If you're looking for a team of outdoor professionals whom like to share their woodsmen skills and are entertaining while doing it, you've come to the right place. The BWB team is comprised of Master Guides from several states, outdoor industry personalities, video and still photography experts, waterfowl, archery, shooting sports, fishing, and trapping professionals. Each member is specifically chosen for their particular skill sets and willingness to help others learn. Not to blow our own horn but probably the best looking outdoor team of men and women ever seen in outdoor media ( well in our minds anyhow.) With literally a couple of hundred years of outdoors experience we have been there and done that. One of our true passions is passing on our knowledge and experiences to BWB fans. From teaching proper spread techniques for waterfowl hunting, to how to track and sneak up on wiley mature bucks and everything in-between we teach those hunting and woodsmen skills necessary to achieve your outdoors goals. Our staff understands the majority of people don't have unlimited time in the outdoors and they want to maximize that time they do have. Why struggle learning countless lessons of being unsuccessful when we have already suffered those for you. All you have to do is post a question on our social media pages and we can set you on the right track to success. As often the case we gladly learn something from you as well  and can help someone else in their endeavors. 

We encourage you to go though the teams bio's and get to know us.

Thank you for taking  your valuable time visiting our website. 

Lee is a Master Maine Guide from Cornville, Me. He built a set of sporting camps on his property and runs his guides business, Schanz’s Guide Service right on the same property he lives with his wife Kelly and their 4 children. Recently, he purchased a piece of property on Pleasant Ridge in Maine and rehabilitated the old cabin that came with the property into a beautiful place to take his clients for a remote fly fishing excursion or hunt for moose right from camp during the fall Maine moose hunt.

Lee killed his first Big Woods Buck at the age of 13 and he has been hooked ever since. He has killed or guided to a kill lots of bucks over 200 lbs. using all of the methods that are written about in today’s books, DVD’s and magazines. He has also developed some of his own techniques and been able to test their effectiveness over the years.  He is excited to share his experience and skills with the Big Woods Bucks community. He is committed to taking you into the woods with him so you can experience firsthand through the eyes and ears of a video camera, exactly what it is like to go one on one with a Big Woods Buck. Lee finds it rewarding to share the knowledge and expertise he has been fortunate enough to compile and has groomed his son Stephen into a registered Maine Guide as well. Lee is quoted as saying, “I am proud to say my son has grown into a man and is serving our country in the United States Marine Corps to help protect the freedoms all Americans enjoy.” Lee is also proud to be a member of the Big Woods Bucks Pro-staff and is excited to be a part of the movement dedicated to helping people hone their woodsman skills to master the “Art of Hunting.”

Joe Kruse has had a passion for deer hunting ever since he shot his first buck in the swamps of Florida at the age of 15. Since that time more than 30 years ago, he has spent every fall pursuing big game. After living in Maine until the age of 8, Joe and his family moved back to South Florida in 1979. Growing up in the Ft. Lauderdale area doesn’t really lend itself to the outdoor lifestyle but Joe made the best of it hunting deer, hogs, turkeys, gators, and ducks.  He would return to Maine and spend the summers and holidays at his family’s camp near Jackman, but it wasn’t until the Fall of 1997 that he made his first deer hunting trip to the big woods and discovered tracking bucks on the snow. He was hooked on chasing big woods bucks from then on.

Joe’s years in Florida were spent as a general contractor and partner in his family’s construction business and hotel, the Pelican Beach Resort. In 2006, after the sale of the business, he and his wife Liz made the decision to move to Maine and raise their kids, Leah and Taylor, in the outdoor lifestyle. In the summer of 2009, with a desire to combine their love of the hospitality business and passion for the outdoors, they bought and rebuilt what is now Lake Parlin Lodge (lakeparlinlodge.com). The Lodge is a popular destination for snowmobilers in the winter, families and weddings in the summer, and hunting in the fall. Joe is a Maine Guide and float plane pilot that combines the two showcasing all that the area has to offer.

Mark is a Big Woods Bucks Team Member and an avid rifle hunter who specializes in tracking and still-hunting (and will stand hunt when conditions warrant that tactic) on both public and private land. He is an outdoor writer with articles published, as well as his latest book, Learning to Track and Hunt Wilderness Whitetails, One Man’s Tale of Applying the Ancient Art from the Masters. Mark considers himself a hunter/conservationist. He spends most of his season hunting in his native Adirondacks and Northern Maine and has hunted in the river valleys of Montana as well. Mark is a researcher by profession and has brought his inquisitive nature into his devotion to matching the rifle to the tracking art and mountain hunting. Mark is also an addiction researcher and is the Chairman of Baldwin Research Institute, The St. Jude Retreat, and is a co-author of the controversial book, The Freedom Model for Addictions, Escape the Treatment and Recovery Trap. Mark is married to his beautiful wife Danielle and has three wonderful children: Austin, Gabrielle and Joe. 

  Mike is a veteran Maine guide, outdoor writer and addicted whitetail hunter. Born and raised in southern Maine, he started deer hunting at 12 years old, when his Dad would send him hunting with his uncles. He quickly became crazy about hunting deer and was known to skip school whenever it snowed during November. Things were different then. Hunting was part of life. Mike talks of bringing deer liver to the high school Assistant Principal. The gesture usually got him an excused absence. If he didn't have any venison for the educator, he got detention. During this time, he got his hands on Larry Benoits first book about tracking big bucks and this opened a whole new way to hunt deer. Fifty years later, he still can't say no to a big woods buck track.
         Mike starting working at Cedar Ridge Outfitters in 1995, when Hal Blood was looking for a bear guide. This ignited a friendship and rejuvenated his passion for deer hunting. For 20 years he guided for Hal and Deb Blood at Cedar Ridge. He and Hal have spent countless hours roaming the northwestern mountains of Maine, guiding/teaching clients the art of tracking deer. The best job he ever had, according to Mike.
            Mike lives in Jackman, Maine with his Fiance' Marie and their dogs (Kipper and Kaylee), where he still guides hunters and fishermen. The “real” oldman here at Big Woods Bucks, Mike has a daughter and two sons, three granddaughters and a great granddaughter due any minute at the time of this writing !! Mike loves to talk hunting to anyone that will listen to him and will boast how his youngest son has become an accomplished big woods tracker and has hung several bucks. Sometimes Mike's lessons are direct and a bit raw, but tracking big bucks over snowy mountains is not for the squeamish. Welcome to the world of Big Woods Bucks...

I was born and raised in Northern Maine.  Whether it be fishing with my father, hunting with my grandfather or just camping with the family, I've always enjoyed the opportunity to be outdoors.  Guiding moose and bear hunters for over 15 years has been most rewarding although deer hunting will always be my favorite.  Tracking if we have snow or still hunting if we don't, I can't wait for November every year.   - Joel

  Matt Breton started following his dad to deer camp in northern VT at age 6 and he has been hunting ever since.  In 2007, after spending five years in the U.S. Army, Matt returned home to Vermont and started making hunting adventures out of state, getting more serious about tracking his bucks down in the big woods of Maine.  With his professional career as a physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach as a background, Matt believes that life is an adventure you should train for.
  Matt continues to hunt across the big woods of northern New England and into the backcountry of the Rocky Mountain west, chasing whitetails, mule deer and elk.  Enjoying the physical and mental challenges of this type of hunting, he has come to realize that your body is the most important piece of equipment you own.  His goal is to make training for hunting season accessible to everyone.

I’m Beau Babbitt and am originally from Jackman, Maine. I grew up around hunting and from an early age my father started taking me into the woods as far back as I can remember. My older brother Rocky, guided for Hal at Cedar Ridge Outfitters would take me out trapping for Marten in the woods behind our house. I moved to California in 1995 and graduated from High School there in 2003. After High School I enlisted in the US Army as a Cavalry Scout and later deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2006 with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. I was Honorably Discharged in 2007 and decided to move back to California to attend community college. Having had a rough time adapting to the civilian world and dealing with what I later recognize was PTSD, I decided to enlist back into the military in 2009. Fortunately, before I could go back into the Army I had a job opportunity back in Jackman where I could be with my family who had since moved back there. I took the job and decided to start a new chapter in my life with the support of my family. Although hunting was introduced to me at a young age, I didn’t have much of a chance to hunt in California. That first November in 2009 after I moved back to Jackman my older brother picked me up in the early hours one morning and took me out deer hunting. He is an accomplished hunter with lots of knowledge and numerous Big Woods Bucks under his belt. We were fortunate enough to have fresh tracking snow that morning and by noon we had tracked and killed my first Big Woods Buck that ended up weighing in at 196 lbs. From that day on I have been hooked, I had finally found something that I can say I am truly passionate about. After that I read Hals Hunting Big Woods Bucks Vol.1, Big Bucks the Benoit Way, and watched videos from Hal and the Benoit’s on YouTube. I spent numerous hours in the woods during and outside of hunting season to scout new areas. I practiced still hunting, and followed any tracks whether it be doe or buck just to see where they would take me and to study their habits. Since then I have had good success hunting Big Woods Bucks and continue to learn something from each deer I follow. Hunting Whitetails and more specifically tracking them in the Big Woods takes concentration, discipline, and knowledge you can only get from doing it. I look forward to sharing all my successes and failures with you in hopes you can take something away to better hone your skills as a hunter.  For my Veteran brothers out there, hunting took my mind away from every negative thought and distraction in my life and channeled it in a positive way. I recommend to any of you, old or young to take up hunting. Get out in nature as it is truly therapeutic and cleansing for the mind and soul. 

 My dad started taking me to the big woods when I was 5 years old and I loved every minute of it. When I was 11 he let me come up and be part of the hunting crew. He put me in a great spot to sit all Thanksgiving week and Thursday morning a 150”, 11 point, 250lb buck walked 10 yards from us following a doe. The firing pin on my gun froze and we didn’t get that buck, but I was hooked. I spent probably more time than any other kid my age hunting in the Big Woods, who didn’t live near them, until I was out of college and got married. I was always a sitter because that’s how my dad had success, I loved finding and good spot and settling in and then finding the next one. I passed up a lot of smaller deer under 180lbs or so and missed one monster while sitting from the time I was 12 to probably 20 years old. About that time a great friend at college who loved to hunt started asking me about tracking in the Big Woods. I had always been interested but hadn’t tried much. He told me about Hal Blood’s books, so I bought them and read them again and again. I started following tracks around and doing my best, maybe seeing a tail once on a while. At that time my knee and mind was really getting in the way of tracking, I was having a tough time with some things in life and was mentally weak. This killed my ability to stave off fears of getting lost. 

I’m now 31 and a normal guy in Maine working a few jobs, being a lobsterman is one of them, and doing the best I can for God and my family. I don’t get to spend much time in the Big Woods anymore, basically zero scouting and probably 5 days or so tracking each season. Through finding Jesus Christ as my savior, reading the Bible and going to God I’ve found great contentment in all of life and a great bonus to that has been having more confidence in the Big Woods. With God’s help, the materials Hal has put out, and time and experience I have finally run into a few big bucks tracking over the last 5 years. I’ve missed some and connected with some. I know believe I have a great chance of connecting with a big buck whenever I step in the woods with snow on the ground.

My favorite part of hunting Big Woods Bucks and tracking is everything! I think about it often throughout the year. From the second I get in my truck at home and drive 4 or 5 hours, to getting in the woods, to being on a track, to seeing the buck, getting a buck, dragging the buck, weighing him and telling the story it’s all a great adventure. I guess the absolute best part would have to be the camaraderie involved. Spending time with great friends, eating, camping, telling stories, dragging and weighing deer, talking the day over, pulling each other out of the ditch, the joy is endless and I’m thankful for every minute of it.