# Maine Moose 2017



## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

In the afternoon of October 5, I had the windshield replaced on my pickup; no thanks to a large rock from my September outing that cracked the glass far beyond what could be repaired. When I left the shop I reminded the manager, a friend of mine, that I always get a stone bruise within a couple hundred miles every time I replace a windshield or get a new vehicle. He chuckled. Next morning, exactly seventy four miles from home on the Trans-Canada Highway……… Yep, stone chip the size of your thumb nail.

And so began what I feared might be the first incident in a scenario whereby Lady Luck would frown on me two hunts in a row.

The rest of the trip across Ontario was relatively uneventful except for several patches of dense fog early in the day and my ignoring a gas stop that turned out to be the last place open for over 65 miles. The pucker factor was on the way up by the time I found an open station.

Passing through customs back into the states at Ogdensburg, NY was without incident and the trip from there to Malone where I spent the night went by rather quickly. I do not believe I have ever seen so many geese as I did in the fields between Ogdensburg and Malone, a distance of about 60 to 80 miles. There seemed to be large flocks of Canada’s in every field whether it was chopped corn, harvested oats, or merely cut hay. Not sure if the season was closed or if nobody hunted them but if I saw one bird, I easily saw ten thousand relatively undisturbed birds. Next morning I was awakened by the sound of large flocks of geese working the fields near the motel and when I left there were still birds in the air. Leaving Malone and heading east there were more flocks of geese in field after field right on into Vermont. Oddly enough, not even one goose in all the thousands observed was a snow or blue.

Once into Vermont and especially in New Hampshire, Moose Crossing signs became common. Things were getting exciting.

Can’t read it but the sign really is a Moose Crossing sign and big white spot in the lower right is the “road trophy” I picked up in Ontario. Everything else is insects that came out in the unseasonable warm temperatures.










The Second night was spent in Waterville, Maine. Could have easily made it to the outfitter’s but wanted to kick back with a couple beers and a nice seafood dinner. I also wanted to find a souvenir for the Mrs. so when it was time to come home I could drive straight through. I got her a little stuffed moose.

Next morning, October 8, I putted north through west central Maine to Rockwood on Moosehead Lake (how appropriate). After checking in at the main lodge I was escorted to a three bedroom house where two other hunters were also staying.

After putting my gear in my room I went back to the main lodge where I met one of the guides. Seth was a rather compact fellow who had spent the last few days scouting. In real life he was a stock car mechanic and apparently was in great demand because he traveled extensively across the country. With a couple patents to his credit he could afford to guide a bit every fall, before he heads west to hunt whitetails in Saskatchewan or various western states. He was a very interesting young man and we hit it off right away. Finding out I was from the UP he pummeled me with questions about deer hunting, wondering how my home turf might compare to north woods Maine. Soon other guides started to drift in, Eric, Travis, and a couple fellows whose name I do not recall. Eventually my guide, Bob, showed up. He was the most “seasoned” guide and took his hunting very seriously. The outfitter had made it a point to tell me he was “intense” when it came to moose hunting. That was almost an understatement. In early September each year Bob suspends his day job as a drywaller and begins preparations for hunting. After scouting and participating in the September segment of the Maine moose hunt he begins preparation for the October hunt. He scouted for almost two weeks prepping for my hunt.

Bob wanted to stay closer to the hunt area and that was OK by me so after dinner I grabbed my gear, the things needed for hunting, and loaded them into his truck. We then headed to the other side of the lake, a forty minute drive, to where he had set up our tent camp on Spencer Bay. Camp consisted of an 8’x10’ tent with a plastic tarp for a fly and a small awning for cooking.









It was a pretty little spot in a rustic campground on the east side of forty mile long Moosehead Lake. For the first couple days we had the area all to ourselves.









After getting to the campsite and unloading I asked Bob where he had put my backpack. He had not seen it. After a couple panicked searches we headed the forty minutes back to the main lodge, all the while I was praying the pack had not been left on the top of the truck and blown off. When we got there I searched the area around my pickup, I looked on the truck, I looked under the truck, I looked inside the truck, I looked in the back of the truck, and I looked in my coolers, all to no avail. Lady Luck was again frowning.

If there is a sensation beyond panic I was feeling it. I could have gotten by for a while without my camera, rangefinder, hard candy, extra socks, extra gloves, water bottle, ouch kit, lighter, spare flashlight, orange flagging, tagging string, compass, and field glasses but without that pack I had no ammo for either of my rifles and it was 10pm on a Sunday so no place would be open to replace the shells. Another search finally revealed the prodigal backpack. It had apparently fallen between two coolers while I was transferring gear and when we originally scanned the back of the truck with our flashlights both I and the guide missed it. On the second trip back to the campsite we came around a corner and there was a cow moose walking down and across the main road. We somehow managed to evade her, to this day I am not sure how. Maybe Lady Luck was not totally against me after all, or maybe she was but decided not to drag Bob down with me. Two days later we found out that a moose was hit by a car that same evening in the area we had seen the cow.

To be continued.........FM


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

Part Two:
Three thirty came early Monday morning and after coffee we set off to a very large clearcut that was not visible from the main road, it was easily 400 acres or more. Bob had observed a couple cows and what he considered a shooter bull in that cut several time in the previous couple weeks so we had high hopes. At daybreak we left the truck and quietly walked the 2-track to the cut (locals call them a “chop”). Just as we got there a cow sauntered across the trail in the half light and disappeared into the dense spruce. We waited a minute or so hoping a bull would follow. None did. We then took a skid trail (aka “twitch”) into the cut and over a couple small rises to where we could see the entire area. No moose were to be seen so we called a couple times without response. Back at the truck we drove to another cut where Bob has seen a bull, nothing there either. Same result in the third area but by then the sun was up and the grouse hunters were trolling the roads in full force. There were even a few rabbit (snowshoe hare) hunters running their hounds. We kept checking areas where Bob had seen moose while scouting but we could not even find a cow. Around noon the rain started and it got progressively worse as the day wore on. By evening it was coming down in buckets and the wind had picked up. For dinner we heated beans and hotdogs under the tarp in front of the tent and hit the sack. I believe those were the best beans and dogs I have ever eaten. The tent was dry and the rain beating down on the tent fly put us to sleep PDQ.

Sometime during the night the rain and wind stopped so when we got up at three thirty on Tuesday morning it was relatively pleasant. We again went to the cut we started on the morning before but this time we did not even see a cow. There were several sets of moose tracks in the cut and crossing the road that were made after the rain stopped but the unseasonably warm weather we were having apparently had the animals moving into dense cover before shooting light. The same results were observed in cutting after cutting, fresh tracks but no moose. While traveling on what I would call a main haul road we did see a cow and calf in a shallow marsh.










They didn’t care we were there and gave me plenty of time for a pic. We saw nothing but tracks and grouse in the afternoon. 

Three thirty Wednesday morning seemed to come earlier than it had on Monday and Tuesday. We had decided to abandon the cuts we had visited the two previous days and travel to a different area where Bob had seen shooter bulls while scouting. All the areas looked good but the weather was still unseasonably warm and the moose were not cooperating. We were still seeing grouse but did not wish to shoot them for fear of spooking the bull that was surely just around the next corner. That evening was somewhat cooler and one of the guides, Travis, whose hunter had tagged out during the rainstorm on opening day, had offered to check out a series of cuts on a mountainside to see if animals were coming out in the daylight. We were checking multiple cuts several miles away.

Wouldn’t you know it, we saw nothing but fresh sign and Travis saw a total of eight moose, including a 46”-48” bull, without even leaving his truck! At first we thought he was pulling our leg but he had pictures to prove it. At least we had a handle on a prime spot for the next morning’s hunt.


After three days without a shower we headed back to the lodge for a shower after the hunt. Turns out some grouse hunters had just checked in and they were being served prime rib, so we stayed for dinner. Since we were already at the lodge we slept in a real bed and headed out the next morning with the moose infested mountain being our first stop. Travis came along to show us the exact spots where the moose were seen the afternoon before.

The weather had turned much cooler and there was frost on the pickup Thursday morning so we had high hopes of catching a bull in the daylight. We moved slowly up the hill as soon as it was legal shooting light glassing all the cuts ahead and uphill of us and checking all the trails below us. Where the road was blocked with boulders and the skid trail began we walked slowly along for about a half mile. We even called from a couple locations but without response. Judging from all the sign the area looked like a moose pasture but we saw nothing. Unbelievable! We checked out several other spots in the area that Travis has scouted earlier but nothing was to be seen but tracks and grouse hunters. We did come upon an area where some lucky hunter had recently taken a bull and the eagles were having a field day.











By the time I got my camera out most of the birds had departed but I did manage to catch these three before they flew off.

During the day while traveling between cuts we passed by a check station so we stopped in to see what was coming in and to chat with the lucky hunters. If I recall correctly there were three or four moose waiting to be checked in and a couple more arrived before we left.










Most of the hunters indicated that moose were scarce but some had seen at least one other bull before pulling the trigger on the one they were registering. On the way to our next hunting spot we also met a couple hunters bringing bulls to be checked. Bob was getting really frustrated with our luck, or lack thereof.

At the head of the road at our next hunting spot, a long dead end 2-track that more or less paralleled a small stream choked with beaver ponds, we stopped in for a quick chat with some rabbit hunters. The half dozen or so hunters had a setup that rivaled any tent camp I have ever seen. Five wall tents end to end with a kitchen tent on one end and hot showers and flush toilet on the other (they pumped water from the creek and had dug their own drain field!) Bob had met them while scouting and wanted to show me the unbelievable setup. These really nice guys, mostly retired military, were all from Ohio and Pennsylvania and were waiting for another half dozen friends to show up on the weekend for their annual month long hunt. While making small talk they asked if we were seeing many moose. When we said only two in the daylight they indicated that they had been seeing moose most every day and had gone only one day without seeing a bull, a couple were really large. Just that morning they had seen a bull a couple hundred yards from camp. With that info we were eager to work our way down the two or three miles of dead end road to check out the cuts and beaver ponds. Just like most places we had been there were loads of fresh tracks but as my late father often said, “Tracks make poor soup”.

In midafternoon we went back to the “moose pasture” on the mountain side. Since Travis had seen eight moose the afternoon before and we had seen nothing in the morning we figured that it must be an afternoon spot and we surely were going to see something….and we surely did….There were fresh moose tracks on top of our morning tire tracks and also on top of our footprints in the area we walked. One big moose even took a dump in a spot where we had spent forty-five minutes calling. Why was everyone seeing moose except us? We were obviously in the right places for moose but always at the wrong times. Lady Luck was still jerking my chain, to be sure. On the way back to camp in the dark that evening we did see a cow with two calves. A very unusual occurrence for Maine I was later told.

As the week progressed, Bob’s anxiety over not seeing moose seemed to become more intense, just like the outfitter had indicated it would. Sure, I would like to fill my tag but whether or not I did was not going to ruin my adventure. All week long I kept telling Bob I was having a ball and it was just plain bad luck that we were not seeing moose. We just were not in the same place at the same time as they were. It was nobody’s fault but telling him to relax a bit was like telling the Pope not to pray.

Thursday night was very cold with the water in the wash basin having quite a bit of ice when we got up at 4 am on Friday (Bob said we could sleep in since we would be hunting closer to camp). This was to be the last chilly morning as Saturday, the last day of season, was predicted to be back into the upper 60s again. Even though we had only seen a couple moose in the daylight Bob never had anything but a positive attitude toward bagging a bull. FM

To be continued (to moose or not to moose, that is the question).........


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## 6667supersport (Oct 10, 2012)

I have a feeling your luck is about to take a turn for the better


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## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

Tracks make poor soup.


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## Dom (Sep 19, 2002)

Enjoying your story. Now if you had gone Hare or Pat hunting, you'd of seen numerous bulls daily! Now I'm hooked for the next chapter


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

Dom said:


> Enjoying your story. Now if you had gone Hare or Pat hunting, you'd of seen numerous bulls daily! Now I'm hooked for the next chapter


Thanks. Why is that? We talked to numerous grouse hunters, all trolling the roads never saw one even one with a dog, and about half of them had seen a moose. Most of those guys didn't even get out before the dew dried either and were back at camp relaxing an hour before sunset. We even ran into a couple COs coming out of a 2-track just after daylight and they had seen two moose. We were only a minute behind them and the moose were gone. FM


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

Part Three:
Our first spot on Friday morning was a place we had checked out at least twice before. It was a dead end 2-track just east of Moosehead Lake a bit over a mile long. It went through some dense hardwood regeneration on one side that was virtually impossible to see into and had open hardwood averaging about 8” in diameter on the opposite side. Near the end it opened up onto a long narrow meadow about 150’ wide paralleling the road on my side.









It was “moosey”, but then every place we had looked at the previous four days looked good too.

We parked at the head of the 2-track to let other hunters know we were going to hunt the area come daylight but no one even drove by. Shortly after legal shooting time we very slowly began moving down the 2-track; all the while we were scanning every old skid trail and natural opening on both sides. By now we had this down to a science, Bob watching the road and the trails on his side and me carefully checking out my side. Nearing the end of the 2-track I could see the hardwood up ahead was giving way to the long narrow opening.

Even though it was fifteen or twenty minutes into shooting hours it was still very gloomy and just as we were about to enter the opening Bob stopped the truck and said “there’s a moose”. I saw him reach for his field glasses as I desperately looked for the animal in the opening. He instantaneously said "it's a bull and he's a shooter, he has paddles". It had to be there but I could not locate the animal in the opening. Lady Luck was obviously messing with my head!

Quickly I repeated “I don’t see it, I don’t see it” to which Bob immediately replied with obviously disbelief in his voice, “It’s that big black blob in the road”. Dah, I was so intent in scanning my side of the trail and looking along the edge of the opening that I did not check out the road, but sure enough there he was standing broadside and without exaggeration, looked bigger than life out in the open on those exceedingly long legs that moose seem to have.

Maine does not require firearms to be cased so I bailed out of the truck with rifle in one hand and my shells in the other. After snapping the clip into my 300 win mag and chambering a round I recall turning up the scope, which had been set at 4X because of the general close quarter shooting we had anticipated. What I had turned the scope up to I had no idea. I was hoping it ended up near 10X but had no intention of checking. That bull was right in front of me and I wanted to shoot at a standing animal if I could. Funny what goes through the mind in certain situations. I was noticeably excited while fumbling my way out of the pickup but while lining up on the bull I recall being surprised at how calm I was and how the crosshairs fell so easily behind the shoulder. It was almost like an out of body experience.

I do not recall the gun making much noise or there being much recoil but I do recall the animal disappearing as the gun jumped. Friday the 13th was not his lucky day. Bob had the glasses on him and said a hind leg rose once and then nothing. After sixteen years of applying for a permit it took only a few seconds to put one over on Lady Luck!!!!!

With another round chambered I kept him covered for another minute or so. It seemed like a lot longer. We then very slowly began walking down the road ready to send another round his way if he twitched again. As we approached the bull Bob said he was dead and was congratulating me while I took the time to do what my dad had taught me to do with deer fifty years ago and I still do with any big game. I reached out as far as I could and touched his eye with my rifle barrel. When the bull unexpectedly blinked I about soiled myself while my reflexes threw the ole legs into full reverse! The coup degras was promptly delivered to the base of the neck. I was happy with the 42” bull but the guide indicated that if it would not have been on the second to last day of the hunt, with warm weather predicted to return on the last day, he would have requested I give it a pass. He really wanted to get a 50” class bull so he could retire from guiding with a monster in the back of his pickup. Walking back to the truck we speculated on how far the shot had been. I guessed 200 yards and the guide guessed about 175. We ranged it at 213 yards. The vitals on a mature bull are waaay bigger than those of a deer or even an elk but it was still not a bad shot if I must say so myself. Bob thought so too laughingly saying that he heard Yoopers could shoot and that proved it. Man, am I glad I didn’t let him down.











Since the bull fell in the road we had to drive part way into the ditch to get around and load him from the rear. The guide was really happy he fell where he did so he did not have to use the come-along or uncoil any of the 1000’ of cable he had in his truck. All he had to use was his steel reinforced plywood ramp and his gas powered winch. The brace that slipped into the trailer hitch and held up the tailgate was also a nice touch. There was no doubt this was not Bob’s first rodeo, I mean moose hunt.





















This was the 33rd moose kill Bob had been a party to and he said a number of them had been shot on 2-tracks but this bull was the first that had actually fallen in the road.

After field dressing and loading the animal we headed back to camp, grabbed a quick snack, and then it was off to the registration station for some paperwork before taking the bull to the processor. FM

To be continued.


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## downfloat (May 3, 2007)

Awesome job. Great story.


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## Dom (Sep 19, 2002)

Waidmannsheil on a good Moose, and good shooting. My 300 WinMag is also my go to rifle when on trips, however, for Moose I do believe I'd slap on my 9,3x62 barrel.


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## neazor91 (Aug 4, 2008)

Nice. Sounds like you had a great time. Congrats.


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## Waif (Oct 27, 2013)

In the road! Sweet . 
Lady luck must have been waiting in line at Timmy' s and not paying attention....


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## Crawfish (May 7, 2002)

Woohoo! Congrats on an awesome animal. Way to stick with it and stay positive. Love the narrative so far.


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## Sprytle (Jan 8, 2005)

Congrats FM!! Thanks for taking us along. They are such awesome beasts!! So Cool!!


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## Mr. Botek (Mar 15, 2011)

Congratulations! Your writing style really is captivating. I'm headed to northern Maine next year grouse hunting and really appreciate how you transported us there.


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## Hunter1979 (Feb 26, 2008)

That's awesome!

Sent from my Droid


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## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

Great write up FM! Fine hunt. Fine Moose. Dropped right in the two track.

Well done.


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## bounty hunter (Aug 7, 2002)

great story


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## Luv2hunteup (Mar 22, 2003)

Great story Pat. I felt as though I was riding along. Congrats on the moose.


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## HTC (Oct 6, 2005)

Cool story, congrats on the bull! You don't see Ogdensburg, NY mentioned on here very often. I cross there several times a year, my camp is a little over a hour east of there, southwest of Malone in the Adirondacks.


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## WMU05 (Oct 16, 2004)

Fantastic FM! Well done.


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## Crawfish (May 7, 2002)

So you did not take along a partner (sub-permittee)? 

For those unacquainted with the Maine moose hunt, you can designate a sub-permittee to hunt with you, and either of you can shoot the moose, but you only have the one tag. Nice way of doing it, I believe, especially for the unguided hunters.


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## pigeon (Jan 25, 2009)

How did u know what zone yo put it for ? Or do u need s outfitter picked out before applying


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

Crawfish said:


> So you did not take along a partner (sub-permittee)?
> 
> For those unacquainted with the Maine moose hunt, you can designate a sub-permittee to hunt with you, and either of you can shoot the moose, but you only have the one tag. Nice way of doing it, I believe, especially for the unguided hunters.


My subpermittee was my son and he had used up his vacation when we went to Newfoundland in September.

Even though only one moose can be shot, a nonresident subpermittee must also put down the approximately $700.00 in license and tag fees. FM


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

No processing or freezer pic's?


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

pigeon said:


> How did u know what zone yo put it for ? Or do u need s outfitter picked out before applying


Zone 9 was my fifth choice, if memory serves me. How did I determine my zone choices? I decided when I could hunt (October only because of previous commitments) then I looked at number of permits issued and success rates.

There are outfitters in every zone who really want to hunt with you. Believe it or not at 10am Sunday, the morning after the draw, I had an outfitter call me and over the next several weeks I received mailings from multiple outfitters within the zone where I was drawn. I was also contacted by outfitters from outside the zone who were encouraging me to trade my tag for one in their zone. Souvenir vendors found me to, as did meat processors encouraging me to make reservations with them to process my moose!

From the time of the drawing until the meat was safely in my freezer the whole thing was an adventure I will not soon forget. FM


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

William H Bonney said:


> No processing or freezer pic's?


Don't they show up on your computer? FM


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

Forest Meister said:


> Don't they show up on your computer? FM


I didn't see any processing or meat pic's. 

You should submit this story to American Hunter and a bunch of other magazines, they'd buy this story in a heartbeat!


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

Just got the results back on Bullwinkle's age. My uneducated guess what that he was about 4.5 years old so I was totally astounded to discover he was actually 7.5 years old! I had asked the guide how old he thought the bull was and Bob's response was that you really can't tell by looking at them, except that he was obviously a mature bull. Boy, was he correct. FM


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## Biggbear (Aug 14, 2001)

Others on here were right Pat, you should be publishing your outdoor adventures, this was a great read. You also convinced me to start putting in for a Maine tag.


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## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

Biggbear said:


> Others on here were right Pat, you should be publishing your outdoor adventures, this was a great read. You also convinced me to start putting in for a Maine tag.


I'd steal that book.


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## bucko12pt (Dec 9, 2004)

I was driving on US2 in Maine today and saw a cow moose in a pond about 30 miles southwest of Bangor. 
Meeting an RV group of 20 units and we're doing a 6 week tour of the Canadian Maritime provinces starting on Monday. Hope to see more moose when we get to Newfoundland.


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## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

Drawing is today, I am in so lets see if my recent luck continues.


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## The Doob (Mar 4, 2007)

kingfisher 11 said:


> Drawing is today, I am in so lets see if my recent luck continues.


Good Luck!!!!


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## Clearwater Alaska (Aug 22, 2018)

Sounds like it was a great trip! Moose is my favorite critter to hunt. *Moose hunting* is not a easy task. It is the largest game animal in the United States.


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## Stillkickin (Jan 7, 2018)

Nice write up, congrats and thanks for sharing!


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