Off tomorrow morning for the second hunt in Maine's 2011 moose hunt with a bull and cow tag in hand for the wife and I. Will post a report upon our return.

Jeff

Jeff

Best of Luck to you and your wife, enjoy your hunt.

Steve

Hey good luck, that will be one big pile of meat if you two bag both! Are you using .375's for the hunt?

Good luck! Can't wait to read the report.

I've been scouting since Wed. not a thing. I just don't believe it. Monday will be a road hunt and then I'm afraid it will be off for a long walk.
They have been shooting moose since Aug 15. I'm afraid its had a bigger impact than people think, Me included

Good luck to you, Jeff! I was in Maine in August and would like to be going back for more hunting!

GoJoe,

How'd you turn out this past week??

I was able to shoot a nice bull at 7:20 on Wed. morning. On the scale at North Star varity it was 696lbs. I'm having a europeon mount done with the head. I enjoyed a tender loin feed last night.
An how did you and you folks make out?

I was rather disappointed this time; Monday was a better day for working on one's tan than moose hunting with temps in the low 70s. I passed on a bull about the size of your's on Tu because it was Tu and the guide said he knew of others bigger than he in the area. My wife shot a nice cow 45 minutes later in the same area. We called on one bull that evening who refused to show himself thus obviating a shot.

Wed we saw absolutely nothing but one grouse until we got on the trail of a big boy. Th we saw 4 of his cows and got close to him and he actually growled at us if you can believe it and then refused to come in sight. Fr we saw one of his cows cross and ranged her 576 yards and he never showed. Fr night we saw a bunch of cows in broccoli and Sa morning we saw 4 cows in said broccoli and couldn't tell about one of them due to darkness before they cleared off so we couldn't shoot.

In all we saw about 18 cows including the one my wife shot and exactly one bull plus a few dozen grouse.

Sara and Dave at North Star are not happy with things as you are probably aware and are boycotting the November hunt. I signed their petition as I agree with them calling for the cancellation of the Nov hunt and a return to a 2 week hunt in October.

I saw one bull tagged Fr am which looked good. The few others I saw were all stubby horned. Sara said the 800-900 lb class was standard when we were there last in 2008 and this year 700 lb class bulls were the norm. She also indicated many hunters shot the only moose they saw. As of Fr night the kill ratio for both hunts in that zone was a dismal 39% when the norm hovers around 80%.

I think I am done with WMD 3 as it appears the state has set up an overharveting situation and many of the big bulls have been shot out.

I hunted zone 9. It was slow all week untill Sat. Was able to get a 42 inch bull. Ended up with 559lbs of boned out meat.

Dave and Sarah were down 20 moose for the season. You have to remember that there is now a tagging station in Van Buren which most likely siphoned off some of the zone 3 moose.

Ouellette's in Van Buren is only tagging moose in the Nov. season. Though Pete said he would like to have tagging for all of them.
I only saw 4 cows Mon-Wed and shot the only bull I saw.
Recently heard on the hunting channel.
"Don't pass up an animal today, That you would gladly take on your last day."

I see a boat load of moose all the time, But not this year. The desire was to rid areas of moose to prevent auto accidents is working.

I agree to a point and I do not agree at all with the November hunt or the Aroostook Management Hunt. However, if you get off the beaten path there are still a lot of moose and some true giants.

I participated in 3 hunts this year (really hope I get drawn one year). One in September (bull) and 2 in October (cows). We called in 8 bulls on Monday, 5 more in a completely different area on Tuesday, and killed a 54 inch 868 Wednesday AM. Both cow tags were filled by Tuesday evening (one Monday AM and the other Tuesday evening). We saw some huge huntable bulls the second week including one bull that we estimate at well over 60 inches. He stood there and looked at us for 1/2 hour. What we would have done for a bull tag.

But I agree. In Caribou, Limestone, Fort Fairfield, PI, and Easton they have really knocked back the population and mined off many of the bigger bulls. We also did not see anywhere near the number of cows we normally do.

I fear that IF&W is making up for the lack of deer, although we saw far more this year also, by jacking the number of moose permits.