"Fred Goodwin is a one-of-a-kind character. He's also one of the most intelligent men I have ever known. He was absolutely brilliant at dealing with people and buying guns and antlers. He was a master at understanding human nature, and he would always seem to outsmart the person he was dealing with.

Fred Goodwin was already an accomplished trophy hunter in November 1949 when he finally caught up with the Silver Ridge Buck. He had hunted the buck for four years. The deer's teeth were worn down to its gums. Fred shot the buck with his trusty Model 99 Savage .300.

"I loved watching him dicker, and I've watched him many times. He was so clever. It was almost a game, yet it wasn't, because he never misled anyone about a gun or a set of antlers. He always treated people with respect and dignity, and he was always truthful. He always took the high road, yet he always seemed to come out ahead. It was an amazing thing to watch. That was just one of his many talents. Few men have lived a life as full as Fred Goodwin. As a longtime friend, he has enriched my life in many ways."

These flattering words come from Dr. Charles T. "Chuck" Arnold, mentioned in Part 1. Chuck is a well-known antler collector in his own right who was very prominent in the 1980s and '90s. During that period, he owned a fabulous collection that included the much-celebrated former world-record Jordan head and the Breen head, among others. Chuck grew up in New Hampshire. Much like Fred, he developed an insatiable passion for hunting whitetails and collecting antlers at an early age.

"During my senior year in medical school in the fall of 1957, I decided to really start expanding my antler-collecting interests by traveling to Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where I knew a lot of big heads existed," Chuck said. "So I sent out a hand-signed form letter to all of the game wardens in Maine listing the criteria for what I was interested in. A month or two later, I got a letter from Fred. In it he said, 'I understand you're trying to clean out the entire state of Maine of deer horns.'

"We started corresponding, and I finally drove up to northern Maine to see him. He took me over to the old family homestead, where his 85-year-old mother still lived, and we went back to the two barns that were on the property. I've never seen anything like it. Inside those barns were hundreds upon hundreds of deer heads and antlers (some 1,300 sets in all --as mentioned in Part 1, approximately 100 were B&C contenders).

Fred Goodwin, Part 1 Don't miss Part 1 of this story...available HERE

"I realized right away that this man was a one-of-a-kind character, and we became very good friends. I used to go up and stay at his house and hunt during deer season, and we went on many unforgettable trips across Maine and into Canada searching for big heads. We did some crazy things, often going on trips in the dead of winter when it was minus 25 degrees outside. We had had some close calls on ice-slick roads and in deep snows, but Fred never got excited or nervous.

"Fred had a great sense of humor, and he loved to play jokes on people. I remember one time when I was up at his house in the early '80s deer hunting. He and Iva always had a houseful of people -- trading guns, buying parts, and just stopping by to talk. On this particular day, there were at least 20 people in the house and the place was buzzing. A man from Arizona called up and wanted to buy a certain gun part. Fred put the phone down and went to look for the part.

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