Just for the flip side, the hardest dying moose I ever killed was a fork-horn "yearling". And I'm pretty proud of my shooting on that one!
Pard and I had just landed the canoe on our camp island when he said- "There's a bull swimming toward us!" Just before the bull came ashore about 20 yards away, Dean moved, the bull saw him, and swam around the 1/4 acre island. By the time I got through all the deadfall, he was ashore on the mainland on the opposite side, 140 yards away (paced off that winter) . Shore-side screen of alder in front of me, so I jumped up on a big rotting birch log about 4' off the ground to shoot, standing (at least tottering...), off-hand through the more open top spaces. The .338WM was loaded with 250 gr. Trophy Bonded factory loads. The first round took him through both shoulder blades, about the middle. The second took out a front knee, the third as he was headed away toward the brush creased the front of his hind and exited the same hole as the first. He kept going!
I stuffed in a Sierra GK 250 gr hand load and punched him again, broadside, an inch under the first round, making the third bullet to use the same exit hole, now about inch and a half across in the far shoulder blade. It really wasn't needed, as he was staggering and unlikely to go more than another 5 yards, but he had made another 25 yards from the first shot. That's the most times I have shot- or shot at, any moose. I did have to shoot another fork horn 3 times. The second shot - to the back or his head (again the .338) was followed by the third round - second "insurance" round - when he blinked at me as I grabbed his antler to move him. That will get your attention!
I really prefer to shoot them just once unaware, before they get the adrenaline up! At least until I'd scared myself a couple times- now they ALL get an insurance shot from a few yards out, "dead", or not. Then a muzzle eye-poke, with a live chamber and safety off.
Last edited by las; 03/18/23.
