-Season Hunting With The Kids?

Try “Peaslee Mountain Hunt Park” in Maine

By Blaine Cardilli

As a 48 year old hunter with more experiences than I can begin to remember, it’s strange that I never gave “hunt parks” or “game ranches” a second look until now. Like most, I’ve always enjoyed the challenges of free range hunting and must have gotten caught up in the “We hunt 100% wild, 100% fair chase” mode that is so prevalent in todays hunting circles. Now don’t get me wrong; I still prefer hunting the wide open forests and fields of this beautiful country, hands down, and as a member of the prostaff with “Northwoods Adventures TV” I have some great and varied opportunities nationwide, but at least now I can understand the allure of a true hunt park after having finally experienced one. Enter ‘Peaslee Mountain‘ and owner Forest Peaslee, of Jefferson, Maine.

I got a chance to meet Forest after reading an advertisement about his property and he gave me and my hunting partner, Orrin Parker, the grand tour, taking special care to answer the myriad of questions we both had and how the park actually worked compared to others. Sure, they have high fences surrounding the ranch, and yes you can drive up the main entrance and see dozens of animals roaming the pens but it’s nothing like I thought it would be, believe me. The facility is divided into two distinctly different factions: the hunt park itself and the game ranch.

‘Peaslee Mountain Hunt Park’ offers the trophy experience of a lifetime and is among the premier hunt parks of the east coast. They offer 3-day fully guided hunts for red stags, fallow bucks, plains bison and bull elk or one-day, guided meat hunts. Rustic cabin lodging and full meals are all inclusive. The ‘Rocky Mountain Ranch’ section is home of the Maine Buffalo Company which raises the finest grade of buffalo meat in the east and here they have red deer, elk, and fallow that are available as breeding stock. Group safari tours and cabin rentals are also available upon request. The hunt park runs from September through March and consists of a 400 acre plot of land that is anything but tame. The terrain is very uneven and rolling, and is made up primarily of spruce and fir thickets sparsely broken up with hardwood pockets, and there is a natural stream, a marshy swamp, and some very rocky hard-to-climb ridges. Normally, a certain number of untamed animals, (20-40), are introduced into the area about 6-8 weeks before the season, and are left to get acquainted with their new surroundings, without any human interaction. In an area that large it doesn’t take long for them to become reclusive and shy, especially once the hunting season starts. And in 2008 Forest plans to have even fewer animals in there at any given time, yet they’ll be more trophy-class in size and antler spread.

Orrin and I saw the hunt park immediately as a tremendous opportunity for our boys, Ryan and Lance, ages 10 and 13 respectively, and Forest couldn’t have been happier to discuss plans for a hunt. We decided we would do a “meat hunt”, which meant the boys would be going after red deer does so we got our gear together and headed over after work one evening. We were met by Forest, his brother Dannie, who would also be our guide, and Charly Calpo, our hostess and cook for the next 24 hours. After checking out our rooms in the beautiful main lodge, Charly sat us down for an incredible meal of elk roast, trimmed out with boiled carrots, potatoes and onions, gravy, and homemade biscuits. We ate until belts had to be loosened and then ate some more and the kids loved the spread. Charly followed it up with a homemade apple pie topped with French vanilla ice cream.

After our gourmet meal, Dannie sat down with us and prepped us for the hunt. Apparently, this would not be an easy one at all and he pulled no punches as he informed us just how hard it was really going to be. He said that there were only four mature red deer does left in the park, and that after being hunted extremely hard for the past six months, they were very reclusive. After reminding us that they also had 400 heavily wooded acres to roam, he told us that a typical wild whitetail hunt would probably be easier than what we were about to face. Still, the boys retained their excitement and even joked about who would get to shoot first, since Dannie was planning to track and stalk with us. Before he left, Dannie turned to us and very stoically reiterated that he would do his very best for the boys but the simple fact remained that this late into the end of the season and with so few animals left, we would be lucky to get a shot opportunity at one doe, let alone two; the whole premise being that we were only there for a one day meat hunt, and not a trophy hunt.

The next morning found us waking up to the bustling sounds and smells of Charly cooking breakfast in the lodge kitchen. She arrived at 5:30am and by 6:00 we were all sitting down enjoying a huge mess of fresh eggs and a big platter of thickly sliced bacon, along with juice, milk, and hot coffee. Dannie arrived shortly after and we got all our gear together as he made some final adjustments to the days schedule as we stood around the table. Since the woods were deep with snow and the past few days and nights had seen thawing and re-freezing, Dannie felt so many of us would simply be too noisy so he planned to set us up in separate stand sites and do a little moving around on his own in an attempt to get the deer motivated. As we left, Charly handed us each a brown paper sack she said included lunches and snacks for the day.

Once at the park, a drive of some 20 minutes up the road from the lodge, Dannie left Ryan and me in the truck while he took Orrin and Lance in to a box blind set up near a spruce thicket to wait and watch. When he returned he led us down some winding tote roads and about 15 minutes later, dropped us off at a trail head where we nestled into the base of a few trees and tried to stay warm. It was close to 8:00am and when we left the lodge the temperature was a frigid 10 degrees above zero and here we were sitting in on the fringe of a forest, in the open, with a biting 15 mph wind whipping at us, causing our ears to burn and our eyes to water. Ryan was a trooper through it all and though very cold and shivering, managed to sit an entire two hours in that spot until Dannie appeared to see if we had seen anything. We hadn’t so he decided to take us about 400 yards to see how Orrin and Lance were doing.

When we got there, we found them extremely cold as well, though they said they did have an encounter with a solitary buffalo that wandered through. We talked about the possibilities and where Dannie thought the deer might be and then he proceeded to take Ryan and me to another spot for a second set up, while Orrin and Lance stayed put. To make a long story short the next couple hours came and went without incident except that we got even colder if that were at all possible. Ryan and I broke open our lunch sacks around 11:00am and ate sandwiches and snacks atop a rocky bluff under the partial shelter of a group of fir trees overlooking a small trail crossing. It was still a welcome sight when Dannie appeared to take us to our third set up of the day, as sitting in one spot in frigid temperatures was testing even my mettle, let alone little Ryan’s.

This time we followed him about 300 yards to a slightly open hardwood ridge intermixed with evergreens, and listened intently as he outlined the new scenario. It appeared the deer were moving yet were too spooky to settle into a discernible pattern, due to the crunchy snow packs so he thought it best we position ourselves over the knoll he pointed out to our left, and that we find a spot where we could see the two trails coming together and get set up. He had already repositioned Lance and his dad over the opposite ridge and said that he hoped he could kick up the deer in an old fashioned driving maneuver by circling around to where he thought the deer might be. With that said, he disappeared and Ryan and I made our way to the wood line.

After surveying the situation I picked a likely spot just inside some low hanging fir branches and was in the process of getting us both ready when Ryan suddenly announced he saw antlers coming through the woods. Sure enough I looked up and saw a red deer doe leading several other does, a stag, and even a bull elk into the trail some 50-60 yards up, apparently having been jumped by our guide. Ryan, though he’d never shot anything in his life before, not even a bird or squirrel, was calmer than I was as I nervously passed him his rifle. I had prepared him for a broadside shot but as the doe approached to within 30 yards she pegged our movement in the woods, turned to us head on and started stamping her foot as we moved and whispered back and forth.

I managed to coach Ryan into putting his scope on her lower chest and I heard myself telling him to shoot, like it was somebody else talking. He hesitated and I could see the doe was getting ready to wheel off so I told him once again to shoot. With the report of the rifle, I saw a tuft of hair take off and the doe bolted to the left in a classic reaction to a heart shot. She was down and out in seconds, not moving, and Ryan lost it as he realized he had just taken his very first animal, and a big deer at that! As we were trying to calm ourselves down and regroup, we heard Lance fire about a minute and a half later. Dannie quickly appeared and the congratulations, hand shaking, and patting on the backs began as Ryan recounted his story. After taking five minutes to absorb everything, we picked up our gear and went to meet Lance and Orrin over the next ridge.

Upon arriving to where they were waiting, Lance told us his story. They had heard Ryan’s shot and braced themselves as they saw the deer coming through the woods, but when they cleared the trail and were within 60 yards, both the stag and the elk were in front, completely blocking the does with bodies and antlers. As Lance shouldered his .30-06 he got a brief window of opportunity and squeezed off the only shot he could take, which ended up hitting one doe in the hind quarter, but at a fairly decent quartering-away angle, meaning the bullet had gone up into the vitals. She buckled but recovered, and followed the rest of the group over the ridge.

We were all nervous wrecks except for Dannie who calmly took out his lunch and began to eat, informing us that we needed to give the doe time to bed down before going after her. We agreed and once Dannie thought enough time had passed, he motioned for us to follow him as he started tracking her. There was blood in the snow but not much, and after we trekked up and over a rocky bluff, some 200+ yards, Dannie stopped us and decided it best to formulate a new plan. He sent Orrin and Lance back down and around to near where Ryan’s deer lay by means of a half circle approach, while directing Ryan and I to take the adjacent trail and simply walk it in an attempt to maybe jump her up towards Lance. Dannie would remain on her track and watch for movement.

After executing the new plan, Ryan and I weren’t 75 yards down the tote road when we heard Lance shoot. We saw Dannie inside the woods who yelled to us that he could see the doe lying down in the woods up ahead. She had gone exactly where Dannie had hoped and he had expertly placed Lance in the right position. When we all met up over his deer, an unbelievably huge doe, they recounted what had happened. Orrin had seen the doe coming through the woods about 75 yards away and he quickly led Lance a few feet ahead and got him in position with his gun up. The doe made it to a clearing and stopped to look around and Lance dropped her where she stood with a perfect shot through the right front shoulder.

Much celebration was had and phone calls placed by us, as Dannie began the arduous task of hauling out the deer with his tractor and field dressing them, with help from the boys of course, and when all was said and done no one could have been happier than the three of them. He had indeed forewarned us of an extremely difficult hunt and after six long hours of hunting under the toughest of conditions, we had to agree. For the kids, this was clearly going to be remembered as one of the most exciting hunts of their lives, especially Ryan, who had just taken his very first deer. And this is clearly not just a place to bring your kids; ‘Peaslee Mountain Hunt Park’ has the very best to offer young and old alike and as Orrin and I both found out, we experienced a hunt that day as hard if not harder than any whitetail hunt we had ever been on under normal “fair chase” conditions. We would recommend this place to anyone in the east who simply can’t afford a Midwest hunt but would like to experience one in as wild a setting as possible. And the plus side is that most Midwest outfits won’t guarantee you a trophy for the money you spend, but Forest will, if a trophy hunt is what you’re looking for, and you book the time. One of Forest’s goals is to show the public that even a place this far east, (namely Maine), is very capable of putting on a great trophy elk hunt as a viable alternative if a Midwestern hunt is out of the question, as it may be for certain individuals, due to time constraints.

We took many photos of the kids and their deer and even videotaped the entire experience. After leaving our new friends behind, we made our way to the local meat processor who does all our game and dropped them off. Ryan’s tipped the scale at 133 lbs and Lance’s weighed in at a whopping 152 lbs. Though Orrin and I have many opportunities to hunt deer, bear, wild boar and other game all across the country, I think we’ll make plans each season to take the boys back to see Dannie, Forest and Charly, and we might even want to try bow hunting a world class elk ourselves sometime, now that we know it’s definitely no “give away” hunt!

For more information about ‘Peaslee Mountain Hunt Park’ and ‘Rocky Mountain Ranch’, check out their website at www.peasleehuntpark.com and if you make plans to go, be sure and tell Forest that Blaine sent you!