Late last spring, Nolan Lovell and his uncle, Robert Sukis, started talking about their goals for the upcoming year.

At some point, 13-year-old Nolan recalls, they made a decision: Nolan would try to bag Maine’s “grand slam” of game animals, and his uncle would help him.

Turkey. Then bear. Then moose. And finally, deer.

The Sangerville eighth-grader admits that even as he and his uncle “decided” to complete the grand slam, he had his doubts.

“Truthfully, I didn’t [think we’d complete it] because I didn’t really think we were going to get a moose permit,” Nolan said. “We had been putting in [for a permit] for so many years.”

In the spring, the duo teamed up to go turkey hunting … and Nolan bagged a 16-pound bird that allowed them to keep dreaming of their “slam.”

During the summer, the most important piece of the puzzle fell into place: After applying every year since the lottery was initiated, Nolan’s dad, Andy Lovell, was drawn.

“After we got the moose permit, I had an idea that it was gonna be pretty easy,” Nolan Lovell said.

Nolan’s confidence is well-founded. He has shot a deer each year since he turned 10, and didn’t figure that a moose would be too hard to find.

That, if all went well, meant he’d better find himself a bear.

Again, his uncle helped. The pair split the baiting chores, as they had the year before, and hunted together as much as they could.

After two weeks of their sitting in a stand, a bear finally showed up.

“I really didn’t know quite what to think,” Nolan said. “My uncle actually had to tell me to put my gun up. I was pretty surprised.”

The reason for his surprise was simple. He and his uncle were hunting on family land, and Nolan had half-convinced himself that there weren’t any bears within miles of his stand.

“We had never seen a bear down there,” he said with a chuckle.

He shot the bear, which weighed 140 pounds, and bagged a 500-pound moose with his father.

And when deer season came, Nolan didn’t waste any time completing the grand slam. He shot a 70-pound doe on Youth Deer Day, a week before the regular season’s opening day.

His father said one key to Nolan’s success is the fact that he’s willing to sit … and sit … and sit … while waiting for animals to arrive.

“He’s got tremendous patience,” Andy Lovell said. “I don’t know where he gets his patience from, but it’s certainly not from me. And he’s a heck of a shot.”

Major headache

Plenty of Maine hunters proudly display antlers in their homes. Many of those racks are the product of a successful hunt. Others are found on the forest floor after deer have shed them.

Harry Moore of Ellsworth wound up with a nice set of antlers recently, but the way he got them was a bit unorthodox.

Moore, a retired Brewer High School teacher, was driving along Route 1A in Dedham when he spotted a deer near the Lucerne Inn.

“He was running up over the bank, and he ran right in front of my car,” Moore said. “On his next bound, he went from one lane into the other, and he slipped and fell.”

The oncoming traffic was quite far away, and the deer wasn’t struck by a vehicle. Its fall, however, wasn’t too graceful.

“He hit his head on the pavement and this big rack of horns fell off,” Moore said.

The deer stood up, slipped around a bit, and eventually bounded away, as his antlers rolled down Route 1A.

“The antlers were bouncing in the breakdown lane, just like sticks of wood, tumbling,” Moore said.

Moore pulled over and retrieved the antlers, which he took home.

Since then, the 14-point rack has proven to be quite a conversation piece.

“Nobody I talk to has heard anything like it,” he said.

Ice info still sought

If you’ve got information about the condition of ice on your local lake, we’re interested in passing it along to readers.

According to Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife fisheries biologists, there are plenty of lakes and ponds with safe ice, particularly in more northern parts of the state.

If you know of one such pond … we’re interested. And if you know of one that’s not as safe as people thing, we’re interested in that, too.

E-mail is the best option, but you’re welcome to leave a phone message as well.

Thanks for your help.

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