HOM: Adventures Afield, Finally a Moose

I finally shot a moose. Eventually. A cow moose up on Ashley Mountain. I didn't get a trophy, but I got a memory. Ashley was always a good spot for moose. Jim & I had seen a huge bull up there and once chased a moose down the road in my little Datsun pickup. We were coming down in the dark when it burst out of the bushes in front of us and took off down the road. Being young and dumb, we tried to catch it but it cornered better than the Datsun did and probably had more power. The chase ended a few hundred yards later when it left the road as hastily as it had entered it. This was probably a good thing, as the Datsun came close to leaving the road hastily too. This was before they closed the access road and you could still drive up to the old lookout site. On this particular day we'd gone up, parked, and then separated to hunt on foot. I was easing along an old trail when I ran into the cow and a calf coming toward me. We both stopped, but I guess the cow was curious because she kept looking at me, easing up a step or two, staring, another step, and another. At about thirty yards I decided she was close enough so I brought up the .338, put the crosshairs in the middle of one of her outstretched ears and fired, figuring I'd scare her off. All she did was shake her head and keep staring, with sunlight beaming through the fresh piercing I'd given her and a few drops of blood trickling down. I was surprised -- when I'd done the same thing years ago to one of the neighbor's cows it had left the scene in high gear! She stopped advancing, so I started backing away, then turned and left. When I looked back she was standing in the same spot, still staring. Nobody ever said moose were smart. Then again, nobody ever said I was either . . . TBC (Me) (Blacktail Books)