I probably shouldn't, but here I go
Enough already about the moose please, I don't mean to brag but I've probably hunted more moose than most of the people posting here have ever seen, and I'm not trying to denigrate anyone's advice that is worthwhile, but the basic advice has been given. I don't take hunting lightly either people, anyone who's out hunting an animal whose habits/ways they don't know, shouldn't be out there. For the most part if you bump into a moose in the wild, it will probably stand and stare at you and then walk slowly away. I had a moose watching me split firewood in a camp one time and didn't realize he was there until he made some noise walking away, and I was out there to shoot a moose! My most embarrassing hunting story, there you go. If a bull is horny, he's in a bad mood. If he charges, follow the advice about getting out of his field of vision. They aren't rocket scientists, trust me on that. Do not, under any circumstances try to face him down or confront him, you'll die it's that simple. If you can stand far enough back to get some shots at him and drop him, good for you, but don't count on it. I've seen .303 and .308 bullets deflect off of antlers. Seen it, people, no bs.
Again, in my personal experience only, the only bear I've heard of "charging" was the polar bear I mentioned in a previous post. Bear attacks that I'm aware of happened up very close and the bear slapped the crap out of some poor soul, often fatally. If you have a knife, go ahead and use it, but your chances of success are pretty slim. I saw film footage many many years ago of a griz killing a bull moose with one slap, broke his neck. The reason I took that shot at ultraviperman about bears and their passports is because they are all big and tough. If you know bears are around and you're out hiking, make some noise and they'll go out of their way to avoid you. If you leave food scents dangling around for them....serves you right.
Strider, my young friend, there's good advice from some seasoned wilderness veterans here, in fact, to me the thing that makes this site so good is the number of different situations the people here have covered in their lives, different geographies etc. So...pay attention, I've been doing this stuff for over 40 years,and I'm still willing to learn from other's expertise, so please take this for what it is, not criticism nor insult, but hopefully friendly advice.
and I guess that was my little rant about moose and bears, lol
ok, this is going to take a couple of minutes
Sarge, buddy this is for you...
I don't know if you're familiar with a movie called "The Seven Per Cent Solution" It's a Sherlock Holmes movie about the part of the story of ol' Sherlock being a drug addict. There's a scene in the movie where he's traveling through Switzerland by train and he's in this huge bout of depression and he says to Watson
"What if all the great minds of the world were travelling on the same train and an avalanche wiped out the train, killing them all?"
Watson responds, "I'm sure other great minds would be born, Holmes."
and Holmes says, "Ah, Watson, in a world full of avalanches, you are my one fixed point."
Well Sarge, I'm starting to think that in a world full of avalanches, you may be one of the true "fixed points" Thanks for that posting.