What a year it was for our 11th Annual Webb Weekly – Uncle Ron’s Monster Buck Contest. If you remember, we renamed the contest in honor of my Uncle Ron Maietta who left us this past year for the big hunting ground in the sky, and Ron Mingle’s family who are fighting the same battle against MS. Uncle Ron is definitely looking down and smiling at this year’s winners.

First place was Haley Mumma. Her 18-point monster with an 18 ¾” spread scored 183 2/8. What an absolute tank of a buck! See Ken Hunter’s story, next page. As always, we use the Sahara Club International scoring system, which seems to be the fairest to cover all seasons. This is the second year in a row girl power has taken the top prize. Last year Miss Abby Healy was our winner.

Second place went to our leader after the completion of the fall archery season, Beau Gair. His trophy checked in with 18 points and a 17-inch spread, scoring 166 7/8. Beau definitely knows bow hunting. I thought for sure it would stand as the winner after the season ended, but you just never know what’s going to come around the corner these days in Penns Woods.

Third place went to Bruce Sampson. His big buck down sported a rack of 11 points and was 18 3/8” wide, scoring 156. It would have won most big buck contests, but not this one.

Uncle Ron’s 4th place winner was George Schneider. His 13-point was high and just outside the ears, scoring 154 6/8 SCI. Just an absolutely beautiful whitetail sporting one of those high and tight racks many hunters dream about.

Thank you again to Poust Taxidermy for providing first place prize — a free shoulder-mount of the winning monster buck. Dana Poust has been with us since the beginning and does absolutely fantastic work.

Our good friends at Thompson’s Meat Packing in Jersey Shore provided the 2nd-4th place winners with a $100 gift card for the venison processing of their choice. Just thinking about it makes me hungry for their great venison hot dogs. Thank you to Thompson’s for the great job they do for all area hunters and joining our contest this year.

That gets us to our final winner. Anyone who enters the contest is eligible for the random drawing of a Remington rifle courtesy of Sauers Trading, right down the street here in Southside. The father-son team of John and Donny are a fixture here in the Borough. Of course, the rifle includes all the trimmings — scope, caps, sling, gun case, and ammo. Congratulations to Mr. James Frye on winning this great prize. His buck was also a trophy, even though it didn’t have to be, 10 points with an 18 ½” spread. That’s a pretty darn good season, a big buck and a great gun!

Thank you to all that entered, I can’t wait to see what’s brought in next year; it’s definitely my favorite contest of the year. A tip of my Webb Weekly hunting cap to Ron Mingle for overseeing the annual event. And last but not least, we will be making a donation toward the fight against MS for every buck entered in Uncle Ron’s Monster Buck Contest. I will touch base on this in a future article.