As you might imagine, Daly suffered through a sleepless night, still wondering if the buck was really as big as he remembered. The next morning, he and a friend picked up the trail. It didn't take them long to find the buck, but Daly noticed that the buck's eyes were closed. Sure enough, the deer was still alive!

The great animal struggled to its feet, but Daly was ready and finished him off with a final shot. The massive buck piled up, and forget about "ground shrink" -- he was every bit as big as Daly remembered him to be!

Daly now realizes just how lucky he was to have come face to face with such a big buck, so late in the season.

SCORE & RANK
Daly later took the buck to Trappers Den Taxidermy, where Joe Firetto immediately told him he had to have it scored by Carl Lieser, the Connecticut Regional Director for the Northeast Big Buck Club. An experienced scorer, Carl also scores for B&C, Pope and Young and other clubs, so Daley knew he had the right guy to measure his huge non-typical.

As a 12-point non-typical, Daly's buck scores 184 5/8 gross B&C points and 171 4/8 net. The wide rack, with an inside spread of over 19 inches, sports nine typical points and three abnormal points. The typical frame grosses just over 170 inches -- massive for a nine-pointer.

The main beams are both 26 5/8 inches long, and the longest typical points are 12 5/8 (left G-2) and 10 inches (both the left and right G-3s).

The buck has excellent mass, with bases of 5 3/8 and 5 4/8 inches, and total mass measurements of over 40 inches!

Its three non-typical points are all on the left side, with a large 9 6/8-inch point and two smaller stickers.

According to the Northeast Big Buck Club, Daly's buck is the largest gross-scoring buck entered in the NBBC's records from New England in 2007. This article was written in March 2008, so it's possible that a larger buck from 2007 could be entered prior to the close of the scoring period in May 2008. But as of this moment, Daly's is set to be honored as New England's best from 2007.

Larger gross-scoring bucks were taken in New York and Pennsylvania in 2007, but Daly's was the best from the six New England states.

The buck also ranks No. 2 all-time for muzzleloader non-typicals from Connecticut -- behind Henry Konow Jr.'s amazing 206 3/8-inch 19-pointer taken in New London County in 2000. Daly's also ranks No. 12 All-Time for Connecticut bucks harvested by a hunter with any weapon.

In the past five years, 2003-07, only one other buck has been harvested with a larger gross score than the Daly buck. That was Jack Sullivan's 2004 New London County 16-pointer that gross-scores 185 4/8.

So Ed "Lucky" Daly should be very proud of his great buck from the Constitution State!

MORE GREAT BUCKS FROM 2007
2007 was a fantastic year in New England. Massive bucks fell throughout the region, with more than 30 breaking the 150-inch mark.

Connecticut led the way with Daly's buck, plus several other great bucks -- including Mark Page's 178 3/8-inch New Haven County 13-pointer taken during gun season, Reinhart Hermann's 163 1/8-inch 14-point muzzleloader non-typical from Hartford County and Bob Robbins' 162 4/8-inch 11-point gun buck from Tolland County.

Massachusetts hunters took at least two 170-class archery bucks last year. And Maine muzzleloaders downed several impressive bucks, including a 170-class typical. Bucks that were 160-class or better fell in New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

Only Vermont failed to produce a buck of that caliber.

Challenging weather conditions in 2007 seemed to dampen harvest totals for many states' archery and gun seasons. But the region came on strong! The NBBC has scored many huge muzzleloader bucks and later archery-season bucks. Muzzleloader hunters had a particularly great season, as evidenced by Daly's massive buck.

For more information about the Northeast Big Buck Club, visit their Web site at www.bigbuckclub.com, or you can call the NBBC at (508) 752-8762 for more information.