Snowmobiler Attacked By Moose / Kills it With a Glock

[4949shooter]

Unknown caliber for now:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=008_1393078390

[Intercooler]

That's horrible!

[The_Shadow]

He could have waited and let the animal clear the path, his advancing enraged the moose.  Driving off and leaving it wasn't cool in my opinion!  It would be a waste and leaving it there might attract other animals like bears, wolves, coyotes or big cats.
It could have been drag off or reported to wildlife agents.

[Intercooler]

   I'm with you. You are on a snowmobile! Go another route, turn around and come back later, etc... Then shoot it (maybe babies there nearby) and not go back to get it for the meat? If you kill something like that at least don't waste the meat. Avoidable I think!

[4949shooter]

In the guy's defense, I don't think there was much room for him to turn around. I am not a snowmobile guy though, so maybe he could of.

He certainly could have given the moose it's space instead of encroaching on it. It's just a waiting game then, but eventually the moose would have left.That's what I would have done.

The Glock....I am thinking possibly a G30, but more likely maybe a G29.

[Intercooler]

I think this is a case of someone just looking to shoot something. In real life the same person could get into trouble with the same pistol.

[4949shooter]

I think what a lot of people tend to forget is that hindsight is always 20/20. If the rider would have had a crystal ball and would have known the moose was going to react that way, I believe he would have taken a different course of action.

It sucks that the moose had to be killed under the circumstances, but once it reached the point of no return the deed had to be done. Now, whether or not the rider went back and finished the moose off (if necessary) and reported the killing to the authorities, etc, is another story.

My purpose for posting this video is more or less to show what a determined man can do with a handgun.

[Intercooler]

 Different scenario. The Snowmobile guy doesn't have a gun. What's your course of action at that point and outcome 20/20?

[4949shooter]

Run or possibly die.

Did the presence of a handgun change the rider's course of action? We will never know.

Question for Intercooler....do you carry a handgun?

[Geeman]

Easy to jump to conclusions. 

Where I live, pretty much all wildlife runs away if you make a quick movement toward it.  It seems the rider behaved like that, expecting the moose to quickly move on. 

I'd likely have stopped just to observe.  I'm not sure the same thing might not of happened.  If the moose was using the trail for easy walking, and it wanted to walk in the direction of the snowmobile, the riders may still of had issues.

I'm fairly certain if I were in the same situation, my response would have likely been the same.  If after moving away after the first charge, I would have opened fire on a second agressive movement like my life depended on it. 

Greg

[Intercooler]

I live in MD where only COPS are allowed.  Next year I will after the move.

  Myself and my Brother are planning a hog hunt now. I will have two on me then for that.

I think having it there helped with this going the route it did. Backing up or turning around would likely have prevented this. It looks like joy riding with plenty of light left.

[4949shooter]

Well since you don't carry a handgun you would not have had much of a choice. But I think the safest choice for the rider at that point was to shoot. If he would have ran, trying to outrun a moose in the snow, I believe he and the other rider may have been trampled, and possibly even killed.

I will compare this to myself on a  trip to the mall with my wife. I always carry everywhere I go. If I am not carrying, it is simply because I forgot to slide a gun in my pocket before I left. Now, if I go to the mall and forget my gun, and there is an active shooter situation, my only course of action would be to get my wife to a protected spot and cover her with my body in an attempt to absorb the gun shots. This would be my response without a gun.

If I have my gun (which 99.9% of the time I do), my course of action is to get the shooter to stop firing. I would send my wife away from the shooter while I proceed to the shooter hopefully in an attempt to stop the deadly, illegal activity. Or if the shooter is close, have my wife hunker down behind some cover while I engage the shooter.

So you see, there are two different responses for the same active shooter scenario. One response is with a gun and one is without.

My point is, what was safest for the snowmobile rider once the moose committed was to shoot. I think we can all agree that running at that point would have been the "less safe" option.

Now...we can all agree that by the rider encroaching upon the moose, the situation was escalated. I don't disagree with that. But...and this a big but, we don't know the rider's prior experiences with moose. Perhaps the rider had never come across a moose on  the trail before, and this was the only way he thought he could get the moose to move. Or, perhaps he was very experienced with moose on the trail, and the last 25 moose he encountered just moved on after he pulled closer and made his "whooping" sounds. We don't know..

This is where the crystal ball would have come in handy.

Having a gun that day could have saved someone from severe injury, or even death. Or perhaps not.

But without a crystal ball, we won't know. And hindsight is always 20/20.

[Rich10]

Moose use snow trails for ease of travel.  Also, anyone living where moose live know they can be agressive.

@ 14 seconds into the video he decided to move forward.  He could have and should have waited.  Wildlife has the right of way according to most wildlife depts.

He is responsible.

[denclaste]

That moron should not be allowed to operate motorized vehicles let alone be allowed to carry a firearm. The old saying "you cant cure stupid" applies here.

[4949shooter]

Yep, he precipitated the shooting by encroaching on the moose.

But once the moose attacked, the shooting was justified.