ARGYLE — Residents along a stretch of Coach Road near the Hartford town line couldn’t figure out what was causing a foul stench during a warm spell earlier this fall.

Eventually, they located the source, and it wasn’t what they expected — hundreds of pounds of moose meat had been dumped over an embankment off the road and it was rotting. A moose’s head, hoofs, pelt and other parts were strewn just off the road, some parts dragged to nearby parts of a field by predators.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation was called and the agency’s conservation officers were able to find clues that led them to a butcher in Vermont, officials said. That butcher provided information that led officers to an Argyle man who had won a moose permit in Vermont and had shot a moose in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom earlier this fall during the state’s moose hunt.

The suspect, Raymond F. Graham, was ticketed for unlawful disposal of solid waste, a noncriminal violation, according to state records.

Graham said Wednesday he made a “stupid mistake” and should have buried the remains of the 665-pound bull moose he shot. The spot where he left the parts is a well-known dumping ground, although he hadn’t dumped anything there before, he said.