Moose hunt moan
The groan hunt requires exceptional restraint and calm. A hunter who has gathered at night in the wilderness of the forest must be resilient, as he has to travel long distances, go off-road, often with a swamp and in the dark. It is necessary to have to the extreme thin hearing and excellent vision, and most importantly – to possess ingenuity, be able to make quick decisions, instantly carry them out and be always a cold-blooded and good shooter.
Hunting moose for moan when meeting in the pre-dawn haze face to face with a forest giant is inimitable. It is not without reason that there are hunters who, without a gun, go on Saturday evening to specifically tease, listen and count forest handsome, who responded to a moan somewhere in a familiar grove of Moscow suburbs.
This is how D. Naryshkin, a connoisseur, describes this type of hunting for moose in the past: At first, an indistinct sound, resembling the distant croaking of a frog, becomes clearer, then turns into a moan; you can hear the beast still far away; then comes closer … The forest breaks under the powerful pressure of the angry animal; groans alternate with a dull, restrained roar; the tops of the nearest pines and birches sway; another crackling from a broken tree … The nearby willow tree first moves, as if from an invisible force, then moves apart – and in several fathoms there is a huge beast, in which you need to give a sure shot. I do not know the hunt is more beautiful in terms of the situation in our area, neither more fascinating nor filled with great sensations.
The moose hunt for moans is carried out as follows.
Having found a place where there are traces of lively behavior of elk, broken and bent trees and bushes torn up by the root, the hunter soon finds odorous round holes punched out by the elk, up to 1.5 m in diameter and up to 15-25 cm deep. You can immediately next morning, about an hour before dawn, or late in the evening, carefully “hook up” (beckon) the moose, for which a cone-shaped tube made of birch bark or a bottle with a broken bottom is used. Some experienced hunters perfectly imitate moose moose without any adaptations.
Going to hunt moose for moan can be one, but it is more convenient together: one – wabit, the other – shoots. Before you mock an elk, you need to choose a place from where the beast was clearly visible, and the hunter was covered and there was no interference with the shooting. Wabit must first be quiet (moose may be nearby), and then louder and louder, on the spot. If the beast does not respond, it is necessary to go another two hundred steps and entice. Wagging in the transition should not be: you can mock elk. If the moose responded, went to the wab, you need to beckon into the moan of a running beast. You must always lure a moose along its leeward side.
When the moose of moose occurs in the dark, and at dawn, the bulls are silent, you can try to approach them, combining the approach with a rare and careful beckoning of the beast. Such a maneuver is sometimes possible. The best moose hunt for moans is in quiet, cool weather. When selectively shooting, you cannot shoot the elk that first came to the waba, you cannot be in a hurry, you need to find out exactly whether there are older moose suitable for culling.
Hunting moose from the approach
This is the most accessible and common elk hunt. It is usually practiced in the winter – in a better way. In the absence of snow, hunting from the approach is also possible, but according to the black track it is very easy to lose a huge beast to a wounded one.
Moose hunting from the approach is permissible only in the period when the bulls have not yet dropped their horns, that is, with the first snow falling, until January 15. Later, it is dangerous, because instead of a bull a cow can be killed.
Hunting from the approach to the elk, or skradu to the elk, is carried out mainly together – three of us. If more people participate in it, it turns into a battue hunt (pen). There is a hunt from the approach or hiding moose at the places of its constant transitions and feeding. Among the many tracks of elk hunter is looking for traces of the old bull. If they are found, the search for the beast begins. Sometimes a hunter spends a day or two, or even more, on these searches, overcoming tens of kilometers on foot or on skis.
Running tracks of scared elks, as well as elks moving from one forest to another, are straightforward. The animals go almost straight, next to the next, not lingering for feeding, fearlessly overcoming open spaces in the forest, moving ten, and sometimes more kilometers, until they choose a new place for themselves. In a relaxed atmosphere, winter days and overnight moose take place in almost the same place. Therefore, fatty traces are often upholstered from a straight line, diverging to the sides, forming entirely trampled areas, which are again replaced by not very long paths to the next.
Before lying down after the morning feeding (which happens after 9-11 am), the moose disperse, leaving the bitten branches, the crust of the bark and the fresh heaps of “nuts”. This means that moose are close, somewhere near the edge of the forest or a separate clump of large trees among the undergrowth. Sometimes, the hunter opens up the lodgement or parking of elks by climbing .
