CONCORD, N.H. — Hunters in New Hampshire's 2026 moose season took 29 moose on 34 lottery permits, a success rate of 85%, above the 10-year average of 70%, the state Fish and Game Department said.

The season ran from Oct. 17 through Oct. 25. Besides the 34 lottery permits, one permit each went to the Dream Hunt Program and the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of New Hampshire, making 36 permits in all allowing a moose of either sex to be taken. Lottery hunters took 23 bulls, five cows and one calf, the department said.

Henry Jones, the department's moose project leader, said the season had middling hunting conditions. “A cold front on opening day brought snow squalls and accumulating snow to northern areas which made the moose active,” Jones said. Clear, stable weather with moderate temperatures for the rest of the season made hunting harder, he said, because the moose were mostly active at night and at daybreak.

The heaviest moose, taken by Donald Hamilton in Wildlife Management Unit C1, weighed 878 pounds dressed. Ryan Dube took the moose with the widest antler spread, 57 inches, in Wildlife Management Unit B, according to the department.

The department also singled out Dan Ellingwood and Todd Soucy, longtime friends who met while doing moose research in northern New Hampshire and drew a permit for unit A2. After days of hunting from dawn to dusk while seeing few moose in daylight, Ellingwood shot a bull from 80 yards on the second-to-last day of the season, the department said. The pair quartered the bull, which weighed nearly 500 pounds dressed, in four hours, dragged the pieces 200 yards to their truck on a sled and packed the meat in a chilled freezer with ice before taking it to the check station.

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