ASHLAND, Maine — For the past 36 years — ever since the state of Maine began its modern moose hunt — Blaine Miller of Norridgewock has waited in vain for his name to be drawn during the state-run permit lottery.
Until this year.
On Monday, as Miller joined other successful hunters at Gateway Variety to tag his moose, he admitted that there wasn’t much suspense involved in this year’s drawing.
“When I turned 70, they had to give it to me,” Blaine Miller said, describing a new Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife rule aimed at rewarding longtime applicants with a permit. “I only had to put down on the application, ‘September season, bull,’ and that it was [Wildlife Management District] 5.”
Miller wasted no time filling his tag — on his 70th birthday, no less — shooting a bull that weighed in at 835 pounds, field dressed, at 6:30 a.m. The bull sported antlers with a 47½-inch spread.
Monday marked the opening day of the first session of this year’s moose hunt in Maine, with 720 bull permits allocated in eight Wildlife Management Districts in the northern part of the state.
By the end of November, a total of 2,140 hunters will have been allowed to hunt, with those permits distributed in 24 of the state’s WMDs.
Business at the Ashland tagging station was brisk — as was the weather — on Monday, as hunters took advantage of the cool conditions, which make the moose more active. At noon, six trucks — all carrying moose — lined up for a chance to weigh in. And by 1 p.m., 18 moose had been tagged.
Until Monday, Miller’s wife, Sylvia, had been the moose hunter of the family. And there was never a question about who was going to shoot the moose on her hunts.
“My wife has been drawn twice, but she never let me shoot,” said Blaine Miller. “She’s a real good shot. She’s shot dozens of deer. She kills her own.”
It’s not as if Blaine Miller has missed out on hunting altogether, though. He owns Allagash Guide Inc., and regularly takes other hunters out to fill their moose tags.
“It’s a ton of fun to call them in for somebody else,” said Miller, who before his retirement was the successful baseball coach at Winslow High School.
Sylvia Miller tagged along on her husband’s hunt, and said that 36 unsuccessful years of entering the lottery began to grow tiresome for her husband.
“It was sad,” she said. “Every year, he was like, ‘My name has got to be on that list.’ He’d look down through them, and nope, not there.”
The biggest moose in the early returns at Ashland on Monday was a 965-pounder taken by Ken Hunt of Phippsburg. He shot the moose at 7:30 a.m., but didn’t arrive in Ashland to tag the moose for another five hours.
And he shared a sentiment familiar to other moose hunters who spent hours hauling and field dressing their animals after the shot was fired.
“It was all downhill after [the shot],” he said.
Ben Grover, 25, of Readfield is still a young man, but he has become very familiar with the refrain of prospective hunters who don’t receive a permit: Wait until next year.
Grover started entering, with his parents’ help, when he was 10 years old. This season, after a 15-year wait, he received a permit of his own.
Grover is part of a moose-hunting family, though, and understood how the game is supposed to work.
“We did a lot of scouting yesterday, and didn’t really see much. We just had an inclination to go to this one spot and it paid off,” Grover said.
Grover’s bull weighed in at 755 pounds and had a 35-inch antler spread.
His mother, who doesn’t hunt, tagged along, and was proud of her only child. After the weighing and tagging process was completed, she was eager to move on to the next step.
“Now the next feat,” said Linda Grover. “We’ve got to take care of the moose.”
Though some moose hunters who tag out early like to stay in the woods for a bit and enjoy a vacation, Ben Grover had another priority.
“My kids are back home, my wife is back home. I’m kind of eager to get back,” he said.
Amanda Demusz, regional wildlife biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said that cool weather likely played a role in some of the early hunter success. But it’s only Monday, she cautioned.
There was a frost on the ground for the second straight day in Ashland on Monday, according to Demusz, and daytime temperatures were predicted to peak in the upper 50s. For several years in a row, hunters have battled very warm weather early in the September season.
“[Cool weather] can affect the moose behavior some. You figure, they’ve got their winter coats on, so they’re not going to be out busting around … if it was 80 degrees,” Demusz said. “They’re going to hunker down more [and] it’ll be more night movement. So [hunters] should have moose moving pretty good this week.”
Also among those who had good luck on Monday: 62-year-old Mike St. Pierre of Brunswick, who showed up in Ashland with an 875-pounder near noontime.
When asked by Demusz if she could take a tooth sample from the moose, which is used by biologists to determine the animal’s age, St. Pierre was all moosed out.
“Take anything, from horns to feet,” he said. “I don’t care.”
St. Pierre and his hunting party happened upon a bull with a cow, and waited 15 long minutes before the two moose separated enough to allow for a shot.
Then the hard work started.
“It took us four hours,” St. Pierre said. “It was up a hill and down a hill, and it took us [a long time] to pull him out.”
But with the moose tagged, St. Pierre was headed back to southern Maine. Not that he was expected at work, of course.
“I’m retired. Every day’s off,” he said. “But I’m heading back to Brunswick. It’s expanded archery [season right now]. I’m going back archery hunting.”
Just don’t expect him in the woods on Monday evening.
“I’ve had enough blood and guts for one day, I think,” he said.
