Early hunters track larger moose

SPRINGFIELD – Two hours and a 60-yard walk into the woods: That’s all it took for Vern Olsen of Holden to shoot what is sure to be one of the biggest moose killed in the state this year.

Olsen scouted for days before his first moose hunt without seeing anything other than signs. When he went out Monday at dawn as the season opened, he merely drove for a few hours until he saw a cow moose cross the road. He waited, and listened, certain he’d see a bull. And he did.

“He was behind her, looking back and forth. He came up to a clear spot. He turned broadside and I shot him,” said Olsen, who was wearing a white T-shirt, his brow glistening beneath a blaze orange hat in the 70-degree heat.

As he stood by his 1,150-pound trophy at Smith’s General Store, Olsen showed little of the excitement one would expect of someone who has just bagged a huge moose on his first hunt. He was too focused on getting his quarry to a butcher before the meat spoiled.

For the first time since 1990, the state’s moose hunt is being held in September as part of a new split season.

Olsen didn’t have trouble finding his quarry because in the last week of September, breeding season has just begun and moose are moving around, looking for a mate.

But if the weather is unseasonably warm, as it was Monday, the meat from a dead moose will spoil a lot sooner.

Olsen, like many hunters, is ambivalent about moving the moose hunt into September as part of a new split season that put 735 sports in the field in northern Maine this week. The other 2,265 permit holders will hunt during the second week of October, the usual time the event has been held in recent years.

“I like to see it late because of the meat. That’s the only reason. [Other than that] this is the prime time to hunt,” Olsen said.

He had no good suggestion for finding a happy medium.

“Maybe if they played it by ear. See if the weather is warm,” he offered.

But another advantage to having the hunt in September is that the moose are bigger.

Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife moose biologist Karen Morris said by the end of breeding season, moose have lost between 10 percent and 20 percent of their body weight. That means the next round of hunters will be after significantly smaller animals.

“You’re never going to see a moose that big in October,” Morris said of Olsen’s moose.

The split season was started this year to allow some hunters the benefit of a September hunt. But because it conflicted with other recreational interests such as bear hunters, tourists, bird watchers and leaf peepers, Morris said the number of hunters this week was kept small.

While half of the 3,000 permit holders will be hunting this year in the northern third of the state, north of Clayton Lake in Aroostook County, Baxter State Park, and Aurora, only half of those – or 735 – are hunting the first week.

The rest of the hunters will be out the second week of October throughout the state’s entire moose hunt zone.

On Monday, most of the hunters who brought their moose to Smith’s General Store to be tagged or weighed were in a hurry to get their trophy to a butcher. But few had a hard time killing their quarry.

Few could have had an easier time than James Harvey of Old Town, who bagged a 950-pound moose.

“We were making sandwiches in the back of the truck,” Harvey said. “It came toward us. It started to run off. I went and shot it.”

Quentin Osborne of Floyd, Va., also didn’t have to do much to get his moose.

“My guide, Mike Harris, did it all. He did a good job calling it in,” Osborne said.

Harris, who runs B&C Guide Service in Winn, has been scouting moose since last Wednesday. He said there were plenty moving around through Friday, but with the heat the last few days there has been fewer signs. But that doesn’t mean hunters can’t find them.

“The one I called in walked right past me. I don’t know why people don’t call them in like that,” Harris said. “About 90 percent of hunters ride the roads, which is boring. They should get out in the middle of the woods.”

One reason hunters don’t stray from the road is because of another widespread practice in the Maine moose hunt. Primarily, hunters gut their moose, pack it with ice, and bring the whole animal to a butcher. DIF&W biologist Scott Lindsay said in other big-game states, hunters will quarter them in the field and pack separate pieces in ice to assure the meat does not spoil.

“If I had to handle a 1,000-pound animal, I’d want to cut it up,” Morris said. “It depends if you’re near a road. There is such a network of logging roads here, if you get a shot close to the road, if you have the logging equipment, you can get a whole moose out. That’s the tradition here. If you hunt out west, the tradition there is quarter it.”

Deirdre Fleming covers outdoor sports and recreation for the NEWS. She can be reached at 990-8250 or at dfleming@bangordailynews.net.