jamesinalaska
Member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2015
- Messages
- 256
I was recently trading some equipment with an older gentleman, a long-time Alaskan resident of a type we often respectfully refer to as "sourdough". Of course we spoke about the equipments we were swapping, what work each piece needed and so forth, and, as all conversations tend, we also spoke about some about our hunting and fishing exploits when he told me what must have been one of his favorite stories and one of his best shots, of shooting a moose with his .22 rifle.
He said he was a teenager and one of eight children in a Norwegian family that moved from the midwest to the Kenai Pennisula in the 60's (this was long before the pipline) for the purpose of making a homestead. Having such a large family they were always on the watch for means to keep the larder full, he said, so one sunny afternoon he was out with his dad's .45 colt (revolver) and his brother's .22 rifle as hanging meat was low at the house. He was hoping to find a moose to take with the .45 or at least take some grouse or ptarmigan with the .22 when he saw a bull that had already dropped his antlers for the year.
"He was too far away for a pistol shot", he said, "about here to the corner." he said as he gestered to the corner of his shop which was easily 75 yards away. "So I decided to use the .22, and I aimed for the eye."
He said as got the rifle ready the moose stretched his neck out and raised his nose a litle into the air. (This is a behavior of all mammals, including us, to get a better smell of something suspicious.) He said he leaned against a tree, and aiming for the eye, fired one shot. "And it just stood there," he said, "frozen for like five seconds. And then it just fell over. Dead. I shot it right through the eye."
So it can be done, yes, it can be. But on his next birthday that man said his mom and dad gave him a 30.06 which he has used ever since.
He said he was a teenager and one of eight children in a Norwegian family that moved from the midwest to the Kenai Pennisula in the 60's (this was long before the pipline) for the purpose of making a homestead. Having such a large family they were always on the watch for means to keep the larder full, he said, so one sunny afternoon he was out with his dad's .45 colt (revolver) and his brother's .22 rifle as hanging meat was low at the house. He was hoping to find a moose to take with the .45 or at least take some grouse or ptarmigan with the .22 when he saw a bull that had already dropped his antlers for the year.
"He was too far away for a pistol shot", he said, "about here to the corner." he said as he gestered to the corner of his shop which was easily 75 yards away. "So I decided to use the .22, and I aimed for the eye."
He said as got the rifle ready the moose stretched his neck out and raised his nose a litle into the air. (This is a behavior of all mammals, including us, to get a better smell of something suspicious.) He said he leaned against a tree, and aiming for the eye, fired one shot. "And it just stood there," he said, "frozen for like five seconds. And then it just fell over. Dead. I shot it right through the eye."
So it can be done, yes, it can be. But on his next birthday that man said his mom and dad gave him a 30.06 which he has used ever since.