First moose for the 2020 season for me

TurdusMerula

In a beautiful, frosty morning daschunds were unleashed into the forest and we had our posts. After about 45 minutes a cow moose came with two calves into my post. As we have six licences for the calves for this season and we haven't shot any I decided to shoot another one.

Bullet hit just behind the shoulder and the moose bolted forward on opening. I followed it with my eyes and after 50 meters it collapsed. 

We have a rule that we don't shoot another animal before the first one is down so other calve saved his/her life today as they followed this one when it run away.

Once again 180gr ttsx worked flawlessly. It entered just behind the right shoulder, made a huge wound channel to both lungs and exited from the middle of the fire gage on the left side of the animal. Minimal meat loss. Some blood between the membranes on the entering side. Exit side is totally clean.

I'm happy for the kill even though it's just a calf. Last season I didn't shoot a single moose so I welcome this with open arms.

Zee

That’s a lot of meat!

CHIRO1989

Does the calf taste different than the adults or is it just a natter of bed NG more tender meat? I am starting to think I need to have hunting moose with daschunds on my bucket list

Linefinder

The visual of daschunds  chasing moose cracks me up....LOL!

Mike

TurdusMerula

CHIRO1989 said:

Does the calf taste different than the adults or is it just a natter of bed NG more tender meat? I am starting to think I need to have hunting moose with daschunds on my bucket list

It’s just a bit milder and more tender. I like to eat moose meat. Calf or adult. It’s ”coarser’ than deer and I like about that

TurdusMerula

Linefinder said:

The visual of daschunds  chasing moose cracks me up....LOL!

Mike

In my opinion daschunds are one of the greatest dogs for the driven hunts. They are so slow, that game animals are calm and don’t run like there’s no tomorrow. They always has the edge when it comes to speed but daschunds are very tough and don’t give up. They just keep following the animals in rather small areas which is a big plus as we don’t hunt in vast endless forests. And most often they eventually end up in the line of fire. Even if they have few minutes advantage to dogs.

On the negative side daschunds can’t run in deeper snow or many hours straight. But in my opinion it’s better than some very stubborn Karelian bear dogs that can follow moose/bear for couple of days tens of miles away from home areas. Not very practical if one has to go to work on monday morning 😅

Linefinder

Back in Louisiana, most "deer dogs" were long-legged critters that could run as fast as a deer. So a deer would streak by you at Mach 10, and your chances of a kill were dismal, at best.

OTOH, the few doggers that knew what they were doing used short legged rabbit beagles for deer. Success rate was way higher for the exact reason you posted.

Mike

RugerFan

Linefinder said:

Back in Louisiana, most "deer dogs" were long-legged critters that could run as fast as a deer. So a deer would streak by you at Mach 10, and your chances of a kill were dismal, at best.

OTOH, the few doggers that knew what they were doing used short legged rabbit beagles for deer. Success rate was way higher for the exact reason you posted.

Mike

I used to deer hunt with a group that used short beagles. The owner would walk with the dogs. I watched deer trot along, then stop and eat until the dogs got closer then would trot along some more. Definitely not zooming by at 100 mph like at a later hunting club. 

Linefinder

One day while squirrel hunting (deer season wasn't open yet), I watched a short, fat beagle chase a mature doe across a half-grown clear cut. She'd let the dog get to within ~ 20 feet of her, then do 3 leaps, stop to browse a few leaves, then repeat the process. The beagle, OTOH, was obviously tuckered out, had lots of trouble navigating the downed timber, but wasn't giving up.

Had it been deer season and I was properly armed, I could have shot that deer 50 times before they were both out of sight.

But, the one dog driven deer hunt I actually participated in.....I saw 1 deer....for about 2 seconds, streaking by so fast it was gone before I was sure I'd seen it. The dog was right on its' heels. Kudos to the dog for his enthusiasm, but no human could have possibly shot that deer.

Mike

NN

Linefinder said:

One day while squirrel hunting (deer season wasn't open yet), I watched a short, fat beagle chase a mature doe across a half-grown clear cut. She'd let the dog get to within ~ 20 feet of her, then do 3 leaps, stop to browse a few leaves, then repeat the process. The beagle, OTOH, was obviously tuckered out, had lots of trouble navigating the downed timber, but wasn't giving up.

Had it been deer season and I was properly armed, I could have shot that deer 50 times before they were both out of sight.

But, the one dog driven deer hunt I actually participated in.....I saw 1 deer....for about 2 seconds, streaking by so fast it was gone before I was sure I'd seen it. The dog was right on its' heels. Kudos to the dog for his enthusiasm, but no human could have possibly shot that deer.

Mike

I have seen a similar event, the difference was that both the dog and the deer would stop and rest while watching each other.