Editor’s Note: Roger Raglin of “Roger Raglin Outdoors” on the Outdoor Channel on Saturdays has hosted the TV show for 10 years. Raglin, who lives in Coweta, Oklahoma, has been in the outdoor industry for 24 years and is one of the most-recognized faces in the outdoor fraternity.

Question: Roger, tell us about your moose hunt.

Raglin: This past year, I drew a Maine moose tag. To me, getting that tag for a moose was like winning the lottery. I went all the way up to Maine to hunt this moose. The weather didn’t cooperate with us, and it was a really-tough hunt. We hunted for 4 days before we even saw a moose. But the guide I was hunting with knew how to call a moose. When he started calling on the fifth day, I’d never heard as much racket coming from an animal as I did when that moose started responding to that guide’s calling. He was coming through the brush and knocking-down everything in sight. The area was fairly thick, and we couldn’t really see him. He was beating-up trees and grunting and sounding like an army of men charging through the brush. My cameraman whispered, “Is that him right there in the brush?” I said, “I’m not sure.” I had no more than gotten those words out of my mouth than that moose stepped-out in front of me at 25 yards.

Now, a moose is a big critter, and at 25 yards with your adrenaline pumping, he looks even bigger. That’s when you’ve got to have the faith in your rifle to do the job that it was built to do. I was hunting with the CVA Accura with a PowerBelt bullet, and when the moose turned broadside, I aimed and fired quickly. When I fired, I didn’t know what was going to happen, because the moose was so close. But he took the PowerBelt bullet, and only went about 50 yards before he piled-up. I’d hit him right behind the front shoulder and double-lunged him. When you take a deer with a muzzleloader rifle and a PowerBelt bullet, that’s a great accomplishment. But when you test the rifle, powder and bullet on an animal as large as a moose, you really can see what a blackpowder rifle can do. For that moose to only go 50 yards was incredible. I thought this was one of the most-exciting hunts I’ve ever had. But the story gets better.

 Question: How hard was it like getting that moose out of the brush and back to camp?

Raglin: This is the neatest part of the story. There was a right of way (clearing) that ran down through the timber. I drive a Ford Excursion with a winch on the front. I told my outfitter, “I think if I’m really careful, I can go get my trunk and drive down that right of way.” I went back and got my trunk, but driving to the right of way took me awhile. I got the front-end of the truck pointed in the direction where the moose was laying. We started pulling the cable off my winch. When we got to the end of the cable, there was about a foot of cable left on the winch, once we wrapped the cable around the moose’s antlers. But once we got the cable around his antlers, I was able to winch the moose to the right of way where my truck was. I started backing-up, and I was able to drag that moose out of the bush all the way up to the road.

 Question: Life doesn’t get any better than that right – not having to butcher the moose in the field or carry the meat out.

Raglin: Yes, life does get better than this. When I got the moose to the road, one of the guides had a device on his truck that allowed him to run the cable from the winch on the front of the truck, over the truck to where he had a crane-like device. We unhooked the moose from my winch, took the guide’s winch from the front of his truck over the top of the truck and through the winch device, brought it down and put it around the antlers of my moose. The guide was able to winch the entire moose into the back of his pick-up truck. We took the moose back to camp, hung him up and skinned, dressed and quartered him with little or no hassle. That’s when life was as good as it could get for a hunter.

Editors Note: Roger Raglin is the Host of “Roger Raglin Outdoors” shown on the Outdoor channel. Roger and his son Josh head out every fall in search of “ Creating memories that money just can’t buy”. Today Roger tells us about a Moose he took down in Maine with his CVA Accura.

I could hear him coming.  There was no doubt about it.  It sounded like a locomotive boiling through the timber.  Limbs snapping and cracking  – trees smashing to the ground.  I’d never heard anything quite like it and it was headed straight my direction.  There wasn’t anything I could do about it either accept get ready for the inevitable.   It was the sound that only North America’s largest land animal could make.  A huge mature moose was making his way through the dense forest to where I was standing.  He was coming in a hurry and with a purpose in mind.  The really funny thing about was – it’s exactly what I’d been waiting for and wanting to happen for about 20 years.

     This was my second trip to Maine for moose and my third try for a big bull.  I’d hunted Alaska nearly 20 years ago and 13 years ago had drawn one of these coveted Maine moose permits.  On both of those trips I’d missed the opportunity to have one of these 1000 pound behemoths respond to and come charging into a call.  It was looking like this trip was going to end up the same way.
 
     I was hunting in Pete Brown’s camp, owner of Extreme Dimension Wildlife Calls.  Pete’s Phantom Calls are without question the standard by which other electronic calls are judged, especially his moose calls.  If you’re a moose hunter in the Northeast, you’ve either tried or are currently using one of Pete’s Phantom moose calls.  They are simply the best.  But regardless of the call or animal mother nature and the timing of the rut really need to be working in your favor in order for you to have the kind of success you’re looking for.  This fall the weather had been fairly warm and when the first moose season opened bulls simply were not responding to calls.  To put it in a nutshell, the hunting had been really slow.

     I was elated in July when I found out that I had once again drawn a Maine moose permit.  This year’s moose hunt was really quite different from my last hunt.  Since my first visit to Maine in 1997 new laws had been passed that basically had stopped most of the clear cutting (which created great browsing habitat for moose).  Back in the late 90’s with large blocks of clear cuts everywhere, there were moose everywhere as well.  Now with selective cutting taking place, the moose seem to be much more dispersed.  They seemed to be living in deeper timber as well.  You now have to work a lot harder than before.  We had been working hard I can tell you that.  It was the fourth day of my six day hunt.  But in reality it was probably the final day since we had a major front moving in calling for heaving rain.  You can hunt in rain.  You can’t run a camera in rain.  You can but the end results is total disaster.  No tapes.  No footage.  No camera -  that will ever work again.
 
     It was mid-morning and I’d about given up.  No, I had given up on that AM’s hunt.  Pete’s dad, Mell, was running the call.  I was set up in front of him about 15 yards.  As the ‘estrus cow’ call was echoing through the air my mind began to wander and I was thinking about a hot breakfast and the drive back to Oklahoma.  I knew it was going to be a long one.  Suddenly Mell called my name and pointed to his right looking down a long but narrow opening in the woods.  I didn’t see anything but Mell held his hands up spreading them wide apart shaking his head up and down. 
     “Get ready a big one just crossed,” he whispered. 
      I knew from the look in Mell’s eyes it was a shooter.  I thought to myself get ready.  I am ready.  But I wasn’t.  I really don’t know what I was thinking.  I really don’t know what I was expecting.  I could only see about 20 yards in front of me and it was still really thick brush at that.  I’ve been in some pretty hairy situations over the years including shooting a 50″ cape buffalo in Africa at 10 yards with my muzzleloader.  But I’m not sure that buffalo ever knew we were even there.  This moose probably didn’t either.  But I could see that buffalo walk in from 150 yards out.  I couldn’t see this moose.  I could only hear him.  And buddy he was worked up and he seemed to get more worked up the closer he got.  And the closer he got the more worked up I was getting.

     I just told myself relax and pick a spot to shoot when he appears.  As the big bull grunted and move closer you could tell he was slowing down.  Things finally got quiet. The only thing you could hear was my heart pounding.   It got quiet because he was standing in a thicket right in front of me at 25 yards.  I had my CVA  muzzleloader resting on a pair of Vanguard shooting sticks.  I suddenly heard my cameraman say, “I can’t see him.  I can’t find him.”
     I looked over my gun and he was there starring right at us.  He looked as big as a house. 
     “He’s right there,”  I whispered pointing slightly to my right.
     “I can’t see him,”  the cameraman relied. 
     I knew we were in trouble and this party was about to end with something terrible floating in the punch bowl.  I knew I couldn’t fire my cameraman.  It was my 21 year old son, Josh. 
      “Son.  He’s standing right there in front of us,”  I tried to say as calmly as possible. 
     “Got him,”  Josh whispered. 
      My head fell back onto my CVA and I quickly snapped off my one and only shot -  Capow!!!!!    That muzzleloader roared and that big bull lunged out of that thicket to within about 15 yards of us turned and crashed back into the timber and vanished through that cloud of smoke. 
     I was shaking all over more than anywhere else. My son finally lowered the camera and was shaking his head.  It scared me at first.
     “No, I got it dad don’t worry.”
      He got it all right.  And I got my wish of 20 years.  I got to experience a real true blue – ‘I’m a big bull moose and I’m going to come charging into a call’ sequence.  It was worth the wait.   The trail job was short.  The 1000 pound bruiser had only gone about 70 yards into the timber before pilling up.  That CVA Accura muzzleloader did it’s job to perfection.  He wasn’t a monster racked bull but he was still a very good representative for a Northeastern American moose.  I couldn’t have been happier.  Now several months later all I can say is – I can still hear him coming.