Your guide to getting a moose out of the Maine woods

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has created this guide to educate prospective moose hunters on how best to deal with a moose once it is down.

The point cannot be stressed enough: the opportunity to hunt a Maine moose is a privilege, and the resulting trove of wild meat is a precious commodity that must be cared for properly to prevent spoilage.

According to moose biologist Lee Kantar, “Moose are 101 degrees Fahrenheit on the inside. Even if the day is cool, the moose is not. The sooner you can get the hide off and start cooling off the moose, the better.”

In the early years of the Maine moose hunt, the typical hunt was a moose shot on a logging road, loaded on a snowmobile trailer and then driven to the tagging station for a celebratory weigh-in and a photo op.