During the October 2020 Moose Season, my twin brother Mark Donaghy, was guiding a father and son hunter in zone 1. Rick, the father, had been applying for a Maine moose permit for 40 years and had never been successful in drawing a resident permit. 2020 was finally his lucky year though and he drew an October zone 1 bull tag. After waiting 40 years, Rick was finally headed Maine moose hunting with his son Ricky! The October season was tough hunting last year.  Bulls were not responding to calls well and the rut seemed to be mostly over in Northern Maine. We got some half-hearted responses to our calling throughout the week, but not the commitment you hope for or the rut activity we saw during the September season two weeks prior. That usually means you wind up putting a lot of boot miles on throughout the week to locate good bulls. As the week went on we knew we had to start thinking outside the box, roll with the punches, and change tactics a little bit from our norm, if we were going be successful in finding mature bulls that week.

We had two hunters in camp and my hunter, Steve, was fortunate enough to tag out on a beautiful 58” Boone & Crockett class trophy Maine moose on the second evening of the hunt.  The next morning, I made the trip back to town to deal with bringing Steve’s moose quarters to the butcher and checking his moose at the game checking station. Luckily, that freed me up on fourth day of the six-day hunt, to help Mark on Rick’s hunt. My hunter Steve and his subpermitee, also Steve (aka Steve 1 and Steve 2), decided to stay in Camp after filling their permit and tag along with me. We headed out in the morning trying to locate a bull for Rick and his son, Ricky. At least client names were easy that week! Steve and Rick, simple enough…

On that fourth day of the hunt, Mark went into an area he had found some good sign in and had a close encounter with a decent bull earlier in the week. I traveled logging roads to the North looking over some areas that we had not hunted yet that season.  I was able to find a couple average bulls in behind a hidden clear cut and reached Mark on his Garmin InReach and let him know what I had found.  He was hunting about 10 miles away, and was down in the woods about a mile when I got a hold of him early into the morning. He let me know that he would head over my way, but it may take him and hour or so to get there. We met up and I gave him a heads up on where I located the bulls. They were back in on a hardwood ridge that had been cut a couple years before. He made up a game plan and headed in to see what they could find. I jumped back into the truck and continued North towards some new areas with Steve 1 and Steve 2. 

The bulls were traveling that morning. I hadn’t gone far when a nice high 40’s inch bull crossed the logging road in front of us. About an hour later I was checking on an area I had not been into for a couple of years. Heading down in on the logging road I noticed a vehicle stopped in the road about a quarter mile ahead of us. There was some hunters out next to the truck.  Wondering if they were moose hunters, I decided to stop and grab my binoculars to see what they were up to? I figured out that they were not moose hunters, but instead grouse hunters. Once I had stopped, I realized I had a fairly good view of some hardwood ridges off to the South of us. The leaves had mostly dropped off the trees by then and you could see up through the hardwoods relatively good. There were some grown up clear cuts covering the ridges and I figured I would give them a once over with my Swarvofski binoculars. Maybe I would get lucky, and I would spot a bull. It is exceedingly rare you get a chance to glass for bulls while moose hunting in Maine with its wooded habitat. The only real exception would be the mountains of Western Maine where glassing the mountainside clear cuts or hardwood ridges for bulls, can be a very productive tactic on your Western Maine moose hunt in Maine moose hunting zones 7,8,12, and 13.

This area of Zone 1 is not usually all that conducive to glassing. The spot where I had stopped the truck surprisingly had a good vantage point over some likely areas. Since I was stopped and had my binoculars in my hand anyways, I had to check them out. What happened next, I will never forget! I put my binoculars up to my eyes and I had not even panned them across any of the ridges yet. I looked through the binoculars and I instantly recognized the palms of an exceptionally good looking 50” class bull! Just what we were hoping to find for Rick and Ricky on their hunt, after waiting 40 years for a tag. The bull was halfway up the hardwood ridge in an old grown-up cut, standing in some hardwood whips looking our direction. I could hardly believe my eyes! Steve 1 and Steve 2 could not either! After describing where he was, I passed off the binoculars to them and they found him too. Amazed, we knew luck had turned in our favor that morning.

This is an area that receives lots of hunting pressure and this bull was off by himself, post rut, feeding in an area he felt secure. He without a doubt watched road moose hunters travel by that morning in the road system below him. I tried to reach Mark on his InReach, hoping he had not yet been successful finding the bulls I sent him after, because I knew this bull was quite a bit better. He was exactly what we look for each season while guiding our Maine moose hunts. I reached mark and they were still hunting.  I knew that he and the guys were reluctant to give up on their spot. Understandably so… I am sure it felt like I was sending them on wild goose chases all morning and they had already put quite a few boot miles on by mid-morning. In a brotherly love way, I made sure he knew how good of a bull it was, that they were not easy to find that week, and he needed to head over to me again…  He said it would be a couple hours before he could make it to our location.

In the meantime, a few road moose hunting groups traveled by us. They all stopped and made small talk explaining that they had not seen any moose all week and had driven hundreds of miles. That statement always brings an inside laugh when I hear it season after season. I was worried one of them would spot the bull though, ruining our chances, and wasting Mark and Rick’s time traveling over to us. None of them spotted the bull. Not surprisingly, it seemed as though none of them even tried looking over the ridges with binoculars. We had some good laughs amongst ourselves discussing the short comings of road hunting moose in Maine these days. It seemed like a half hour had passed and I was almost certain I saw the bull bed down and disappear in the hardwoods. Now we could rest easy knowing other hunters would not spot him while we waited for Mark to show up.

Two hours later Mark showed up… I pointed out to them where on the ridge I had seen the bull bed down. I could see skepticism come across Rick’s face when I pointed it out, questioning how we ever spotted a bull that far away. If it were not for the quality of Swarvofski optics, I may not have spotted him.  I am quite sure they all thought this was another goose chase, not seeing any bull over there when they showed up. I assured Mark and Rick that it was a good bull, and I would not have had them come all the way over, if I did not think it was a great bull to go after in a good scenario to do so! Mark and I looked at satellite images on OnX Maps. Discussing what we thought the best approach was. We realized looking at satellite images that there was an old logging road that came in from above where I was convinced the bull was bedded. It would be a perfect place to slip over the ridge and try and find the bull.

Since the rut activity was dwindling that week and we knew this bull had seen his share of hunting pressure in the previous weeks, we figured it would be best just to slip in and spot and stalk him, rather then go in calling and risking blowing him out of the area. I ranged the yardage with my binoculars to the exact spot I was convinced he was bedded, and the range came back at 1052 yards! We calculated that out to distance in feet and dropped a waypoint on OnX where we believed him to be bedded, so Mark would have a reference point coming in from above.  Mark headed off to drive a few miles around and get to that old grown-up logging road above the bull. I stayed there with Steve 1 and 2 to continue glassing. About an hour later we heard a single rifle shot and we were convinced it had to be Rick or Ricky! It sounded in the right area. We hadn’t seen Mark or the bull again up to that point. A minute or so after the shot, I spotted the bull!! He had moved a couple hundred yards up the ridge from where I originally saw him. He stood there for about thirty seconds like a broadside statue looking our way and then walked off into the brush! He did not appear to be hit and my heart instantly sank.  We still had not seen Mark and I was convinced they walked into another bull on the way to this one, I was just hoping that it that was the case, it was not a smaller bull!  Ten minutes had passed, and I got a message from Mark!  They had walked right into what they believed to be the same bull we sent them after. The bull stood up twenty yards in front of them and gave them a quick shot opportunity before starting to bolt.  The message read he thought the shot was good and that they had a good blood trail. Come to find out, when I spotted the bull after the shot, he was hit through the lungs and only went about twenty more yards after he disappeared. The celebration started and we head over to Mark with pack frames. Mark and I quartered the bull, and Mark, Steve 2, and Ricky did all the packing. I finished caping the hide off the skull and then packed the cape and rack down. What a way to end the week!! The “1052 Yard Bull” is not one we will ever forget!

For more information about our trophy Maine moose hunts, please visit our website at www.eaguides.com