Maine trip 2017

[targetpanic]

We headed up to camp on Weds morning 11/15. We got to camp and were all unpacked by 11:00. We split up and went in 4 different directions. My buddy and I went back into a spot that I hunted a couple years ago and really liked the looks of. We got all the way back in there seeing a ton of moose tracks in the 5 day old snow but very few deer tracks. Unfortunately there was a VT rig parked at the end of the road, so we backed out about a mile up the road and parked. I dropped down from the truck and my buddy went up. Not 5 minutes into the woods and I was already finding a few deer tracks in the snow. I jumped a decent bull out of his bed, went a little farther and found a good place to take a stand until dark. It was so still that the silence was deafening. I grunted and bleated but the only thing I saw was another bigger 40-45" bull moose. The other guys mostly drove roads and nobody saw a deer.
11/16 With nothing better to go on, we all went back into the same area the next morning. We spread out and covered some ground, where I went in from there were very few deer tracks or deer sign until I got to the area I was in the night before. It was 20 degrees and blowing 20-30. A bedded deer (doe based on the track) watched me get within 60yds of her before she bounced out of her bed. I just saw the body and tail go bouncing down the hill. She just went out of sight and blew at me a couple times before walking off. We weren't seeing much deer sign and what we were seeing was in little pockets. I found a really cool tree that had a serious will to overcome and adapt


We moved to a different spot much lower in elevation. Down here the wind was still and the ground was soft but no snow at all. I still hunted an area where I have seen a lot of sign last year. It looked really good again this year, lots of scrapes and tracks and poop but I think most of it is being made at night. Nobody saw a deer that afternoon
Scrapes

 

[targetpanic]

11/17 morning We hunted a spot that has been hit or miss in the past...mostly miss, and it sucked in there this year. The wind was whipping again and it was cold. We moved to a mountain knowing that the wind would be bad but we should have some snow to work with. I cut a fresh track pretty quickly and was having trouble figuring out if it was a buck or doe. I followed it up the mountain a ways when I heard a big branch snap. I looked up the skid road and saw a deer go bounding up...I couldn't see bone but seeing it was heading in the right direction I kept following it. I ended up jumping it out while it was feeding once and out of its bed one more time. It was headed right for one of the other guys but the wind was wrong. One of the other guys saw a doe.

11/18 We had good snow on the mountain and it was supposed to warm up. Knowing we could lose the snow we went back to the mountain. I cut a fresh doe track and a very underwhelming buck track right off the bat. The buck made a little scrape and was dribbling as he walked but I didn't want to follow it. I got to the top of the mountain without crossing any other fresh tracks. I saw 2 moose and a bear track. One of the other guys jumped a buck and a doe and they headed up the mountain to where I was. He said they ran in my boot tracks for a ways and they split up about 200yds before they got up to me. He stayed on the track for a while longer but lost it down lower. on the way off the mountain I came across a nice bucks bed maybe 300yds from the truck. I couldn't tell if I jumped him out of the bed or if he had left it on his own an hour earlier. We were losing snow fast and I lost his track within 100yds but it was definitely a decent buck. 2 of the other guys saw a bear while coming down off the mountain too. That afternoon we hunted the other side of the spot with the scrapes. It was another still and quiet afternoon, there was a lot of tracks but nobody saw a deer.

 

[targetpanic]

11/20 We took off far into an area by a lake. It was a little slick driving in. Light Snow was falling and it was COLD and BLOWING! I hunted up a ridge, took a stand for a little while and had a cow moose come walking to within 20yds of me. That's when I started talking to her and explaining the benefits of her turning and walking away in a different direction


I cut a fairly fresh track of a doe after that and I tried to get one of the guys with a doe permit in the direction it was headed. It crossed the road before he got down there though. I told him I was going to make a big circle up onto a hill and down through the swamp. He was going to stand in the cut up above the swamp. I was down on the edge of the swamp and I cut what was likely the same doe track from earlier. I followed it for a ways but it was headed in the wrong direction. I dropped down into the swamp and my eyes bugged out of my head. I was looking down at a fresh buck track...a giant buck track...the biggest buck track I have seen in the last 5 years up there track...unfortunately there was already a man track on it...he must have picked it up off another road. I made my way through the swamp and checked on a signpost rub. It had been hit again this year.

I worked back to the truck and found a set of tracks walking in one of the other guys tracks LOL
That afternoon we hunted a new spot we haven't been into before...it sucked.

11/21 We went back to the mountain to hunt on a little bit of snow that had fallen. I don't like hunting the same place this many times in a trip but we were finding tracks and we had snow...so up we went again. I didn't cut any fresh tracks, I took a stand for a while in an open swail grass area that will produce one of these days. One of the guys saw a doe and another guy chased a small buck track around that was making rubs and scrapes and walking in circles but never caught up to him. In the afternoon we went into a different spot but there was very little fresh sign in there.

 

[targetpanic]

11/22 was my last day to hunt. We went back to where we hunted the first day. This time there was no VT truck parked at the end of the road. I pointed out a ridge to my buddy and told him I was going for the top of it then would follow it back around towards the truck...it was a big loop but why not. I busted my ass to get up there and make that loop...the views were worth the hike but I never found a deer track. I did find a big blowdown suck area and a big coyote track. I got back to the truck pissed off, went into the cooler to grab a Gatorade and saw a couple beers in there...I almost caved in but stuck with the Gatorade LOL.

 

[targetpanic]

That afternoon I hunted until the rain picked up then called it quits for the season. I did find a new impressive signpost rub to hang a camera on one of these years.

It was a tough year up there. It is notoriously one of the hardest locations in the State to hunt with some of the lowest deer densities around. But there are some Crankers up there! I don't think we saw 10 deer as a group during the whole trip. It certainly wasn't for lack of effort. We saw more moose than we have in recent years I would say somewhere around 40-50 as a group and we saw a few calves which we have been not seeing in recent years due to brainworm and winter tick die off. As for the partridge...we probably averaged 20 a day as a group, Randy would have been in heaven. I am in the process of planning my first hunt out West next year so I may be taking next year off from Maine.

 

[VAspeedgoat]

That brings back memories. I've hunted on the east side off moosehead lake north of Greenville. I love it up there and it sounds similar to where you were in densities and buck quality. If you can put the miles on in the thick big woods of Maine, any western huny is doable for you. There's nothing like the feeling of walking into a pine jungle, step up on a log, and get scared that your not sure which way is up hill or down hill or even which way you were walking. Thanks for sharing.

 

[1_pointer]

Very good share, thanks! A hunt in that type of country is something I think I need to do someday.

 

[BlakeA]

Very good share, thanks! A hunt in that type of country is something I think I need to do someday.

Same here! Maine is absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing! Great post

 

[JLDemo]

My brother has reported the same sort of hunting, he lives and hunts in southern Maine, only saw a handful of deer this year but a lot of Moose and birds. He did end up shooting a buck but it was an extremely tough year up there according to him. Good luck with the rest of the season and thanks for posting your pictures, the tree on the rock is a cool pic!

 

[noharleyyet]

Thoughtful account, enjoyed the pictures.

 

[LCH]

Very cool, that's up there on the list for me.

 

[targetpanic]

Thanks for the responses guys. I wasn't sure if posting up a report of an unsuccessful trip across the country from most of you would draw any interest at all. I'm sure the mountains out here are nothing more than bumps to you guys, but this is some of the most rugged country you will find in New England. The land is nearly all paper company land which I am very thankful is open to the public. Some of the logging practices leave you with a lot of skid roads grown up in whips with small strips in between. If you find a big patch of green it's because it was either too wet, too thick, or too steep to cut. Not a lot of mature timber to hunt in this part of the state. I guess we all take for granted the hunting in our own backyards...I'm on this site chomping at the bit, trying to learn all I can before heading out west for my first mule deer hunt, and some of you are like I need to get to Maine someday!! LOL. If any of you ever draw a Maine moose tag for Zone 7 or 8 let me know...I'd be happy to share any info I've learned over the past 15yrs hunting in Maine.

 

[mixedbag]

It's been I think 10 years for me trying to draw a moose tag there.Hope I draw one in my lifetime.Deer hunting there is really tough.The Benoits were masters of tracking in the big woods.You certainly like to deer hunt the hard way,but I imagine success is so much sweeter.I enjoyed your hunt story

 

[pabearhunter]

Hunting Maine is like hunting Montana once you have been there you always want to go back.

 

[huronmtns]

Thanks for the responses guys. I wasn't sure if posting up a report of an unsuccessful trip across the country from most of you would draw any interest at all. I'm sure the mountains out here are nothing more than bumps to you guys, but this is some of the most rugged country you will find in New England. The land is nearly all paper company land which I am very thankful is open to the public. Some of the logging practices leave you with a lot of skid roads grown up in whips with small strips in between. If you find a big patch of green it's because it was either too wet, too thick, or too steep to cut. Not a lot of mature timber to hunt in this part of the state. I guess we all take for granted the hunting in our own backyards...I'm on this site chomping at the bit, trying to learn all I can before heading out west for my first mule deer hunt, and some of you are like I need to get to Maine someday!! LOL. If any of you ever draw a Maine moose tag for Zone 7 or 8 let me know...I'd be happy to share any info I've learned over the past 15yrs hunting in Maine.

I enjoyed your thread. Not because you had a rough season but because of the similarity of the country you hunt and the way you hunt it. It is so very much like hunting the Northern upper peninsula of Michigan. Rough country predominately owned by timber companies and open to public hunting. It sounds like we had a few more deer in our area this year though. Thanks for posting your season story and photos.