Interesting thoughts from all here. Should I be fortunate to do something like a DIY moose hunt, I would very likely take my .35 Whelen shooting my pet load of 225 gr. Barned TSX at 2710 FPS and never look back.
However, as the OP's question stated the rifle must be a 30-06.
A very many years ago my first serious big game rifle was a 1917 Enfield that I bubba's into a spote of sorts. Several years late I had a local gunsmit make it right. Game hunted was coastal Blacktail dee in California and bullet of choice was the 150 gr. Sierra spitzer over a charge of milsurp 4895. Guess you could all it H4895. I won't even there with the fun of using tht stuff but the loads killed deer. That was late 1956 as I recall. I used that load like forever, even on big Nevada Mule Deer when I moved to that state. in 1970. A friend I partnered up with convinced me 180 gr. bullets were the way to gp so I went with the 180 gr. Sierras. Not sure if they were still not calling them Pro-hinters at that time and one of the boxed I have left still has the California address on it. I'd worked up a load for elk in the rifle I had at the time, a J.C. Higgins M50 a late friend had given me before he passed and it was the 180 gr. Nosler Partition at an stimated 2700 FPS. I killed the biggest bodied Mule Deer I ever saw with that load and almost lost it due to improper bullet action. Took three shots to bring that big boy down and on autopsy, it was apparent that none of the bullets expanded. The hole though the lungs looked like I'd poked it with a pencil. Certainly did not look like advertised Nosler results. Very disappointing. Went back to regular cup and core bullets for deer anyway.
After reading aall the comments on this thread, I'd probably go with either the 180 gr. Partition or maybe the 200 gr. Partition. It would depend on which my rifle liked best and if velocity was high enough that I'd feel comfortable with the load. I'm thinking that probably Bullwinkle would not be an awfully long range proposition and mostly likely any problem with a bear would be up close and personal. So rather than varmint grade accuracy, which would ne nice is possible, I think I would work toward as safe a high velocity as I could garner and accuracy at 100 yards of 1.5" or less. After all, Brown Bears and Moose are not exactly small targets. All this is hypothetical anyway as I'll probably never do that kind of a hunt ever. Too old and too fat.
Paul B.
