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.
Link to Gun Watch 

[Zuriel]

**When he first spotted the moose on the trail, he could have waited for it to move on. Instead, he approached.**

I agree. Approaching just stirred the beast up up. It was just minding it’s own business, living and surviving. The snowmobilers are out entertaining themselves. If it started to approach and kept coming, just step behind a tree, weapon drawn just in case.

My wife was sorry she saw this video. Her response: Stupid snowmobilers! They probably have more money than brains!

[STYRO]

Many snowmobiles do indeed have a ‘reverse’.

[marktwain]

Yes, you can turn around on the trail, but it takes time and effort to do so. While you are doing so, you have to get off the machine and make yourself very vulnerable to attack. This did not take very long. The snowmobiler could easily have been attacked while trying to turn the machine around, and then what? They then have to stop again for the following machine which comes up in a few seconds.

No one seems to see the problem with allowing a big dangerous animal who has shown that they are willing to attack access to the following snowmobiler when *they* have to stop because of your machine in the trail.

The snowmobiler not only was defending themselves, they were defending the following snowmobiler as well.

[marktwain]

“Moose are fat, sweet, jealous retarded ballerinas: be nice.”

That sometimes attack and kill people without warning.

[fso301]

The snowmobilers are out entertaining themselves. If it started to approach and kept coming, just step behind a tree, weapon drawn just in case.

They are the sort of jackasses that give hunters and gun owners a bad reputation.

[marktwain]

**When he first spotted the moose on the trail, he could have waited for it to move on. Instead, he approached.**

“I agree. Approaching just stirred the beast up up. It was just minding it’s own business, living and surviving. The snowmobilers are out entertaining themselves. If it started to approach and kept coming, just step behind a tree, weapon drawn just in case.”

Monday morning quarterbacking. We get exactly the opposite advice for most animal situations. Make noise so that they know you are there. If the snowmobiler would have stopped and made not more noise, and the moose attacked, then people would be saying, “Why didn’t he make some noise?”

[marktwain]

“The snowmobilers are out entertaining themselves. If it started to approach and kept coming, just step behind a tree, weapon drawn just in case.”

Maybe you know that. I do not. For all I know these snowmobilers are returning to a remote cabin from shopping in Fairbanks, 50 miles away.

[marktwain]

“First, I’d get away from the animal. I am not biologically attached to a skidoo.
Second, I’d watch the scenario from behind a tree and mount my skidoo when the big beast wants to leave.”

So you flounder away from your machine in hip deep snow, making yourself perfectly vulnerable to get stomped to death. And looking like a predator trying to flank the moose. Remember, there is another machine with another vulnerable person coming up behind you.

It does not look like a viable option to me, but feel free to try it next time you are attacked by a moose. People are worth more than moose.

It is easy to come up with “what if” scenarios that turn out differently. This guy had seconds to react, and worked hard at not killing the moose. He was almost killed for his efforts.

[bandleader]

Next time,leave the Glock at home and borrow my 500 S&W Magnum.The noise alone would have scared him off!

[fso301]

Maybe you know that. I do not. For all I know these snowmobilers are returning to a remote cabin from shopping in Fairbanks, 50 miles away.

I doubt such trail would be so well traveled by other snowmobiles.

These jackasses had other options. Instead, they confronted the moose, shot and left it to die.

[bandleader]

If he had bitten my father’s widow(not me MUM),he would have DIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[marktwain]

“I doubt such trail would be so well traveled by other snowmobiles.”

So, they should leave a dangerous animal that has shown an willingness to attack and kill humans, available in an area where other humans are travelling.

Tell me, if it was a human that had committed the deadly attack, would you have felt the shooting was justified?

[JoeProBono]

[marktwain]

Now picture an 800 lb man trying to crush your head and spine with one of those in each hand.

[fso301]

So, they should leave a dangerous animal that has shown an willingness to attack and kill humans, available in an area where other humans are travelling.

Go back and look at the video. They first stop 50-75 yards short of the moose then advance. If the moose wasn't going to get off the trail, why couldn't the snowmobilers just get off the trail and go around a short distance?

Tell me, if it was a human that had committed the deadly attack, would you have felt the shooting was justified?

If unprovoked, the shooting was justified. However, if provoked, there should be some consequence to the shooter.

[familyop]

Yep. Animal worship and hatred against neighbors who are people. It’s like a disease, and it’s certainly not conservative.

The War on Humans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWcEYYj_-rg

[marktwain]

“Go back and look at the video. They first stop 50-75 yards short of the moose then advance. If the moose wasn’t going to get off the trail, why couldn’t the snowmobilers just get off the trail and go around a short distance?”

They can’t. The woods and deep, fluffy snow block them. The snowmobiler advances very slowly so as not to frighten the moose and to give it time to move. It decides to attack.

If a human acted as the moose did, I would consider the snowmobiler fully justified in shooting.

[EinNYC]

What an egotistical ass. Why couldn’t he just go back the way he came or go on another trail? The moose had to die for this idiot’s RECREATION??? Had he removed himself from the moose’s vicinity, the moose would likely have just gone about its business.

[familyop]

People have constitutional rights—not animals.

[marktwain]

“What an egotistical ass. Why couldn’t he just go back the way he came or go on another trail? The moose had to die for this idiot’s RECREATION??? Had he removed himself from the moose’s vicinity, the moose would likely have just gone about its business.”

So this guy should just have let himself be killed rather than killing the moose? You do know that if he allowed the moose to kill or severely injure him, the moose would then have been put down anyway, don't you?

To turn your words around, the moose decided to kill this guy just because he wanted to use the trail? Animals are not worth as much as people. This may be hard to see from New York City, but a moose is a food animal. We eat them.