Larry Benoit, "Babe Ruth for Hunters," Is Dead at 89 Larry Benoit, who tracked whitetail deer through the snowy woods of northern New England and southern Canada for more than seven decades, shooting at least 200 of the biggest and most prized specimens, known as trophy bucks, while becoming one of the nation's most revered deer hunters, died on Oct. 8 at his home in Duxbury, Vt. He was 89. His death was confirmed by his son Shane. Today, trophy buck hunting has elements of competitive sport, some of them high-tech. Some hunters use video cameras to learn the traveling and behavior patterns of deer, and, after a kill, many have antlers officially measured; "trophy racks," they are called. Mr. Benoit, who grew up poor near the Canadian border, learned to hunt because his family needed food. Even after achieving fame, he measured success by a buck's weight; the heavier the buck, the more meat. His most notable skill was in recognizing (without a camera) the tracks big bucks left in the snow and following them as long as necessary. "He was kind of like Babe Ruth for hunters," said Ron Boucher, a hunter and rack measurer who knew Mr. Benoit for more than 30 years and wrote about him for North American Whitetail magazine. He was probably known by more hunters than any other person for his time. In September 1970, Sports Afield magazine published a cover article with the headline "Larry Benoit - Is He the Best Deer Hunter in America?" Five years later, Mr. Benoit, a carpenter in the off-season, published "How to Bag the Biggest Buck of Your Life," a book, written with Peter Miller, that many people consider a standard text for deer hunters. In it, he promoted comprehensive preparation, not instant gratification: Find deer using the ancient art of tracking hoof prints, not sitting in the relative comfort of a tree stand. Are you really a hunter, or just a shooter? Do not fire at the first big buck you see. Wait for the one you truly want. "To outwit the whitetail, you must know how to locate him, how to track him and how to down him," he wrote. It takes stamina, woods lore, deer lore and experience to win this fight. Ease up on those summer beers. Drink skim milk. He favored "canned baby food for desserts and vegetables," though he knew that neither was for everyone. Tend to your calluses, wear wool socks, take the stairs instead of the elevator, do isometrics "on the can" if that is the only time you have. Build up your thighs and your lung capacity with long hikes. Do not smoke. A little Red Man chewing tobacco should not hurt. Practice walking silently in the woods. Remember, whether he is a swamp deer or a ridge runner, that buck is bigger, faster and more familiar with his territory than you are. "Mister," he wrote, "if you aren't in shape to dog a mountain buck and follow him for 15 miles, then walk out of the woods and be ready to do it the next day, and maybe the day after, and maybe for a week, then just be an armchair buck hunter. Don't go out in the woods and kill yourself. The magazine articles and the book were not his idea. His reputation grew as hunters and eventually outdoors writers noticed, year after year, that his house, on a hill in Duxbury, always had big bucks hanging outside. How did one family have so much success? Shane Benoit, who is an accomplished hunter himself, as are his brothers, said the secret to his father's success was in the tracking skills that had been passed down through generations. His lineage was French Canadian and Iroquois. "My grandfather did it, my great-grandfather did it, my great-great-grandfather did it, and so on down the line," he said. Lanyard Everett Benoit was born on Sept. 24, 1924, in East Berkshire, Vt., to Leo Benoit and the former Irene Lawrence. His father was a blacksmith and made the hunting knives his son used growing up. That was another skill Mr. Benoit inherited: he also made and sold custom hunting knives. When Mr. Benoit was 15, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, which built roads, mountain lodges and other structures in Vermont and provided food and shelter during the difficult years after the Depression. He traveled frequently to speak to hunting groups, taking endless questions. Sometimes conflicts in hunting culture became apparent. Some hunters, for example, were accustomed to tracking bucks on private land, where the animals" wild food had been supplemented with grain so that they and their antlers would grow bigger. The Benoits hunted on public land, and they were not much for measuring antlers. "The only grain we feed them is either a 130- or a 150-grain bullet," Shane Benoit said. In addition to him, Mr. Benoit is survived by three other sons, Lanny, Lansing and Lane; four daughters, Aloma Abner, Serene Savarese, Aleta Corriveau and Zana Evans; 23 grandchildren; 29 great-grandchildren; and 2 great-great-grandchildren. A daughter, Lona Burns, died last year. His wife of 66 years, the former Iris Sweet, died in 2008. She was known to start cooking deer meat while her husband and sons were still carving up the carcass.