Moose hunt

I've not written anything in a while, been a bit busy with a few other things. I had the identification test last week. It was supposed to be the week before but the teacher in-charge of nature knowledge was ill and off work so it was postponed. I don't know if I passed the test? I don't even know if we're going to get our results? the teacher was not happy with the overall scores and it looks like we're all going to have to do it again. He played a little game in the test by adding extra tree and plant species that were not on our revision list so he could see how well we really knew what we were identifying. Obviously I gave everything a name weather I knew what it was or not.

Last week we got to join up with a local hunting club for a moose hunt. Because this hunt was quite close to a road the hunters didn't want to use their dogs in case the dogs ended up charging across the road and getting hit by a car. So we were there to do the dogs work.

Here is Vesa the head guy using a machete to show us the starting point for the morning drive and where we were trying to heard the moose to. What we had to do was line up with about 60 metres between each person and start walking in the direction of the hunters, who were waiting locked and loaded about a kilometre in front of us. We had to bang sticks together, shout, scream and just make as much noise as we could to try and scare the moose towards the hunters. That was the plan anyway.
We had to keep in line to try and stop any moose from finding any big gaps and slipping through. Even tho they are big animals they're sneaky fuckers and we were told they could easily get past us if we wern't careful. We didnt see anything in the morning so headed back to the hunters lodge for lunch and to plan the afternoon.

Refreshed and ready to go, we had a new area and we were hoping for a kill in the afternoon. We lined up again along a road this time, waited for the signal that the hunt had started and banged and shouted our way through the forest again. I was waiting the whole time to hear a gun shot but unfortunately I got to the line of hunters at the other end and we had nothing again. Then all of a sudden I heard Aras and Andy screaming they're heads off banging sticks together somewhere on my left, something came over the radio and there were reports of a moose heading our way so we waited hoping to see a moose charging through the trees.
What we actually saw was Aras and Andy, now arguing over who's fault it was that the moose got past. Apparently the moose had sized up Araz and walked back past him calm as you like,then it met Andy who jumped out screaming from behind a tree hoping to scare it, but the moose just paused for a second and carried on like he wasn't there. We were told after that moose are not really scared of humans and are not stupid, so there was no surprise that it wandered straight past as there were only two of them. When moose hunting using a dog the moose aren't scared, the dog will track down the moose and when it is in sight bark like mad. The moose don't run, just stand there staring at the dog, the hunters get to sneak up on the moose undetected by the noise the dog is making and line up their shot.

Ex-veggie Andy posing with his new friends

Ok so we didn't get anything on our day out, but they still had two hanging that were shot a few days ago. A young calf that was about six months old at the front and bigger boy behind about four years old.

While we were there having a cup of tea Vesa chopped up the little fella.

He wasn't messing around. I'm not joking this thing was in bit's in less than five minutes.

Ready to get shared out amongst the hunters.

Then he showed us where and how to get the best cuts of meat from one of the legs.

Job done. The best cuts from the leg, nothing wasted tho the rest of it goes in to make moose mincemeat.

 Hunting day over, then we had a few hours off before night time orienteering. Same deal as daylight orienteering but with one less control point and obviously your in the dark. I didn't mess around, It was raining and I was wearing my wellies and a big rain coat but I ran around the whole thing. I fell a few times and got my leg stuck between two rocks when I was climbing up a cliff but I was determined to pass. It went well, I passed first time round unlike the day orienteering which I'm pissed right off about and I'm not talking about that until I pass it so until next time.

Laters