Meet Cole and Buddy Eastman of Hiram, Maine. We selected this father-son duo as the winning team for Outdoor Life’s 2014 Grand Slam New Mexico elk hunt. We received 1,935 entries, and 12-year-old Cole’s essay stood out to us as the most enthusiastic and genuine responses of the bunch. A cornerstone of the Eastmans’ hunting tradition is their strong mentor-mentee relationship, which was one of the most important criteria for winning the contest.

“Hunting gives me and my dad special time together,” Cole wrote in his contest entry. “I know a lot of my friends don’t have that. I also know my …read more