Ask any longtime Maine hunter and he’ll tell you – even if he’s never figured out a way to prove it – that there are plenty of big deer roaming around in our woods.

It’s the prospect of being in the right place at the right time … some day … that makes guys like Roger Whitney ignore the weather on nasty, ugly days, climb up into a tree, and wait …

And wait …

And wait.

Saturday was one of those days for Corinna’s Whitney, a 35-year-old with 25 deer seasons under his belt.

Whitney didn’t have the chance to spend the whole day hunting. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t find the conditions a bit chilly.

“Several times the thought came to me, ‘What the hell are you doing here? A cheeseburger at McDonald’s looks a lot better than sitting here, waiting for the big buck,'” Whitney said.

The day, as anyone who ended up spending time outside can tell you, was miserable. Temperatures hovered in the 30s, and the wind gusted up to 35 mph.

Four days later, Whitney is happy he didn’t pass on hunting and opt for a burger.

“When [the deer] comes out, it makes you stop thinking about freezing to death and hypothermia,” he said.

Especially if “The Deer” ends up being the buck that Whitney ended up bagging at around 4 p.m.

How big was it? Well, let’s start with some anecdotal accounts.

It was big enough that word quickly got around.

“It’s been like Grand Central Station around here,” Roger’s wife, Sherry, said on Tuesday night. “Even one of the game wardens came by today to look at it.”

And it was big enough that each time one of the townfolk retold the tale – keeping with Maine’s spoken-word tradition – Whitney’s deer kept growing.

“It’s comical. It really is,” Whitney said. “[One store owner] told me that during the day he had heard anywhere from 10 points to 18 points, and anywhere from 230 pounds to 280 pounds.”

Whitney owns a farm and has plenty of land to hunt. But he said the tree stand he used on opening day was “kind of my ‘home seat.’ It’s pretty comfortable.”

He got to his “home seat” at about 3, and soon after that, several does and fawns came out into the field. Around 4, the big buck followed suit.

“[I knew it was] quite a deer, because I was watching [the other deer], and his body size compared to theirs was enormous,” Whitney said. “But I had no idea it was such a large deer until I saw him up close.”

For the record (you’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you?) Whitney’s buck dressed out at a whopping 250 pounds, and he said it sported a monster 14-point rack. He shot the monster from about 200 yards.

Whitney said he’s bagged a pair of 200-pounders in his years of hunting, but never dreamed such a big deer was living on the family farm.

“Basically, it was another typical day of hunting in my life, but the end result was a lot different,” he said. “It’s 90 percent luck, 10 percent equipment and knowing how to use it.”

If the story stopped here, it would be interesting. But what happened just minutes before Whitney noticed his deer makes the tale even more interesting.

Twenty minutes before Whitney’s buck walked into one of his farm fields, hunting buddy Allen Brown of Dexter ended up getting a trophy buck of his own.

Brown’s deer – which he shot 500 yards away from where Whitney ended up shooting his own – was a hefty 198-pounder.

Whitney heard his pal’s shot, but didn’t find out what had transpired until later.

The friends weren’t hunting in the same field, but were in the same area, Whitney said.

And when the pair tracked Whitney’s deer and sized it up, they were amazed at its size.

“[Allen] was 10 times more excited than I was,” Whitney said. “I was still in awe, but I guess he could fathom it a little bit better.”

After that, the friends prepared for the visitors they knew would flock to see the pair of deer.

“Grand Central Station” opened in earnest.

“We had quite a night and the next day,” Whitney summed up, saying visitors came to see both deer, not just his.

“I felt bad for him, though, because a 198-pound deer in Maine is a quality deer.”

“His glory was muted,” Whitney said. “But [I say that] all in fun.”

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.