HUNTING FAMILY SCORES GRAND SLAM
 

In the Field by Ken Bailey – The Camden Herald, 1999
 
The McIntyre family of Hope is ready for a long, cold winter, should it ever arrive. The firewood is put up for the season and their freezer is full of fresh venison. And when we say their "freezer is full," we mean it!
 

The McIntyre family set a remarkable hunting record this past season that will be tough to beat. Each member of the family, excluding the cat and dog, harvested a deer in November. All the deer were taken in Hope.
 

Both Scott and Sue McIntyre came from hunting families, a tradition they have proudlv passed on to their children.
 

When November rolled around, they were all ready for the season’s start, anxious to spend time in the Maine woods with the possibility of harvesting a deer.
 

The patriarch of the McIntyre clan, Scott, filled his tag with a nice five-point buck in the opening hour of the opening day of the November season.
 

Zac, a junior at Camden-Rockport High School and a member of the varsity basketball team, harvested his second deer ever, his first while hunting alone on an adult hunting license. Zac's deer in 1999 was his first buck.
 

Stephanie, a C-RHS freshman and a member of the junior varsitv basketball team, shot her first-ever deer while hunting with her dad. Her first deer was also a buck.
 

With three of the four family members having filled their deer tags, the pressure was on Sue. Sue enjoys her time in the woods each fall and had taken a week off to hunt this past season, and on the days she had to work, tried to get out early each morning. As the days were checked off the calendar, it appeared that Sue might end the season with an unfilled tag.
 

But in the final hour of the final day of the season, a white-tailed deer stepped into the crosshairs of her scope. A single shot completed the family's remarkable deer-hunting grand slam.
 

Although Sue's deer wasn't harvested until the end of the season, it was no fluke. She has successfully filled her tag three years in a row.
 

In Maine, 17 percent of the state's deer hunters are successful in most seasons. The odds for all four members of one family to be successful are great. The Mclntyres beat those odds.
 

This close-knit family enjoys a number of other outdoor activities, including fishing, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing, and spends time each year at the family cabin in Grand Falls Township.