The Saturday prior to the first week of moose season found me packing my truck with spare tires, rope, chainsaw, moose call, rain gear, etc.  for a journey into wildlife management district 4 to aid moose hunters Ron Lovaglio, Frank Kopp, and Roger Hanson in their efforts to fill Ron's moose tag.  I headed out at 4 a.m. to find the camp on Caucomgomoc lake that Ron had secured the use of from a friend of his.  Once I found the camp, I off loaded my gasoline and miscellaneous gear, then went out to check some moose hot spots I had hunted in the past.  I spent the day looking for the sign of rutting bulls.  During my adventure I reinforced in my mind that we would fill Ron's tag very quickly.  I returned to the camp as evening was approaching and met Ron once again as well as his good friends Frank and Roger.  They had dinner in the oven, ands I got my small gear stowed in the camps loft.  We enjoyed some conversation, a great meal and headed to bed with plans of heading out early on Sunday to scout an area behind a locked gate, that Ron was able to secure the key to.

     Sunday found us eating some breakfast, then getting in my truck to head to the hunting area.  We spent some time riding and walking the grown over woods roads, looking for the signs of a big moose.  We also set up a target and spent some time verifying that everything was in good working order prior to Monday's opening of moose season.  The area we were scouting was one Ron was intimately familiar with as he had begun his career as a forester in this area.  We found some moose wallows, and rubs, but I wasn't sold on the area, until a huge 60+" bull stepped into the road in front of the truck and walked right up to within 10 feet of us.  Due to some technical challenges with the operation of my video camera, we did not get much footage of this animal, but I know he was very impressive.  It was then that I decided we would begin our pursuit for a moose in that area the next morning.  We headed back to the camp where another quality meal was waiting.

     Morning found us up prior to the suns rising.  We brewed some coffee for the drive, and headed out to the hunting grounds.  We found the spot where the large bull had been the day before and set up to wait for the first light of morning to arrive.  I then began the process of trying to entice this bull into coming back with the mournful wails of a love sick cow.  We called for a good 25 minutes, with no apparent response from our bull.  I gathered up my gear and with the hunters in tow headed down the road for about 1/2 of a mile.  I found a spot that looked conducive to calling a bull.  The hunters backed into some brush for concealment, as I did, and we began the process of calling once again.

     After about 15 minutes I thought I heard the approach of a moose, so we continued to call.  Soon there was no mistaking the sounds of an excited bull moose in the woods out of sight.  We could here his excited grunts in response to my cow calling, and his raking of brush in response to my bull grunting.  Soon he stepped into sight, swaggering, head swaying and grunting.  He was one excited bull.  Frank was the first to jump into action as he put a bullet from his rifle right through the lungs, the bull started to run to the woods, when Ron followed with two quick shots and the bull dropped right into the old road bed.  About 45 minutes into the opening of the 2007 moose season we had filled Ron's tag with a nice mature bull moose.  We took some photos, loaded it onto my truck, and headed out to camp where we had to swap it from my truck to Roger's, and pack it with ice as the temperature was rising.  We gathered up all of our gear, and headed home.