torichards said:
Thanks for the reply. I feel much better knowing that bears aren't really a problem. What about panthers?
Many of you have mentioned moose. What is the best non-lethal way to fend off or outright avoid an aggressive moose? What type of handgun would be sufficient for defense of an aggressive moose?
Seeing a Cougar in Utah is much more rare than seeing bears, which is, in my experience, already a fairly rare occurrence. (But I have seen bears at all times of the year - especially late-summer and early-fall, for the record.)
I will admit that I have been stalked by a Cougar, as have two of my brothers, but outside of one incident (on a
highway in the middle of the desert, no less), we all figure that the cat was curious and not actually hunting. In one case, it actually turned out that the Cougar was dragging a deer carcass back to its den for its cubs, and we (one of my brothers and I) just happened to be taking a similar route across the terrain (west-central Utah). And those incidents are tiny blips compared to the time we've spent in the mountains.
Even so... 9mm is more than enough for a Cougar. They are very fragile animals, in my opinion (I hunt Cougar and Bobcat here in Idaho).
Avoiding moose is the best option. If you see one, keep your distance and try not to anger it.
If you find yourself facing one that's becoming aggressive, back away while keeping an eye on them, and the other eye out for obstacles to hide behind.
I see moose all the time in the backcountry; but it's
usually easy to keep your distance. My personal record for sightings was 29 moose at the same time, with a total of 41 for the day (Weber/Rich counties). None of them were an issue that day.
This was just last week, the night before the aforementioned strapping-on of the .480 Ruger. This young bull moose decided to mosey on past our camp at about 75 yards, just before official sunset. He wasn't being aggressive, and seemed to really only be interested in finding some good forage while working his way down the canyon; but it's worth noting that the closest person to the moose at that point was my son ... and my niece was grabbing his head to make him step back behind the adults.
This is an area that we know to have a notable bear and moose population in the bowl just above camp (to the left in the photo), so we were prepared to see this ... and the three father-figures present all had sidearms.
To qualify my statements just a bit more, for clarity and perspective, so you don't think that my experiences are like those of every 'outdoorsperson' in the state...
I spend a lot of time in the mountains and deserts of Utah, and spent even more time there when I still
lived in Utah (I'm in Idaho now, if you didn't notice).
My hunting/camping truck was bought new in 2004 and has 87,000 miles on it; but over 30% of that mileage has been off road (and much of
that in 4-low). So, just backcountry seat time in my truck accounts for 26k-30k miles, or about 2,200-2,400 miles per year. It's a lot of time spent in the back country, and I make an effort to go to places that most other people consider inaccessible or not worth the effort (rough roads, can't get a trailer in, few stock trucks and almost no stock SUVs can make it, too far from highways, too far from a gas station, etc.). And once the truck is parked, I go deep on foot - especially during hunting season.
Point of reference: My preferred elk hunting location in the Uintahs is 13 miles from a maintained road, 27 miles from a paved road, and our camp is usually at the end of a nasty dead-end road, 8
miles from the next closest campsite.
My brothers are even 'worse' than I am. Every chance they get, they're headed to the mountains or desert. And if they have more than a day and a half to spare, they're headed deep into one of "our spots" that are far off the beaten path (generally
at least 15 miles from a paved road, often 6+ miles from a maintained dirt road).
Dead of winter, scorching heat of summer, and anything in between, at least one of us is out there ... somewhere.