Moose.
I was going back in before daylight one morning, to camp and hunt over the weekend, when I heard a bull calling, "Thwup, thuwp, thwup". One can make this call with a metal can and string devise, but that's the only time I ever heard a moose make it, but I'd done my homework and knew what it was.. It was coming my way, and getting light, so I took my pack off, sat on it, chambered a 210 NP round in the .338WM rifle, and waited.
First a couple cows traversed an opening on a small ridge about 100 yards away, followed by a legal bull, long enough for i.d. not long enough to then shoot I pulled up on the next small (really small!) opening and waited. The two cows came through, and what I THOUGHT was the same bull. I shot, the moose all bolted. Next I saw was the two cows and my bull bolting through the next and larger opening. The bull stopped behind a clump of brush but there was no way out for him that I would not get a shot when he left , so I waited for him to go down, which I expected momentarily, or for the 2nd shot opportunity
Then I heard thrashing and kind of bubble-breathing back toward where I'd first fired. "What the hell did I shoot?" About that time the brush-hidden bull moved out and I got another look at him - he looked the same as the first bull I'd looked at.
"WHAT THE HELL DID I SHOOT?"
Note to self - FINAL IDENTIFY AGAIN, before tripping that trigger!
I walked up on my downed bull and things got interesting. When I was 10-15 feet away he surged to his feet, and I more or less one-handed the second 210 NP round "up his nose" - actually between the eyes. More or less.....
Note to self: that's the last time I approach from the front, and always put an insurance shot in from a few yards away.
The two bulls were virtually identical - I suspect they were twins. Luckily the downed bull made noise before I shot the standing one "again".
The first round had disintegrated on the shoulder blade, shattering it sending bb-sized bits of bone and lead into the near side lung only. No penetration to the off-lung at all. I never found the rear portion of the NP - I suspect it richochetted or fell out of the large entry wound.
Note to self : don't use 210 NP on moose. and I never have on anything since. Probably OK for caribou, tho. Or deer. Or coyotes.
I still have no idea whether I shot the first or second bull following those cows.
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
One of my hunting knives is still there, somewhere....
