SurfCutter
New member
It was before I was old enough to go hunting that I started reading about the great hunters of long ago and the big game . The names of Corbett and Bell just to name a couple would bring to mind the thrill of the hunt and or the dangers faced and over come .... To this day I sadly remember my 5th grade science teacher for if we had completed our work He would read to the class from a book that I wish I knew the name and author to . The book was written very much on the style and type of today's Patrick F. McManus, but there was an "Uncle Dudley" (I think that was the name , not sure ) and more alone a style of one writing about his own past as an expert fishing hunting and camping outdoors men and how the animals of the wild aways seemed to get the better of him and his efforts to teach his nephew the skills of the outdoors men, the longest running story of the book was the effort to catch this monster of a trout and his efforts always failing at the last moment ending with a last of many attempts with his nephew catching this monster Trout right after he had hooked and fought the fish for hours only to let his line go limp and the fish again go free much to his uncles lament,but I stray for my story forgive me ...
Jackman Maine , just the words bring the great hunting of the days of old monster bucks , and big moose . My first encounter could have been my last it was my first out of state deer hunting trip. A former friend and I had loaded up my lil'toyota 4x4 pickup and head to Jackman Maine and a rented cabin near the lake for a week of self guide hunting . We were to have another friend meet us up there the following day or two later due to him visiting with an uncle who had moved up there out side of Skowhegan ,in North Anson years earlier.
We had started late and were looking forward to the weeks hunt in the wilds of northern Maine the weather was slowly turning from the cold rain of southern New England to the freezing rain and ice of a northern Maine storm in mid November. I will admit The excitement of the hunt to be and I had my foot down a little heavier than what condition called for ...youth ...
Coming just in to Jackman on the 201 they have an observation lookout were you can pull off to the side of the road and park and have a view of the lake and far mountains. I had crested the raise to this and was in the icy rain so the road was getting a bit slick .as I barreled on down the gentle grade something shown in the lights of the truck as I had just turned them on in the closing gloom of weather and the evening darkness. ....Standing in the on coming lane was a dark mass ......MOOSE !!!
We both said it at the same time I tapped the breaks only to feel the start of a skid , an gave that idea up as fast as I had got it ....Going to fast given the conditions it was drive and pray that the moose stood still and not head across the road and my speeding truck .....Thankfully it did not move and I flew past and after enough distant I had slowed enough that we could turned around and get a closer look at what was to be for one of us later a much closer look than from the seat of a truck and a few yards ....
As it turned out this was a female and her yearling calf and what was at the time the biggest bull moose I had ever seen , I was to see bigger on a later trip ..
In that weather and closing darkness did not let me get any pictures we both thanked our lucky star for our very close call with these critters and from that point on I drive with a lot less foot. This family group happen to hang out below the lookout in a bowel of a valley we hunted that week and I was the unlucky one not to have seen them all week other than that first trip in Both Larry and John who came up later would have fun with this group all week.
Early on I was almost rabid at the thought of a hunt, to get a deer was a driving force for me, my dad hunted early on but as I came of age he was not able to go or looking back on it did not have the skills and understanding to pass to me to take a deer in a hunt. He hunted at a time were game was not as plentiful as it is today and to get one was more luck than skill or a lot of less than fair chase activities , massive game drives or the use of a dog ....both not looked to well of ....So my few skills I have are either self learned by correction of mistakes or picked up from others of greater skill and a willingness to help a less skilled and lucky.
Any way this hunt proved to be the same as others before it for me a test of my patients and in the end a complete showing of my lack of skill and living up to my hunting name William the Harmless ....
Case in point , it was the last day of this hunting trip a week spent hunting hard up early , cold weather sitting and watching empty deer runs , or walking just as empty trails, only to see fresh tracks back at the truck or see them across in to the clear cut on the other side just as you get to the edge on this side. It still is some of the best hunting I have been on. I understand now and maybe even a bit then to having gotten my first deer and moose that the kill is not the hunt it is just being there .I fondly remember the hunts that I never even fired a shot as some of the best hunts ...
to be continued
Jackman Maine , just the words bring the great hunting of the days of old monster bucks , and big moose . My first encounter could have been my last it was my first out of state deer hunting trip. A former friend and I had loaded up my lil'toyota 4x4 pickup and head to Jackman Maine and a rented cabin near the lake for a week of self guide hunting . We were to have another friend meet us up there the following day or two later due to him visiting with an uncle who had moved up there out side of Skowhegan ,in North Anson years earlier.
We had started late and were looking forward to the weeks hunt in the wilds of northern Maine the weather was slowly turning from the cold rain of southern New England to the freezing rain and ice of a northern Maine storm in mid November. I will admit The excitement of the hunt to be and I had my foot down a little heavier than what condition called for ...youth ...
Coming just in to Jackman on the 201 they have an observation lookout were you can pull off to the side of the road and park and have a view of the lake and far mountains. I had crested the raise to this and was in the icy rain so the road was getting a bit slick .as I barreled on down the gentle grade something shown in the lights of the truck as I had just turned them on in the closing gloom of weather and the evening darkness. ....Standing in the on coming lane was a dark mass ......MOOSE !!!
We both said it at the same time I tapped the breaks only to feel the start of a skid , an gave that idea up as fast as I had got it ....Going to fast given the conditions it was drive and pray that the moose stood still and not head across the road and my speeding truck .....Thankfully it did not move and I flew past and after enough distant I had slowed enough that we could turned around and get a closer look at what was to be for one of us later a much closer look than from the seat of a truck and a few yards ....
As it turned out this was a female and her yearling calf and what was at the time the biggest bull moose I had ever seen , I was to see bigger on a later trip ..
In that weather and closing darkness did not let me get any pictures we both thanked our lucky star for our very close call with these critters and from that point on I drive with a lot less foot. This family group happen to hang out below the lookout in a bowel of a valley we hunted that week and I was the unlucky one not to have seen them all week other than that first trip in Both Larry and John who came up later would have fun with this group all week.
Early on I was almost rabid at the thought of a hunt, to get a deer was a driving force for me, my dad hunted early on but as I came of age he was not able to go or looking back on it did not have the skills and understanding to pass to me to take a deer in a hunt. He hunted at a time were game was not as plentiful as it is today and to get one was more luck than skill or a lot of less than fair chase activities , massive game drives or the use of a dog ....both not looked to well of ....So my few skills I have are either self learned by correction of mistakes or picked up from others of greater skill and a willingness to help a less skilled and lucky.
Any way this hunt proved to be the same as others before it for me a test of my patients and in the end a complete showing of my lack of skill and living up to my hunting name William the Harmless ....
Case in point , it was the last day of this hunting trip a week spent hunting hard up early , cold weather sitting and watching empty deer runs , or walking just as empty trails, only to see fresh tracks back at the truck or see them across in to the clear cut on the other side just as you get to the edge on this side. It still is some of the best hunting I have been on. I understand now and maybe even a bit then to having gotten my first deer and moose that the kill is not the hunt it is just being there .I fondly remember the hunts that I never even fired a shot as some of the best hunts ...
to be continued
Now to part 2.