Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ok, .243 on moose

I've shot no mooses, but if I did get the chance I'd be packin' more heat than a .243.

To me it's a simple truism that "bullets from guns into vitals kill animals". So- of COURSE a .243 will kill a moose. How could it not?

A corollary truism is that there are limitations to consider with cartridge/animal pairings. A .223 on moose has limitations that a .338 does not. Both will kill, but the .338 opens up some more avenues for the Death Cab to use to get the participant to the big dance.

So in classic Campfire form this one has devolved into a black and white proposition, with one group nodding sagely that of course it will work; only DSMF's think otherwise! Meanwhile the other group is essentially saying they'd rather not work under the particular limits of this cartridge/critter pairing.

That's where I'm at. Compared to say an atlatl, a scoped .243 with a good bullet is an awesome instrument of death. It really is. However, my foggy memories of college physics tell me that if we hold as many things constant as possible- say, spitzer bullets of similar construction at similar velocities- a bigger cartridge can tear more chit up.

So that'd be my take. Tear more chit up. If the lad is recoil shy I'd work this summer to determine if he can shoot the '06 with 150's. If he can, then I'd load a monometal 150 and run that over the .243- or a more standard 180-gn bullet loaded to .303 velocities.

Just my opinion and I'm moose-less so it probably ain't worth the tome it took to type it out.