SurfCutter
New member
From the beginning of the mid-80's Maine has had a moose hunt Lottery , each year a very limited number of hunting permits(under 3000 total 10% of that for non-residents ) are given out and even less to non-state residents. From the start of the first drawing I have always bought in one or more chances to get a permit. Well in 1999 I was lucky enough to be drawn and got a permit to hunt moose in my chosen district , Jackmen Me. area. This drawing takes place every year with the drawing date of around June 14th or the 2nd Thursday of the month.
The fun first started when I got in the mail that Saturday following the drawing a brochure from a guide service congratulating me on my luck at getting a permit , up until then I had not checked to see if I had due to several years of not being drawn you just get in the habit of sending of the lottery application . Well this got me to check things out and I had found it was true ,
It also meant I had to hustle to get ready for this hunt that would take place the following October. That means I had to buy a Maine state big game license , have the proof of a hunters safety course from my home state , pay the non-resident permit fee to the state of Maine before the end of August, and most importantly find a guide service to hire . I felt I could more than likely find and shoot a moose , the easy part but the work after the shooting stops was more than I felt I wanted to take on that and the possible problems of what if all does not go as planned ...
I got the easy part taken care of first that is to get the money and sent in early for both my license and the permit , which by the way is more for an outer-stater than if you are a resident . One thing that a Maine moose hunt allows is you have a second hunter on the permit this is to give a quick follow up in case of trouble and make the hunt easier on all party's..
I had listed as my second , Nicky , he was an avid hunter with many years of deer hunting but this would be his chance to hunt really big game , it was he who after my floundering around for 16 years on my own helped me get my first deer on a New York deer hunt , it would be 22 years before I would get my first mountable Buck , sadly Nicky passed away from lung cancer back in 2001 and could not complete my training to hunt deer and trophy Bucks .
For Nicky's part he had to get re-equipped in that age and a bad shoulder(s) meant the recoiled of the 7mm Mag he used on deer he felt needed to be replaced he ended up with a Remington pump rifle in 35 Whelen , the poor man's magnum . Myself I had my side hammer Sharp's in 45-70 and as back up a lever action marlin in the same caliber and the Rem .308 if need be . We agreed to split the cost down the middle , permit, room and board , and guide which at the time was a great relief to me as I did not have much extra married with children and all ...
The most important thing about a guided hunt is the guide , I have to admit I just got dumb luck lucky n this and found a super guide service that I did return to the following year for a deer hunt and would gladly do so again if time and money permitted me . Long Pond Guide Service out of Jackmen , Randy and his Dad in my humble opinion run a very fair priced guide service and had top of the line new cabins to offer , And with out any more checking on my part , (Again dumb luck it could have been just as easily a nightmare and poor service knowing now what question to ask and what to look for or so I think now ..lol )I happily signed up for a week of guide service and cabin rental.
The time flew by quickly and all to soon Nicky and I were packed and headed for Jackmen and our moose hunt. We both had agreed that we did not have the space to display or the money to have mounted a trophy moose so our aim was to take an "eating type" moose 700-1000 lb'er.
It was with much expectation that night at least on my part as we moved in to this new cabin and settled .
The next morning came quickly and we loaded in to the trucks again it showed just how both naive and lucky I was in that this mode of hunt was we would travel the logging roads patrolling for a moose of the size we had agreed to and to shoot said moose , they , the guide and his helper would retrieve and field dress said moose and transport us to the check in station and after that hang said moose , Nicky was at one time a meat cutter so the butchering was not going to be a problem and this was another skill he passed on to me. Besides us there was another hunting party and they were after a trophy moose.
Now Maine allows the tracking by air up two one week before the season the spotting of moose from the air. Randy had gotten a good look at a trophy Bull in this 2 mile long clear cut so he asked if we would mind helping this other party by driving in at one end of this cut and they would take the other end and hope that they would get a shot. If it on our end hope the bull move off to their end or give them time to get around to our side for the shot . We agreed to this and it ended up in our losing a two hour window for that day .
What we found was just how good our guides were for already ahead of us was another guide service from the boarder of the district and they had talked to or heard from the pilot of the same plane Randy used to scout from the air the week before of this bull, not only that but this other guide had the road blocked which I understand is not something you do if you are a courteous guide. This lead to a few words between the two services and an agreement but it was an eye opener to see how this young guide acted and made me feel much better knowing how much that service charged and what type of person these hunter had gotten , I felt bad for them to be stuck with this poor guide. Well the bull was not to be found by either group only the cows he was after were in the cut. With our part done we parted company with the other group and started on our hunt the delay did not help us in that every cut and meadow we drove to was either empty or some one else was dragging out , field dressing , or just shot a moose of the type we were looking for the whole day was like this alway just behind the hunt .
We called it a day and headed back to rest and get ready for the next days hunt , one thing I had done was give Nicky the first shot in thanks for all he had done and shown me , this I know was something he treasured until his all to soon passing . Food on a hunt with Nicky was great , he was a nephew to a famous Boston North End Italian restaurant owner and had worked as a cook there for many years. So tired and a full belly we turned in early to dream of mighty moose and the next days hunt ...
End of day One
The fun first started when I got in the mail that Saturday following the drawing a brochure from a guide service congratulating me on my luck at getting a permit , up until then I had not checked to see if I had due to several years of not being drawn you just get in the habit of sending of the lottery application . Well this got me to check things out and I had found it was true ,
It also meant I had to hustle to get ready for this hunt that would take place the following October. That means I had to buy a Maine state big game license , have the proof of a hunters safety course from my home state , pay the non-resident permit fee to the state of Maine before the end of August, and most importantly find a guide service to hire . I felt I could more than likely find and shoot a moose , the easy part but the work after the shooting stops was more than I felt I wanted to take on that and the possible problems of what if all does not go as planned ...
I got the easy part taken care of first that is to get the money and sent in early for both my license and the permit , which by the way is more for an outer-stater than if you are a resident . One thing that a Maine moose hunt allows is you have a second hunter on the permit this is to give a quick follow up in case of trouble and make the hunt easier on all party's..
I had listed as my second , Nicky , he was an avid hunter with many years of deer hunting but this would be his chance to hunt really big game , it was he who after my floundering around for 16 years on my own helped me get my first deer on a New York deer hunt , it would be 22 years before I would get my first mountable Buck , sadly Nicky passed away from lung cancer back in 2001 and could not complete my training to hunt deer and trophy Bucks .
For Nicky's part he had to get re-equipped in that age and a bad shoulder(s) meant the recoiled of the 7mm Mag he used on deer he felt needed to be replaced he ended up with a Remington pump rifle in 35 Whelen , the poor man's magnum . Myself I had my side hammer Sharp's in 45-70 and as back up a lever action marlin in the same caliber and the Rem .308 if need be . We agreed to split the cost down the middle , permit, room and board , and guide which at the time was a great relief to me as I did not have much extra married with children and all ...
The most important thing about a guided hunt is the guide , I have to admit I just got dumb luck lucky n this and found a super guide service that I did return to the following year for a deer hunt and would gladly do so again if time and money permitted me . Long Pond Guide Service out of Jackmen , Randy and his Dad in my humble opinion run a very fair priced guide service and had top of the line new cabins to offer , And with out any more checking on my part , (Again dumb luck it could have been just as easily a nightmare and poor service knowing now what question to ask and what to look for or so I think now ..lol )I happily signed up for a week of guide service and cabin rental.
The time flew by quickly and all to soon Nicky and I were packed and headed for Jackmen and our moose hunt. We both had agreed that we did not have the space to display or the money to have mounted a trophy moose so our aim was to take an "eating type" moose 700-1000 lb'er.
It was with much expectation that night at least on my part as we moved in to this new cabin and settled .
The next morning came quickly and we loaded in to the trucks again it showed just how both naive and lucky I was in that this mode of hunt was we would travel the logging roads patrolling for a moose of the size we had agreed to and to shoot said moose , they , the guide and his helper would retrieve and field dress said moose and transport us to the check in station and after that hang said moose , Nicky was at one time a meat cutter so the butchering was not going to be a problem and this was another skill he passed on to me. Besides us there was another hunting party and they were after a trophy moose.
Now Maine allows the tracking by air up two one week before the season the spotting of moose from the air. Randy had gotten a good look at a trophy Bull in this 2 mile long clear cut so he asked if we would mind helping this other party by driving in at one end of this cut and they would take the other end and hope that they would get a shot. If it on our end hope the bull move off to their end or give them time to get around to our side for the shot . We agreed to this and it ended up in our losing a two hour window for that day .
What we found was just how good our guides were for already ahead of us was another guide service from the boarder of the district and they had talked to or heard from the pilot of the same plane Randy used to scout from the air the week before of this bull, not only that but this other guide had the road blocked which I understand is not something you do if you are a courteous guide. This lead to a few words between the two services and an agreement but it was an eye opener to see how this young guide acted and made me feel much better knowing how much that service charged and what type of person these hunter had gotten , I felt bad for them to be stuck with this poor guide. Well the bull was not to be found by either group only the cows he was after were in the cut. With our part done we parted company with the other group and started on our hunt the delay did not help us in that every cut and meadow we drove to was either empty or some one else was dragging out , field dressing , or just shot a moose of the type we were looking for the whole day was like this alway just behind the hunt .
We called it a day and headed back to rest and get ready for the next days hunt , one thing I had done was give Nicky the first shot in thanks for all he had done and shown me , this I know was something he treasured until his all to soon passing . Food on a hunt with Nicky was great , he was a nephew to a famous Boston North End Italian restaurant owner and had worked as a cook there for many years. So tired and a full belly we turned in early to dream of mighty moose and the next days hunt ...
End of day One
