Pre-season scouting in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom paid off on the second morning of the state’s archery moose hunt last week for Tammy Miller of Fairfax, Vt., according to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.
Using a compound bow, Miller (pictured above) took a state-record 931-pound bull moose with an antler spread of 53-3/4 inches on October 2 while hunting in Norton! Norton is about 114 miles northeast of Burlington, Vt., near the border with Quebec, Canada.
Miller’s huge bull topped the 919-pound previous archery record moose taken last year by Kevin Rice.
Miller was hunting with her husband, Eric.
“Five weekends of hard scouting enabled us to be hunting in an area with good moose trails and scrapes,” said Tammy Miller. “After being in the area for a few minutes Friday morning, we heard the bull raking branches not far away, but it seemed to be moving away. Eric raked some nearby branches with a moose scapula and called by mouth to imitate another bull moose. Fifteen minutes later the bull appeared about 15 yards away, presenting a nice shot.”
“It was the hunting experience of a lifetime,” she added.
Vermont’s archery moose season began October 1 and ended October 7. The regular moose season is October 17-22.
“A total of 225 regular firearms moose season permits and 40 archery moose season permits were issued for Vermont’s 2015 regulated moose hunt in order to sustain Vermont’s moose population in balance with available habitat,” said Cedric Alexander, Vermont’s moose biologist. “Congratulations to Tammy Miller for a well-planned hunt and taking a new archery record Vermont moose.”
(Top Photo by Eric Miller)