Late October Moose Rut

[gitano]

Must be 'the season'.






I was walking by my dining room window when I noticed an 'nice' bull moose in the woods just outside. He was headed out into my yard, (toward my apple trees, ), I grabbed my phone and headed for the deck. When I opened the door, he spooked a bit, but more significantly, a cow jumped out from under the deck. I hustled to get a picture of her, but she kinda high-tailed it out to the driveway. The bull was moving pretty quickly after her. Then ANOTHER bull popped out from under the deck! This was a little fork-horn. The bigger bull was 'comin on', and the little guy whirled to face the bigger bull and lowered his head as if to fight. Although, considering how he turned tail and RAN away, he may just have been surprised by the bigger bull and was turning to defend himself. The bigger bull didn't seem to even notice him.

The bull and cow, (clearly last year's calf - 18 months old), met up in the driveway. We thought there was going to be some breeding as the cow was clearly receptive. The bull MAY have been 'tired'. I don't know.

Anyway, got some good pictures and mediocre video. I won't be surprised to see these two around for a couple of days.


While this bull's rack is nothing to write home about, his body is "good". He's healthy, and 'stout'. Which means, providing he survives the winter, he'll be a 'big' bull next year. He'll probably make it to 'legal' next year, but in two years, he's gonna be a bruiser if a car, hunter, or poacher doesn't get him first. Next year he'll probably have a 50" spread which will make him legal (just), which means he'll probably get killed. One way or the other. That won't happen in my yard. At least not at 50". If he makes it two years, and his rack makes it to 60", AND he wanders into my yard IN SEASON, I'll shoot him. But... he' GOT to be clearly 60" for me to take him. I don't have a 60" moose, ("the" trophy for moose, like a 40" ram for sheep), so I'd shoot him in my yard, but again, that's at LEAST 2 years away, and neither of us may be alive then.



Paul