Do you have a large family, have a fall tradition of stalking wild game and filling your freezer with winter meat?

For those lucky enough to get a moose lottery selection, and then to spot the game they came to Aroostook County to take home, fall hunting is a big deal.

     If you prefer to get your meat wrapped in cellophane at the local grocery cooler, then hunting game can make you a little queasy, grossed out.

     This image from a 770 pound moose my secretary's brother shot in Littleton Maine might not be eye candy or pleasant. But if you grew up with the early morning, big breakfast the the wood's cabin and then off to systematically hunt for Maine deer, black bear, moose, game birds, then it is just part of family tradition.

     And if you need another reason or two to justify the hunt beside a family subsidizing their food budget over the winter months, how about thinning the herd means less apt to hit one of these rather large hood ornaments at 55 miles per hour at night?

Not wrecking your car and maybe putting you, a loved on in the hospital or worse. Add to this the revenue generated for the meat processing outfit that cuts, wraps and makes portions designed for your family size at fifty cents per pound. And don't forget the local sporting camp owner who rents you a log cabin, the gas, food, hunting gear you purchase locally. And the state of Maine income from the licenses to help pay for game wardens, hunter safety education. It helps, makes it easier to swallow this image.

Lot of work...dead weight of 770 pounds, to track, drag out of the woods, get processed and tagged and parked in your freezer(s).

That is a lot of hamburger to mix into the sausages, the meatloaf, the casseroles and spaghetti sauces for a few months.

     The modern moose hunt over three regular season sessions means 3015 permit holders won the right in a lottery to tramp for Bullwinkle. The first session started Monday September 28th, with 1139 hunters released from the gates to begin their search to bag a moose.  Another 1741 hunters wearing orange hunt from October 12-17th. And 135 end of the line hunters hit the woods November 2-28th to round out the season.

Moose hunting started in 1980 on an experimental basis and for decades, the Maine moose roamed the woods with no fear of being shot at, and fearing only being hit by a vehicle, dying of natural causes. The largest local moose tagged at MAC's trading post in Houlton Maine was 989 pounds. The Maine moose can store over 100 pounds of food in its stomach. It can run 35 mph and can easily swim 10 miles. The moose is the state mammal of Maine. Learn about the Maine Moose Hunting Lottery.

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