Joe Boyd, a plumber who lives in Mars Hill, was one proud grandfather.
Two of his grandsons had three firsts in one week: one had a first moose and deer within days of each other; the other a first grouse.
But what makes these firsts so special for Boyd is that he was there to witness two of them and to celebrate all three with his special grandsons, Jaxon Boyd and J.R. Smith, along with his son-in-law Zach.
Boyd is a registered Maine guide and has been involved in nearly 100 moose hunts, he said. But he confessed Friday he was more nervous about Jaxon’s hunt than he ever had been with any of the others. He just wanted things to go well for his grandson, who he says is his best friend.
Boyd really wanted Jaxon to like big game hunting, so he taught him about where to aim the shot and what would happen when an animal went down after being shot. He gave him all of the details so he wouldn’t be surprised or perhaps scared away from hunting.
This year, Jaxon wanted to shoot a deer so Boyd took him onto his 200 acres of land on the second day of Maine’s two-day youth hunt. Boyd had walked back to the house to get Jaxon’s shooting sticks. When he went back outside, Jaxon was about 30 yards in front of him, saying, “Bamp, deer. Bamp, deer.”
Two doe deer were standing off to the side of the field. Jaxon put his Savage 110 in .308 on the shooting sticks and fired, hitting one of them 173 yards away. When the Boyds stepped into the woods, there it was. It had not gone more than 40 yards before it died.
The doe weighed 115 pounds.
The next day, the family packed for moose camp because Jaxon had a permit and Boyd was his subpermittee. It was the third week of moose hunting, which was antlerless only. The Boyds, the Smiths and another friend with two boys stayed at Spectacle Pond Camps. They scouted for moose a little on Sunday.
The hunters woke up to snow on Monday and the moose weren’t moving much. On Tuesday, they tried a different area and saw two moose about 500 yards away. Boyd got up on an embankment to see where the two moose were and noticed another one about 155 yards away in the other direction.
Jaxon could not see the moose at first, his grandfather said. But the moose cooperated. It took about six steps and stopped. Jaxon shot it. The moose ran another 50-75 yards before it went down in the rough cutting.
Boyd’s next lesson for Jaxon was how to pay respect to the animal and thank it for its sacrifice to provide meat for Jaxon and his family.
Not only is respect for the animals important to Boyd but also to family.
Boyd said he was close to his father who had an orange vest with lots of pockets in it he wore hunting. Boyd wore it. Now Jaxon wears it and had it on when he hunted his big game.
“Grampie’s here with us,” Jaxon told Boyd.
The moose was more than 300 yards out into the rough cutting, so the men quartered the animal and between the kids and adults, they took it out piecemeal on a sled.
He said he has guided a moose hunt with a veteran and through Hunt of a Lifetime for a child in a wheelchair who had leukemia, but this moose hunt topped them all, he said.
“He just means a lot to me,” Boyd said.
Meanwhile, J.R. was hunting with his father. He shot his first grouse around the same time that Jaxon shot his moose. All of the boys — Jaxon, J.R. and two friends — shot birds the next day and everyone enjoyed time around the campfire at night.
“It was an amazing week. We couldn’t ask for more,” Boyd said.
