Moose, Meeses, Mouses?

DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM.
So, as stated on my facebook page, I went moose hunting last week.  I wanted to explain a bit about the Swedish or European style of hunting and how it is different from what I know of as hunting.  This is simply my impression and what I have gathered thus far.  I am sure there are going to be some exceptions and I may have misinterpreted something along the way.  But first a history lesson and some facts about Swedish hunting culture.

History:

My attempt at showing the size of sweden
against the USA...lets just say its tiny.

Moose management before 1830 in Sweden started as early as 1347!  It was (as we learned from Robin Hood) privilege of the King and his men.  It was in 1789 that all landowners were given rights to hunt, and the moose population was less than 1000 individuals!  Wow!  Considering the peak harvest for moose in Sweden in the early 80's was >174,000 individuals IN ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is not counting the some >6,000 that were reported as roadkill.

Sweden is about the size of California.  They now take something like 70,000 moose a year. Imagine that, there were less than 70,000 people in Sante Fe New Mexico in 2005.  Of course, thats nothing compared to New York growing by 70,000 people in the last 15 months this year!  Maybe all those people would like a moose for themselves?

How to Hunt:

Moose hunting in Sweden is done in groups.   It reminds me of stories I read about Raj's or Kings hunting back in the day.  The king rests on his pillow, has beautiful slave girls feeding him grapes as he waits for the peons to push the dangerous animals towards his location.  Then, if he has enough motivation to sit up and pull the trigger and kill the animal he will do so - else the beaters start all over again.  OK, maybe not as snobby as that - Jim Corbet a famous hunter and conservationist in India would use this technique to flush out man eaters (which was often dangerous for the beaters).  I would also imagine some kings and Raj's that were into hunting, were really into hunting and therefore not as lazy as I depict.  

Anyway, there is a hunt master who is in charge of the hunt.  He is the guy with the "on the ground" knowledge about how the animals move through the system, where the animals are hanging out and where the "hotspots" will be.  He is the organizer of the hunt and he will position the hunters along a transect.  Usually a road or trail of some kind.  These "hunters" are about 300-500m apart (closer to 300).  They are instructed to not shoot at the houses, the buildings, the cars, and other people.  They are also instructed to shoot calves and bulls.  All they do is sit/stand there and wait for a moose to come by.  So....then there are the "beaters" or "pushers".  These are people that attempt to line themselves up and to call and shout as they move along in a line towards the stationed hunters. On my beat, I had to call very loudly at one point so that the hunters could know where I was so they wouldn't shoot me.

 As we are now super fancy with our technology, I, as a beater, was equipped with a GPS transmitter (also known as a dog collar) that some of the hunters could track my movements in real time.  Those hunters could see my movement on their GPS units and direct us by radio.  Instead of using people, another option is to hunt with dogs.  You set a moose hunting dog loose a (loose moose hunting dog-say that 3x fast) and watch it on your GPS unit and track its movements.  Once a dog has "cornered" the moose (it will keep a safe distance away from the moose and just bark at it), you sneak up on the moose and shoot it. (from my understanding, this is the closest method to what Im familiar with in USA...however, I am a bit fuzzy of how/who gets to sneak up on the dog if you are hunting in a group of so many people and not supposed to shoot anyone).

Once a moose has been directed into the line of fire or cornered and its been shot, they extract it from the forest and taken back to Grimsö.  Now, this is how Grimsö does it...Other hunting groups will have different facilities and different organizations to their hunt.

The whitish dog is not a moose hunting dog
but the other little dog is.  

 If you hunt on Grimsö property (which you pay to have a "membership"),  Grimsö does not allow you to keep the moose meat, rather they distribute it to all the people who sign up on a list who would like to purchase meat.  You as the hunter get to keep the skull/antlers and the tongue and heart if you want them.  Often hunting teams will split the moose meat between the hunters for that day/week/effort.  They will hunt here in Grimsö every Tuesday and Wed until January.   If you hunt on Grimso, you have great resources at your finger tips regarding manual labor and cleaning of the carcass   Basically there is a man (his name is Lhasa) who will come and help extract your moose, he will take it back to the barn and skin and quarter the beast before you even have your afternoon cup of tea.  He will also clean the skulls for you.  Granted, you are paying a membership fee to hunt on this land so this is all part of the package.

This is the moose hauler thing
it has tracks on it like a tank

On my moose hunting trip, we found the moose (he wandered off with a bullet in his body) and got to use this lovely moose hauler thing to help us pull it out of the pond.  Once on dry land I held a leg as the guys gutted it and removed the rumen.  Then, it was standing back and watching the moose hauler drag the moose out of the forest.  I barely did anything. Unlike when Doc and I got our moose in Alaska.  We had to quarter that thing in the field standing in a bog.  I could barely lift a leg to haul it the 1/4 mile back to camp.

A bit about Organizing a Hunting Group:

If you are a landowner, you will often join into a hunting organization with landowners surrounding your property.  You as the landowner OR you as a hunter can join and pay for hunting rights to some hunting group.  Often, you pay to hunt on the same land for years if not generations. These units come up with a harvest management plan which should somewhat follow the guidelines that the Municipality has outlined for that general "area", as long as they are somewhat following the guidelines they can do pretty much what they want on their section of land. So, unlike in USA where the state Fish and Wildlife department sets the harvest goal, it is the local management unit that sets their goal for how they want to manage the moose in their area.  

This is considered a "big" bull
for the area

To get a hunting license in Sweden you have to pass the hunter safety course and then you have to pass the shooting test.  The shooting test means you have to shoot at a stationary moose target and a moving moose target from 80m.  You have to shoot it in the "kill zone" and score a 14 or higher in 4 shots.  Grimsö chooses to make that exam slightly harder in that you have to get a 17 out of 20.  You have to shoot 2x at the stationary and 2x at the moving target.  Being a foreigner, and being a part of the Grimsö team, I too would have to pass the shooting exam, provided I prove my hunter safety is OK.  You are also supposed to join the National Hunter Association which is about $100 a year membership fee.