ASHLAND, Maine — Norm Patenaude of Dixmont headed into the woods on Monday morning equipped with all the moose hunting basics. He had his hunter orange garb. He had his rifle. He had a full complement of friends to help with the dirty work.
He also had one thing that most of the 1,069 other opening day hunters lacked.
“That’s the moose seat,” he said proudly, pointing at the roof of a nearby truck. “That’s where you put your scouts.”
The scouts on Monday morning were Barry Cunningham of Hampden — the inventor of the seat — and Cunningham’s brother-in-law Tim Beemon of Meridian, Miss.
In its original form, the “moose seat” had nothing to do with moose. But after some clever retrofitting, the rooftop seating platform serves its purpose well.
“I’m going to patent it,” Cunningham said. “I think it was a ’79 Dodge Caravan back seat.”
Simple yet stylish, the moose seat is still equipped with seat belts. Scouts ride in comfort, unless it’s raining. They peer over the tops of small trees. And when they see a moose, they let their hunters know what’s going on.
“We have walkie-talkies or they stomp on the roof,” Patenaude said. “Either-or.”
Beemon had never seen a live moose before Monday, but said he thoroughly enjoyed his ride.
“I loved it. I came to take pictures of everything, so that was the perfect place to be,” Beemon said.
Patenaude did fill his moose tag on Monday, bagging a 615-pound bull moose that sported 13-point antlers.
The scouts, however, had little to do with his success.
“We ended up passing somebody on the road and he told us about a couple [of moose] right up the road,” Patenaude admitted.
Monday marked the first day of the opening six-day session of Maine’s traditional fall moose hunt.
Another six-day session will run from Oct. 11 to 16, while other limited hunts will take place in selected Wildlife Management Districts for a week in November and during the entire month of November. In all, 3,140 hunters earned moose permits in the state’s annual lottery.
At Gateway Variety in Ashland, a typically busy tagging station, a steady stream of moose hunters and spectators kept business hopping through early afternoon. More than 20 moose had been tagged by 1 p.m. Those handling the tagging chores said that was about average for an opening day.
“I’m impressed it’s this busy,” said Heidi Johnston, a biology technician who was working at the tagging station. “When I got here this morning there was nothing in the parking lot and then 8:30 came around and there was still nothing. I’m like, ‘Man, it’s going to be a long day.’ But it’s been pretty steady.”
Among those tagging moose was 11-year-old Destiny Howes of Madison, who shot a bear earlier this year, also on opening day.
Howes’ moose was a 706-pounder, which gave her family bragging rights. Both her dad and her sister have shot moose in the past, but neither was bigger than Destiny’s.
Family members and witnesses say Destiny shot the moose from 350 yards away and didn’t use a bipod or other device to steady her rifle. Another member of the party also cashed in with a long-range shot and filled a cow tag at the same time in the same field.
Howes said she had thought about not shooting the moose in order to get a few more days off from her sixth-grade schoolwork. That wasn’t in the cards.
“We weren’t seeing many [moose],” she said.
Another young hunter took the same approach and also will be back in school this morning.
Joshua Ring, an 18-year-old from Sullivan, is a senior at Sumner Memorial High School. His moose hunt was over by 6:15 a.m. when he shot an 834-pound bruiser with a 54½-inch spread and 23 points.
“All my teachers gave me homework to finish,” Ring said. “I think they’ll be surprised to see me tomorrow.”
Ring is among those lucky hunters who have had their names drawn more than once in a lottery that can frustrate the unsuccessful. Many hunters have been entering the lottery since it first was held in 1980 and are still waiting to receive their first permit.
This was Ring’s third in the past eight years.
Ring said that his father also was drawn once and that his family’s success in the lottery has become a bit of a tradition.
“[When the lottery is approaching] my dad tends to call the butcher and tells him, ‘Have a spot ready for us. One of us is gonna get one,’” Ring said with a laugh.
While all of the hunters who arrived at Ashland on Monday had tales to tell, not all of those stories started off so well.
John Cox of Edmunds, for instance, had a few hairy moments as the hunting season got under way.
He and his group went to a spot they had scouted, started calling and learned that moose aren’t the only critters that respond to moose calls.
Hungry predators do too.
“The first setup, the coyotes drove us,” he said. “That wasn’t fun. They were all around us in the trees. I’d say there were a half a dozen or more.”
The group decided to head elsewhere, and 20 minutes later, he had taken a 793-pound bull with a 47-inch spread.
“About 45 minutes and we had him on the road,” Cox said.
