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Head on closing speed with moose

Started by Okanagan, November 01, 2017, 11:21:37 AM

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Okanagan

Yesterday morning I was east of our coast range, driving an old dirt logging road to move from my dawn foot patrol to my next spot to hunt mule deer.  As I rounded a tight curve to the left, with a solid wall of brush on the left, my eyes were scanning the right edge of the road looking for grouse.  :rolleye: Nobody up there but me on the dead end road.  A HUGE dark mass hurtled toward me from around the bend, and my adrenalin surge shocked my whole body to pain level in the first millisecond before my eyes and brain registered "MOOSE!"

A huge cow and a yearling heifer a neck length behind her were running toward me side by side.  I was doing 15-20 mph and they were doing the same or more, so we had a closing speed of 30-40 mph at 30 feet.  The big cow leaned way over in her 180 turn as did the smaller one.  (I was looking UP at the smaller cow as I slammed on brakes.)  The big cow's legs and hooves flew way out to the side as she accelerated out of her turn 15 feet or less in front of my bumper.  Pitw has probably had such encounters.

I chased them around the bend where a clear cut started on the right and they went up into brush high enough to hide a moose.

I think that something was chasing them.  Moose have great ears and otherwise I can't imagine them running toward an approaching vehicle.  Also, it was a weird day in that no living creature moved all day.  It was overcast, started to rain and snow a bit of slush at mid morning, and the entire day in good game country I saw exactly two squirrels, two shrews that I kicked out, the two running moose and not another living creature: not a rabbit, not a grouse, deer, coyote, nothing.   Some friends in that area told me that a pack of wolves has moved in and that they have seen very few deer this Fall.

Doggone I wish that I had instantly looked for whatever may have been pursuing them, checked their back trail, maybe set up and called.  Doofus here.



Hawks Feather

What would the Wolfies think if you shot a poor defenseless wolf.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  Listening to a couple of Wolfies at Yellowstone a couple of years ago you would have thought that wolves were the second coming.

Glad you missed the moose with your truck.  That would not have been good for the truck or you.

Jerry

FinsnFur

Yah that sounds like quite an adrenaline rush.  :whew:
That would have been some serious damage to the Zuki :eyebrownod:
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pitw

Never had a head on like that but sure woulda enjoyed it after I cleaned me drawers.
Not sure if I told about stopping me black nissan on a cow track after she crossed the road in front of me.  I could look down and see the track as I watched her amble away.  I then looked over where she came from and a decent prairie bull was just jumping the fence on her track.  That big S.O.B. came right up to the passenger window, bent his head down to look in and then lowered it more as if to look under or worse, fork me truck off the road.  He then went around the front of the vehicle scraping both corners as he went.  Got back on the trail and I'm sure had a great afternoon :innocentwhistle:.  I know I did.
I say what I think not think what I say.

Okanagan

That is too close! 

An acquaintance of mine used to work in the Cranbrook BC government office, 25 or more years ago.  One early Fall day a fellow came in to file an auto insurance claim (government issued vehicle insurance for you Yanks).  He insisted that the office man come out and look at his vehicle to make sure no one disbelieved his claim.  In the parking lot was a Volkswagen beetle with two rows of holes spreading out as they went up the front hood, with a large dent dished out between them.

A bull moose had come onto a road ahead of him so the driver stopped.  The bull lowered its head, charged the VW, poked two rows of holes with the antler points, dented the sheet metal in between with his forehead, lifted the front of the car, then dropped it and left.  The driver was some shook up.

In your account, pitw, I though t you were going to say the bull jumped over your car.  I suspect that it was a good thing he had already found a cow to chase or he might have paused long enough in his quest to flip your car over!


FinsnFur

Good reads :eyebrownod: I didnt realize they were THAT aggressive. I would have been humored at one approaching my vehicle. But not now I wont :nono:
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Okanagan

A bull moose in rut is crazy unpredictable.  pitw was lucky, even though the odds of it attacking his car are fairly low.  Re tangling with a bull moose, I prefer zero odds to unknown ones.  They charge railroad locomotives head on sometimes.  And they roam astounding distances sometimes.  About 20 years ago a bull wandered into Blaine, WA, right on salt water and a mountain range away from where moose live.  It trotted around the high school football field and when local cops tried to herd it out of town, it casually jumped over one of the cop cars that was broadside to it.  It left on its own, nobody knows to where.