They shot him in the ass to "break him down"

[davewilson]

jwp, could you get a bike to that thing or did you have to pack it all out?

i've helped with close to a couple dozen moose and they're some work to say the least. in every case we could get the bikes close to them. of course that's usuually quite a bit of work getting the bikes there.

[Fiftydriver]

My comments here are directed to no one at all, just my personal feelings on the subject which I have come to learn from hunting with my Dad and Granddad while I was young and their feelings were passed onto me.

95% of our hunting is for deer, 80% of our red meat diet comes from venison and always has, the rest is made up of the occasional beef roast or burger when I was growing up.

When I was of age to hunt, my family had what was needed to get by but did not have alot of money. A 250 lb live weight whitetail or mule deer buck was truely valueable. A 150 lb live weight whitetail doe was just as valuable. Not so much for the trophy but for the food they provided for the family that was to last the entire year simply because we could not afford a steady diet of beef.

As such, we were taught to take shots that would damage as little meat as possible, generally, with river bottom whitetail hunting which was often under 150 yards, neck shots were the mainstay which is controversial all in of itself but when performed correctly, nothing is more instantainious as far as dropping a deer in its tracks.

Moving shots on game were not recommended because there was a good chance of taking out both shoulders which would be around 25-30 lbs of total meat on a big whitetail buck, meat that would make even more burger for the year.

Taking a shot at the rear end of a deer was simply of no option. If you did not have a shot at the neck, you did not shoot.

Over time this lessoned a bit and shoulder shots became the norm as we started taking longer range shots where a neck shot simply is not an ethical option.

Jump forward to where I am now. I have watched many hunting videos of African hunting and some on moose and bear hunting where the guide actually instructed the shooter before hand to prepare to take a rear end shot on these animals to break them down and then they could be finished off after that.

I will be honest, I would rather eat a tag then punch a big game animal in the ass just for the sake of of taking him home. This again is just my personal opinion on how I view hunting big game. Obviously the larger animals have enough body mass to take a hit in this area and still provide huge amounts of meat to still be recovered. That is not the point for me. Just been to hardwired over time to not even consider taking such a shot.

Now that said, I have made some bad shots in my life, I have taken some shots on moving critters and will fully admit I have hammered a ham or two in my life and felt sick about it. Certainly the animal was recovered but the memories of those hunts are still not all that great in my mind.

Now if the animal is wounded, all bets are off, bullets will be flying for as long as the animal is on its feet and I can see it no matter what angle the animal is to me, thats a totally different story.

Perhaps if I had been on a very long and hard hunt and presented with ONLY a tail end shot I would consider it, but I suspect I would consider it long enough that I would miss the opportunity for the shot anyway. Just something I do not think I could intentionally make myself do.

Again, I am not judging anyone on the subject, just offering my opinion and the background as to why I feel that way.

I can remember as a young man coming home with a good buck and my grandma was so proud because I had not ruined anything but neck meat. Did not matter that it was a nice mature whitetail, I had brought home all the meat I possibly could for my hunting license and that was something to be proud of in those days.

Guess that is still somewhat present in the back of my mind these days. Although I never have any problems shooting any big game animal squarely through both shoulders now and actually prefer that, I get uncomfortable on angles where that rear end swings to close to the vitals.

Just me though.

[jwp475]

Originally Posted by davewilson

jwp, could you get a bike to that thing or did you have to pack it all out?

i've helped with close to a couple dozen moose and they're some work to say the least. in every case we could get the bikes close to them. of course that's usuually quite a bit of work getting the bikes there.

I took that Moose in the late 80's on a fly in drop off hunt about 60 miles south east of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The hunting and the packing was totally on foot. A Moose that size takes 2 men about 4 days to get all of the boned out meat back to the camp site, which is by the land strip. It is a tremendous amount of hard work and packing. I killed this Moose about 4 Miles upstream from camp. My hunting partner also killed one at about the same location only a lot smaller and his took us about 2 1/2 days to pack back to camp.

That was a great hunt. I also took my best Caribou and got him with my revolver a 45 Colt in a Ruger Bisley.

[phorwath]

JWP475,

That's a nice bull moose and a lot of work and meat. A four-mile pack is a long pack even on a trail, let alone cross country. Good for you for getting him all back to the airstrip. Bet it was more work than you were counting on, unless you'd packed out moose before. I remember the first one I packed out. Whoa... a big difference between getting a deer out of the woods and a moose out of Alaska.

[jwp475]

I knew what I was getting into. This was not my first Moose nor my last, just my largest (body and antler) by far (body size)