Outdoor Personalities:
Master
Guide Randy Flannery
Doing it the way his grandfather did
By Dan Ladd
Many of us who hunt and fish these days do so because we had someone in our lives that offered their tutelage. When it comes to tracking and stalking whitetail bucks, Randy Flannery, a well-known and very versatile Maine guide and outfitter, is no different.
Flannery and his wife Sharon run Wilderness Escape Outfitters in northern Maine, which the family started in 1996. “My wife and kids (Scott and Ryanne) and I built it from scratch,” says Flannery of their lodge on Upper Hot Brook Lake “We lived in a camper, bathed in the lake and cooked on gas grills. I grew up with people in the family that were guides and I guided myself before I had this place.”
Flannery’s approach to hunting is much the same as that of his grandfather who preferred to track and stalk bucks as opposed to sitting. “My grandfather used to say ‘when the ground is soft from sun, rain or snow; track. If not, then crosscut the wind and stalk,’ so that’s how we approach it,” he says.
His grandfather had a five-point system for going after big bucks that Flannery said he knew in his sleep as a youth and still applies to his client’s today. It is as follows:
Be familiar with your map and compass so there is no fear of getting lost.
Learn how to pre-qualify the area where you are hunting so you’re not going into the woods where there are no big bucks to begin with.
Learn how to walk in the woods under all conditions so you can get close enough to a deer to get a shot at it.
Learn how to react to that buck when you jump him so you can put yourself in a position where you can get a shot at him.
Learn how to shoot fast with rapid fire and hit what you aim at.
These days’ guides and outfitters spend a great deal of time educating their client’s and Flannery and his seven guides help them employ and understand this five-point system, on foot. He says, “You can sit in a tree and never see a deer. You’ve got to go after them. We have a lot of people that we educate. All I can guarantee you, other than you’ll eat well, is that when you leave you will have a lot more knowledge about hunting on the ground than you did when you showed up. We’ll do whatever we can to help you get a good deer but we’re not going to put you in a treestand and leave you there. If there is tracking conditions then we’re going to try to do some tracking. I’ve got guys that are coming here now that are much better than when they started.”
To Flannery, the equipment, primarily the hunting rifle, is the most important tool for the hunter. “You’ve got to have the right tool for the trade,” referring to his choice of rifles. “When your feet are on the ground you need something that you can shoot fast. So many people hunt and they don’t have the right equipment. The best hunters that I have ever known, who have walls full of big bucks, use lever action and pump action rifles with short barrels and iron sites He advises big woods hunters to choose models such as the Winchester Model 94 Trapper that has a very short barrel. The .30-30 is a common caliber as is the .375-Winchester or .444. Pump action carbines are common in calibers like .30-06, .356 and .358.
Once the hunter has the right equipment and the right attitude then they are ready to learn something from Flannery and his guides. “A lot of your very successful deer hunters, they were taught,” he says. “So if we can pass on some knowledge that someone was so gracious enough to give us then we’re helping someone. It’s also encouraging to let them know that ‘yes you can do it, if you want to apply yourself.”
In terms of finding bucks Flannery offered the following advice to hunters. “The thicker the quicker, the wetter the better. That’s where the big bucks are,” he says. “They’re where it’s green and where it’s wet. Any big buck I’ve ever killed I either tracked it out of the green growth or I jumped it in the green growth.” This fall Flannery, his staff and client’s will once again be taking the hunt to the deer through the art of tracking and stalking. ‘Just the way his grandfather did.
Dan Ladd Lives in West Fort Ann, New York. He is currently completing his first book on hunting public land in the Adirondacks.