Trophy Spotlight- Vermont’s Biggest Buck Ever! Napolean Verge’s 300-Pounder
This story originally was printed in the “Outdoors” magazine and with permission from the author we are happy to share it with our readers.
By Dave Verge
It was early in the first week of the 1958 Vermont deer season and the weather was mild and was keeping the rut activity down. On the day before, my father, Napolean Verge, hunted with his oldest son Edward at his favorite beech grove where he had shot several nice bucks in the years past. He saw several does that day and noticed there was very little buck sign compared to previous years. His son also reported seeing a doe but no bucks. The walking that day was a little crunchy and the wind was swirling and perhaps pushing his scent down toward the area where he expected a buck might be bedded or staged up waiting for does to wander into the beeches in search of nuts and the possibility of finding a romantic relationship. Today (Sunday) he decided his best strategy would be to hunt the ridge on the other side of the road where there was a good mix of hard and soft woods. The walking would be quieter and by staying high on the used to make the scaffolding. To prove his point Fred brought out a newly made tip section and stepped on it. Fred said the worst that can happen is that you will scruff up the varnish, but it is unlikely that you bust the rod. Six strips of bamboo glued together is not only flexible it is rugged. I asked Fred about his production level. Fred explained that there is no production; each rod is made one at a time. From the time the cane is first split up to the final coat of varnish there are over fifty hours of labor in each rod. Fred makes about 2 rods a month or 24 in a year. A Fred Kretchman rod sells for about $1800 to $2000; when you consider the time and craftsmanship involved in each one that is pretty reasonable
ridge with the wind blowing up he would have the advantage over deer walking below him. That morning the hunters split up at the car and agreed to meet back at the vehicle come evening, and set about trying to fill their tags. In the forenoon he saw several does and one small broken-horn buck which he passed on. As the day wore on he thought that he should have harvested the little buck and settled for meat on the table. Shortly after, he assured himself that he had plenty of time left in the season and only a few of seasons had he failed to fill his deer tag. It was getting toward the last two hours of hunt time and he decided to drop off the ridge and stake out an old hayfield that jutted toward the base of the ridge. He was also aware that there were a couple of wild apple trees that sat just inside the upper edge and four years ago he shot a nice 180-pound, 8-pointer near them. He found a spot that gave him the wind advantage and cover about 160 yards from the apple trees and sat
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price. Fred’s rods, like his hero’s rods, Jim Payne, are exquisite in their attention to detail. Every rod is a work of art. There are those who no doubt buy a Kretchman rod as a work of art, but these works of art, are meant to be fished.
quietly in anticipation of what might show up. After about an hour on stand as the sun began to sink over the ridge in front of him he knew
Napoleon L. Verge, Barnet,VT. (1958)with his 300 lb (clean) dressed weight Vermont monster buck!
that if anything was going to happen, it would happen soon. He called it the “kill time” and knew from years of hunting that some deer could not wait any longer and were lulled into a false sense of security as the light got dimmer.
Suddenly, to his left and about 120 yards out a nice doe drifted out into the field and began to eat the tender grass. He began thinking to himself, where there is one deer there is usually two, so where is your boyfriend? The doe was acting kind of nervous and kept looking back into the woods. He knew this was a sure sign that more deer were in the vicinity and perhaps would soon show up. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes out popped a fair-sized 6point buck that immediately began trying to court the doe. He decided this was going to be the buck for him and proceeded to take off the safety on his trusty .243 rifle. In 1955 he had read about the new .243 caliber available by Winchester and decided he would make a new bride out of the old 8mm. He fitted it up with a custom L.R. Wallack medium weight barrel and replaced the military stock with a mail order one from the Fagin Stock Co. He inlet, sanded, and finished the stock to his specifications, installed and headspaced the barrel, and drilled and tapped the receiver to accept Weaver scope bases, topping it off
Biggest Buck Continued on page 15
Originally from Maine, Bill Thompson, with his wife Janet, lives in Freedom and owns North Country Angler fly shop in North Conway. He has been fly fishing for more than 30 years and is a licensed NH Fishing Guide. He has fished all over New England, in Canada and out West, but claims the Saco as his “home river.” He also writes a column for a local paper as well as articles in national fly fishing magazines. Bill’s email is bill@northcountryangler.com.
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The Outdoor Gazette
Box 162 RR#1 Doyles, NL A0N 1J0
July 2012
Page 13