Customer Reviews

Big Bucks the Benoit Way: Secrets from America's First Family of Whitetail Hunting

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is one thing to shoot a trophy buck. It's even more amazing to shoot them year after year. This is just what the Benoits do and keep in mind it is being done in Maine. This makes it an even bigger accomplishment. If you have hunted Maine like myself, you know what I'm talking about. The big bucks up there are far and few, yet the Benoits are able to "read" the area and thus find moss backs every year. Even if you are an experienced hunter, you can be humbled quite quickly when hunting in Maine. This book details hunts in which bucks were tracked for many miles, offers many tips on how to read tracks, and when and where the bucks are going. If you want to learn more about big woods bucks, this book is for you.

This book is one of the best true hunting books I ever read! The Benoits are the True first family in deer hunting and as a north woods hunter myself I have learned lots from reading this book. This book is not about sitting in a tree stand all day or electronic trail timers or other high tech deer hunting ambush aids its about true hunting...tracking the most wise buck in the world..the northwoods buck !

This is one of the best and most unique whitetail hunting books I've read. The classic and now out-of-print "How to Bag the Biggest Buck of Your Life," did a great job of describing the Benoit tracking method. This newest book is even better.

"Big Bucks the Benoit Way" is an excellent presentation of how the Benoits hunt. The Benoits are almost exclusively trackers, and they base their techniques on what their vast experience has proven to work best: not on the theories of others. This independent thinking makes this a very refreshing book, and their dozens of 200-pound plus bucks prove that they know what they are doing.

This book is loaded with great photos of big bucks and the Benoits in their trademark green and black wool jackets. There's plenty of shots of sagging meat poles, the deep woods on snowy days, and the tracks and rubs of big bucks.

Most valuable though, is the great information on how the Benoits find, identify, and then follow the track of a heavy buck until they successfully bag him. While few of us will ever be so spectacularly successful using these methods, all of us can learn from this book. I've successfully used these same Benoit methods to track down and bag trophy bucks from Montana to Wisconsin.

Hunters who enjoy this book share a kinship in understanding the magic of the deep woods and a fresh tracking snow and the smoking hot track of a big buck. If you are that type of hunter, you will like this book.

Bruce L. Nelson, author of "Hunting Big Whitetails."

This is the real deal, These men are by far "americas best deer hunters". The book reads extremely well.Mr Towsley is a true hunters hunter.I recomend this book to anyone who wants to hunt big swanp bucks.The benoits are not cought up in all the "gear hype" they carry just what they need for survival.

They say in Wisconsin that the average hunter travels no farther into the woods than about 75 yards from their parked truck.

From the still hunting I've done in much of northern Wisconsin, I'd certainly say that seems to be the case.

My son told me about this book and he also has the Benoit video which we watched. What a delight to see some hunters hunting, tracking...every sense alive, not afraid to venture into the wilds in pursuit. These aren't just any hunters however, they know their stuff...they have the nice bucks too to validate their knowledge and experiences.

I thought I was pretty good at tracking, stalking, willing to work extra hard, but was excited to learn there is so much more to know looking at a deer track. Practically advice...when to pick up pace and not waste time, and when to pay attention with every step. A good read...a fun read, and a lot of good information.

This well written book discribes the way real hunting ought to be. When I started deer hunting we did'nt know what a tree stand was, we were on the ground hunting not waiting to ambush a deer. The Benoits are real hunters and make things happen. I appreciate them sharing their technique and knowledge of the whitetail.

This book was very informative and entertaining at the same time. I could not put the book down once I started to read.A must have for the average hunter, with out the money to pay for a guided hunt. The Benoits and the author did a excellent job putting this book together. Can not say enough about how detailed they got in explaining, why they did things, how they did them, the cloths they used, the choice of guns and loads etc.

Just not that good...
Don't know what all the rave reviews on Amazon are about.

The promise of the book is expert information on tracking white-tail deer; but it's all shallow, second-hand material from a Benoit fanboy and dilettante tracker.

The writing is wordy and meandering, like an old hunting story from someone's grandpa that you wish would get to the point; and the information is not systematically organized.

This book is also specific to tracking white-tailed deer in the snow in unpressured areas. It doesn't cover anything about speculative tracking (a must-have technique that the Benoits do not use), foot morphology, animal gaits and speed, or aging spoor and sign.
The few sentences on spoor aging are scattered and shallow, confined to fresh vs. not; with no explanation of what to look for beyond spoor definition.

"Practical Tracking: A Guide to Following Footprints and Finding Animals" was infinitely better.
Comprehensive, systematic, well organized, and very deep; written by a team of expert trackers themselves who train and certify other trackers (rather than an amateur tracker trailing some expert trackers for a few weeks).

The only reason I gave this book an extra star is because it gave a decent sense of what a week of hunting with the Benoits is like; but this little slice of Maine hunting life is all I can recommend this for.

This is not a ding on the abilities or accomplishments of the Benoit family - they are an impressive bunch, and I was especially impressed and inspired by their single-mindedness and perseverance.
The book, however, falls short - weak on content, doesn't teach that much, and what it does teach is poorly organized.

It's hard to believe that deer of this size exist and it's harder to believe that they are consistently taken by this family. The photo's in the book alone, are worth the cost. Even if you never get to hunt in the New England area the Benoit's do, you can pick up info that will help you in your own hunting.

I really enjoyed the story as it deals with the Benoit family and how this has been something that's been handed down from one generation to the next. It's nice to know that tradition's still exist in this ever changing world, and that those tradition's have meaning and relevance in a world that no longer put's any importance into such thing's. It's a great book and comes highly recommended.

This is a great book . I have all the Benoit books and dvds. I think this is the best of the Benoit books. There is so much info in these books it's not right out front , it's between the lines but be assured its there. Tracking is regional but the Whitetail info is not. I have learned more about mature Whitetails from the Benoit books and dvds than any other source. Larry's the man no doubt but Lanny Benoit may be the best pure deer hunter alive. Theres a little horn tooting in the book but as someone once said " If you can do it it ain't braggin ". I have Hal Bloods book too it is also very very good. If you buy just one book on tracking buy this one or Hals.