Hutch’s quote of the week:

“Wild game meat is great stuff, it shouldn’t be wasted.”

Hello everyone,

The first moose season opened Monday morning and according to the weatherman, warm weather is going to be a factor. Most of you moose hunters know that to ensure good moose meat you need to take care of that downed moose expeditiously!

As a wild game processor, I’ve seen a lot of game that was not cleaned out properly, not cooled properly or just plain neglected.

An animal as large as some of our moose are, retain heat for a very long time, especially in the neck and front shoulder area. I know, I learned the hard way and I’m supposed to know better!

On my daughter Nicole’s moose hunt in the Allagash several years ago, she harvested a beautiful bull moose with her grandfather’s model 99 300 savage. We celebrated for about a half an hour, and then I completely gutted the animal. I then proceeded to put the moose on the snowmobile trailer and went.

We tagged the moose in Fort Kent and immediately put out for Sebago. By the time we arrived home it was seven hours later. Tired and worn out, we hung the moose and I made the mistake of not skinning the big critter to cool that night.

The next morning arrived and I skun the moose. Upon reaching the moose’s neck area during the skinning process I discovered a slightly sour smell. I pieced out the animal and started putting it in my cooler and when I got to the neck, which was a massive piece of meat, it still was sour and just unruly smelling.

I quickly discovered I had ruined a lot of nice hamburg and stew meat. I felt like a real dingbat. Lesson learned!!

Two years ago, my wife Lisa drew a cow moose permit in the Allagash. Our first morning she collected a nice 650-pound cow moose with her model 742 carbine chambered in 308 Winchester. We were going to get the moose out whole but soon discovered we did not have any trees or anything to hook the come-along onto. The area where the noose dropped was all slash and stumps and very tough even walking through it. The best thing I thought to do was skin and dismember the moose right there. We skun the moose, made four cuts, then pulled the hide back over so we didn’t get dirt and leaves all over the meat. We then rolled it over and repeated the process. As I pieced the moose out, it went piece by piece into the industrial-sized trash bags, then transported to the truck some 200 yards away by my 6-foot, 5-inch tall buddy John’s big shoulders. We then put it in a big cooler with lots of ice. This whole process worked great and resulted in very fine table fare!

My recommendation is to either be set up to do this or get it to one of the many game processors in the area, so you can get that hide off as soon as possible.

Some of us still think that we’re dealing with a deer, that’s not the case; it takes much longer to completely cool down a moose, so beware, and good luck!

Until next time,

Happy Hunting!

Hutch