I've had a bunch of incidents with critters over the years of both huntng & photographing them. Some have been just of the close encounter types while others have been more of the sphincter clenching variety. These are a few of the latter with moose, which I have written about over the years.
*************
About 35 years ago, I was on a deer/elk pack-in hunt back near the Hoback River in the Grey Mts. of Wyoming. There were about five other hunters in camp and one of them had drawn a moose permit. As I often did, I opted to hunt alone one day. I had rode to a place the outfitter had told me about, tied up my horse and walked up a small ridge. There was a game trail right on top, so I decided to sit on a stump a bit because it afforded a good view of the valley below.
I was there about 15 min. when I heard a shot from a heavily wooded area to my left. Five minutes later, I had a bull moose barreling down the trail toward my stump, and I could see blood pumping out of his side. I had my .264 across my lap but quickly raised it just in case. The moose kept coming. When it was about 10-12 yards from me, I shot it in brisket. He dropped immediately. As I was wiping my butt, the guy with the moose permit and his guide appeared to claim his prize.
**************
This incident also happened many, many moons ago when I was personally hunting moose in northern B.C. My Slavey indian guide, Jimmy, and I had left the main camp and set up a spike camp about 10 miles away near a lake . We spent six days searching for moose & caribou wthout much success. Then one day, we were riding across the side of a ridge in a light rain, and I had to take a leak. After I was done, I decided to glass across my saddle down into a valley below us. Within a minute, I saw something light-colored move in a big stand of alders. When it moved again, I could tell it was the palm of a bedded bull moose. I told Jimmy, and after he found it in his binoculars he asked me if I could shoot it from there, which was about a 1/2 mile. I just laughed, then told him we're heading down there. So I took off my rainsuit, hitched up my socks and we were on our way.
What I didn't realize was the alders lower down were much taller and thicker than they looked from above. We began to push our way thru them, and all of a sudden, the moose busted out, running along an open hillside about 125 yds away, above & broadside to us. I told Jimmy to bend over. While he covered his ears, I rested my elbows on his back and got off three quick shots. I heard each of them hit, and puffs of dust verified it. Jimmy heard them, as well. After each of the first two, he confirmed them with, "You got 'em." In turn, I said, "stay down" so I could keep shooting. Problem was the moose didn't seem to know I had hit him. He took off, racing over the top where we lost sight of him.
About 15 minutes later, we had worked our way thru the alders and over the hill. My moose was about 50 yards away, lying amid a lot of blown down jackpine-type trees with brush on either side. His head was fairly upright & moving. While Jimmy, who didn't even have a gun, stood off to the side, I moved around in front until I was about 10 yards away. I planned to shoot just under his chin, but when I raised the rifle, it was still on 9X; all I could see was hair. I lowered the gun to adjust the scope. When I did the moose gathered his legs, stood tall and started toward me.
Uphill from me, he seemed huge -- like I was looking up at his head ten feet above me. I turned to run, but tripped on one of the deadfalls. Both me and the rifle went flying. As I covered my head with my arms, I yelled to Jimmy to tell my wife I love her. Then I heard the crash.
The moose had fell dead about 10 feet behind me. When we skinned him, we found all three of my bullets against the far-side hide in an area about the size of a pie plate They had pretty much wiped out the lungs but had missed the heart. And I survived!
********************
A moose incident from a photo safari at Yellowstone NP.
I had located a decent bull that was meandering between the road and the shoreline of Yellowstone Lake. So I parked my truck, grabbed my cameras and proceeded to get into a good spot to take some pics. I was doing just fine; I snapped the shutter and the moose continued what he was doing.
That all changed when a bus load of Japanese (maybe Chinese) tourists also saw the moose and dismounted the bus in mass. Within two minutes they had the moose's attention as they closed in on it from behind.
Then he started toward me; he didn't appear real happy. I couldn't get to the road so I quickly backed up to a very large downed ponderosa that had been propped up withe lower part about 3' above the ground. I was able to duck under it to the other side just before the moose arrived, reared on his hind legs and hammered the downed tree with his front hooves. I was literally shaking in my boots. It seemed like a very long time, but it was probably only two minutes or less before he got bored with me, moved down to where the tree entered the water and walked around the tree to my side. That's when I ducked back to the other side and ran as fast as I could to the road and my truck. I sat there and watched while the tourists loaded back on the bus as if nothing unusual had happened.
