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The buck’s huge beam flickered in the drizzly rain as he stood on a ridge overlooking an area near the Saco River in Maine. E.A. Russell knew this bruiser wasn’t going to hang around long. He had been hunting this mountain for years and knew that you don’t see monsters like this every day, so Russell quickly looked for an opening for a lethal shot.
“I saw a tip of his antler through a bunch of trees and a patch of brown where his liver was located,” Russell said. “I knew that it was probably time to shoot at him. I did and he took off running. It flashed through my mind that I’ve never shot a deer twice but I knew it was time to shoot this rascal again. And when I did, the shot just flattened him.”
Russell was still-hunting the edge of the ridge in late November. The dedicated deer hunter is analytical and thoughtful about his craft. He watched the weather report carefully before stalking up the mountain to the 1,500-foot level. However, when Russell went afield it was apparent his hunting strategy had to change.
“I had to change my whole plan because the weather changed dramatically and the wind was 180 degrees different than what is was supposed to be,” he said. “It was supposed to be mostly sunny with the winds out of the west, and it was drizzly with the winds out of the east. So I had to make a giant circle around the mountain to keep the wind in my favor. I was hunting the edge of the ridge watching the area where there was buck sign. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to think. I could see the front of his beam. I could see six inches of antler and the brown spot. I knew he was a very legal deer. After I shot the second time and he fell, I was amazed. I hollered to a friend on another ridge to get over here to see this deer. I gave him a Tarzan yell and he came over. He was beside himself. He said, ‘you’ve got the King of the Mountain.’”
The 6 1/2-year-old buck, a 10-point monster that scored 147 and weighed 193 pounds, was a product of Cutting Edge nutritional supplements. The series of supplements ensure that deer get the nutrition they need for optimal development at each physiological stage throughout the entire year. Cutting Edge is scientifically designed to enhance both natural forage and food plots. Russell has been using Cutting Edge Initiate and Optimize for the past two years. He claimed this addition to his current food plot program (which includes Imperial Whitetail Clover) has made a major difference in the overall health of his deer and the mass and size of his bucks’ antlers.
“The deer, to my knowledge, had never been seen,” Russell said. “I just happened to run across his rub line over the past two years I went up there to see what I was going to do. Its antlers are as big as your wrist at the base and they’re extremely heavy and high, which is typical of this region. It’s kind of funny because hanging on the wall right next to him is another 10-pointer that was shot seven years ago just 60 yards from where I took this buck. The older buck was shot long before I started using Cutting Edge supplements, but it has a very, very similar rack to the one I just shot last year. The big difference is that the older buck has 24 inches less of antler. Both bucks were shot in the same area and probably have the same bloodline. I’m sure the only difference is the Cutting Edge.”
Russell manages 1,000 acres of land from the Saco River and the Saco River flood plain. He has forests, swampland, upland hills and a 2,000-foot high mountain on his property.
The deer forage acorns, natural browse from selective harvesting, some agriculture crops from pastureland and several acres of Imperial Clover and No-Plow food plots.
“The winters are very hard. We have three or four feet of snow per year,” Russell said. “The grass stops growing in mid-October but the Imperial Clover is still growing until much later. That’s why 14 deer are eating in the Imperial plot right now (late October). The snow will be here in mid-November until April. The deer do well as long as they have wintering habitat. Logging has been getting ferocious in Maine in recent years. They’ve done a lot of liquidation harvesting, which is more of a total harvesting so a lot of the whitetail wintering areas have been devastated.”
Russell said he manages his property to maintain thick, evergreen over-story growth to keep the snow depths down. He likes to keep the thick evergreen forest because “it may be ten below zero out but it will be 20 degrees inside that forest because the trees are actually alive and growing. That’s where they like to winter even if they’re in a starving situation. If they can maintain their heat, they’ll burn a lot less calories and make it to the following year.”
Russell said he started using Cutting Edge Initiate because he wanted to give the deer what they need during the stressful part of the year. Initiate is used in the late winter/early spring when bucks begin growing their antlers, but the vegetation growth hasn’t emerged.
“It’s their most vulnerable time of the year,” Russell said. “They’re weak. They’re skinny. There still can be a lot of snow and there are a lot of coyotes. Cutting Edge Initiate gets them over the hump. I’m not a full-time deer biologist but Cutting Edge Initiate and Optimize seem to really help in the spring and summertime gobble it down. The supplements also give the deer enough strength to start browsing a little harder during the winter when food is scarce and they really, really like the taste of it.
“From what I’ve seen, the deer still seem a lot healthier and come back a lot faster since I’ve started using Cutting Edge products. Young bucks used to be spikes but are now 5- and 6-point bucks. The supplements allow them to be in better physical health, and give them the boost to grow bone mass and antler mass.”
If minerals and vitamins are in short supply, deer will use them first to maintain body health, using whatever is left toward antler growth. A buck needs more than two pounds of raw mineral to produce a 4-pound set of antlers. The minerals and vitamins supplied year-round by Cutting Edge are essential to maximum health and antler growth in tough conditions like in Maine.
“The does are really big now. We have a lot twin fawns that seem to be considerably larger than they used to be,” he said. “The supplements allow their body to get through that crucial time in spring so they can start assimilating their natural food much better.”
Russell said that he puts his Cutting Edge lick sites in multiple areas near typical buck habitat. He has five sites in those areas.
“I hunt near the lick sites but I don’t overlook any of them,” Russell said. “Up here in the fall, you can’t use Sustain because it’s illegal to use mineral supplements after Sept. 1, so I only use the products in the late winter, spring and summer.
“My son and I saw another gigantic 10-pointer here the other night,” Russell said. “The body didn’t seem tremendously big, but the antlers were well outside his ears. I’m pretty confident he was eating the Initiate this spring. You can be sure he’ll continue to get all the supplements he needs.”