Well all my moose season started and ended this morning’s my with an awesome bull hitting the ground. It has been a very long day though. I shot the bull at 6:30 this morning which was only 15 minutes into our hunt. It went down like it was hit with a hammer! As I was walking in to where it was it got back up and started running. I fired two more times and it kept on a going. I tracked it for another two hours with blood everywhere. Finally I had found it almost three miles from where I shot it at. It was roughly a mile and a half in the woods. But buy 2:00 pm we where heading to the tagging station. Our bull was 18 points with a 50 inch spread tipping the scales at 851.5 pounds. That surely is a bull of a lifetime. He came in with a cow/calf grunt tube. I never needed anything else! It truly was a hunt of a lifetime Cal and truly more work getting him out than I cared for..

Thank you Jake.. I shot it with a 30-06 using 165 grain bullets. I honestly couldn’t believe it got back up! I was only around 10 feet from it when it did that trick on me. So I am thinking maybe in the rush of the moment I may have over shot it with those two shots? I really don’t know how it got back up and took off like it did..

<div style="text-align:left;">Thanks guys! Here’s a couple of more pictures of him..</div>

Way to go Phil! Very nice bull and a memory you will not soon forget. Congrats.

Thank you everyone!

Yes Jake I couldn’t have gotten this one if it wasn’t for my sister. She had the permit and knew that I would not have let her down. So she made me her sub and I did all the work to have this happen. The day before (Sunday) while scouting I saw a cow and calf. So I took advantage of them and tried two different grunt tubes. A bull grunt which made the hair go up on their back. That made them start moving away. Then I used a cow/calf grunt and the both turned towards me. That told me to stay with the cow/calf grunt. So they were a big help in deciding which call was best to use. It was quite foggy yesterday morning so we waited until the fog started lifting. I gave a couple of calls while we waited. As the fog lifted I saw him standing there. He looked like a big pile of brush. So I grabbed my binoculars and took a look. My sister says that is not a moose and I told her to be quiet as I grabbed the rifle and my clip and got out. The rest is now history as that tracking took me a while to find him. Anyway here is a picture of the cow and calf that helped me choose the call..

I can tell you that I had my wife cooked up some inner loin for us and some company and it was awesome tasting. There’s nothing like some nice chemical free food from the forest..

Thank you.. I dropped him on the first shot which appears to be a little low on the neck. I saw him thrashing trying to get up and went in hoping to get behind him for a behind the ear shot. But I was on the wrong side of him. I couldn’t believe it when he got up and I was only about ten feet from him. He was looking straight at me. I thought he was going to charge me or something and fired halfway between his eyes and his nose. It was a direct hit and he turned and went the other way. I fired as he was leaving and missed on that one. But I could of gotten the 180 grain bullets and maybe done better? I think his adrenaline had him go so far. The blood trail was unbelievable so I am not so sure a heavier rifle would of made much difference.

Thank you all again..

No not really a party hunt at all. A permit holder can have a sub accompany them and do actual shooting if desired. Both can carry a weapon with them. The permitee must be present when the shooting takes place. Meaning you are required to be in sight of each other. In our woods up here you really have to be close. Both can actually do the shooting as several others have done in the past. Some will not go down easy so one can be the backup shooter. With suck a big animal you really do not want them to go far. I did all the scouting as well the shooting we never had anybody looking for us. I do know of some that have others scouting different areas for them. A lot of them are road hunters and end up skunked. The only real way of getting one is to learn how to call them and to know which call works best at which time.

Just a picture of the antlers to try and show how big they are. With the 50 inch spread it’s a pretty big spread for Maine moose. They are not as big as an Alaskan moose. I guess mostly I am proud of my accomplishment.

we are allowed to pack them out as long as we notify the game warden and explain the reason. They really don’t mind but do need to know. That’s because of poachers and the like and they won’t be chasing down a legal kill. But, there’s a lot of us that are still old fashion and enjoy seeing them get weighed and the like. Most all our game is weighed dressed out. So the 851.5 pounds is dressed weight.

We called my niece who’s boy friend has an old Jeep with skid plates under it. I had him drive down a skidder trail as close as he could and turn it around. Then run ropes to it and a pulley to help get it by trees. Then once in the skidder road shorten the ropes up. We also wrapped one antler with some of the rope. When pulled the head turned allowing the antlers to run up and down. The rope tied on the antler cause that one to tip slightly upwards on the end. Then got the moose into a rut made by those big skidder tires and it was pulled all the way out like that.

We drag ours down a skidder trail which was small brush and mud. No damage to any of it. Once it came to the dirt road I had my Jeep with a trailer there waiting for us to get it onto it. We pulled it on it using the Jeep that brought it up and a tow chain. My ATV wouldn’t pull it.

Thank you Mickey

Congratulations Phil! Real nice bull, great story about your quick success. You put in a pretty good day of work! :happy0001: Our moose, never look like that when we get them back to the truck....they’re usually in bags, tied to a pack frame! memtb

The first shot was in the neck. It missed the spine and a little high for anything vital. The second shot was around halfway between his eyes and the tip of his nose. That was a rapid shot as I was only around ten feet from him when he got up. He was lowering his head which is a sign of a charge coming. So I waisted no time in taking that shot. Then I tried to hit a behind the shoulder shot as he was slightly quartering away while running. I missed that shot with the rush of the moment and the adrenaline running through me at the time. Also our superintendent and a buddy with him from Ohio shot a big bull the last day of the week we hunted. That bull got back up and charged them. His buddy was thrown four or five feet from it. He was roughed up pretty good but was alright minus two broken ribs. The superintendent was his sub and opened fired on it as it was running down the side of a small mountain. He shot it a few times a n the hinds before it went down again and pretty much lost the hinds of it. I had avoided shooting at his hinds.. These big bruins go down hard sometimes and you have to be alert..

Thank you! I think it is something us Mainers are accustomed to. We have always tried to bring our game out whole and get them weighed.. So yes with such a large animal it is a lot of work..