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.”