Pistol Defense Against Moose Attack

Gun Watch ^ | 2 March, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In this dramatic video, a snowmobiler is traveling along a remote snowmobile trail.   A moose is blocking the trail, and the snowmobiler does everything they can to defuse the situation without bloodshed.  They make considerable noise to warn the moose that they are there.  Snowmobiles do not have a reverse, and the track is narrow and hemmed in by thick woods.  To get off the snowmobile would make the snowmobiler much more vulnerable.   In the deep, fluffy snow, he and or his machine are likely to bog down.   Unknown to the viewer, a companion snowmobiler is coming up from behind and could easily come under attack if the first snowmobiler allows the moose to kill or disable them.

The snowmobiler gets a little closer to get the moose to move away.  The moose does a false charge, to be met with more shouts and noise from the snowmobiler trying to defuse the situation.   The false charge turns into a very short retreat, immediately followed by a full on attack.   The snowmobiler escapes serious injury or death by sheer luck.   The moose retreats a short ways, and the snowmobiler uses this reprieve to draw a Glock pistol and chamber a round.

The moose starts to attack again and the snowmobiler uses his last possibility to defuse the situation, a warning shot.   It does not work, and the  snowmobiler fires three well aimed shots, that almost instantly put down the threatening animal.  A fourth finishing shot is fired to make sure.  All shots, from warning to finishing, take place in four seconds.  (:51 to :55) on the video.  The time from the physical contact of the attack to the last shot is 10 seconds. 

The snowmobiler then rides by to a meadow, where they stop and look back to make sure that the following companion was able to safely catch up to them.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=008_1393078390


©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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[eartrumpet]

Good for you. Moose are a valuable resource.

Not for lack of trying, I have applied for a moose tag several times and wife wants to try this year.

[rabidralph]

That’s the only thing that would make this killing worthwhile. The moose was still moving when he rode by.

[rabidralph]

Exactly.

[EinNYC]

If you read MY post, you will see that you and I are on the same page. I said that it seemed to me that they could have waited, gone a different way, etc. to avoid having to kill the moose, who was in HIS territory minding his own business. I cannot believe that a moose would come up to a noisy vehicle from a long distance away to attack it. It would avoid it.

[fso301]

The moose is still moving as the snowmobile passes by. The guy never attempted to finish it off.

The snowmobile rider is a jackass and that's putting it mildly.

No responsible hunter or gun owner would shoot and leave such an animal to suffer and die.

[golux]

I did read your post! We are in agreement. The dude is a douchenozzle.

[Zuriel]

**As I see the video, the guy stopped, made some noise — and waited a WHOPPING 15 seconds — then decided he didn’t have time for that sort of delay and he just had to bring it to a full confrontation, so he moved up close to the moose.**

The video starts with the moose in plain sight, and the valley clearing not far beyond him. In the first few secs he’s seen completing a tight right aboutface to observe the noise he had probably heard coming for a while. So he certainly wasn’t caught by surprise. It’s possible that the sled driver actually saw him a several seconds before the clip starts.

After watching again, I noticed two left turns previously made into the woods, that maybe had a couple inches of fresh snow in the tracks. So, the can’t turnaround theory doesn’t fly.

The driver stops RIGHT beside one, makes noise immediately (as though the moose hadn’t heard him coming. duh), waited the horribly long 15 seconds, then advanced downhill to the next left turnout, but doesn’t choose to use it either.

My wife (a gun owning constitutionalist, like me) would have said, ‘stop’ at first sight, just for the thrill watching the beast from a distance for a while. With a minute or two of ‘sitting tight’, the big guy possibly would have turned back around and headed down into the clearing. If not, we would have used one of the turnouts.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Only thing I know was the first time I ever saw a moose here in the deep Rocky Mountains, it was taller than a freaking camper! WOW!!

I know some Mainers who can verify your claim. I guess it's fairly common to see them in Maine, although I never have. I would love to see one.

Oh yeah. And never go into the Maine woods during black fly season...

[Rannug]

At 26 secs you can see to the moose’s right where a snow mobile went off the trail. Why I have no idea, just wondering if someone else went there to avoid the moose. I wasn’t there so I cannot say if the guy was right or wrong by shooting the moose.

[marktwain]

“The video starts with the moose in plain sight, and the valley clearing not far beyond him. In the first few secs he’s seen completing a tight right aboutface to observe the noise he had probably heard coming for a while. So he certainly wasn’t caught by surprise. It’s possible that the sled driver actually saw him a several seconds before the clip starts.”

We certainly do not know how many minutes of watching the moose was cut out before the video starts.

[TurboZamboni]

Most snowmobiles do not have a reverse.(not all lack reverse)

If it was a Ski-doo, it’s possible the moose thought it was cheese.