Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Help Me Pick a Moose Rifle and Scope

I am more than happy to second guess what that guy was doing. There were two bulls there plus cows/calves. The bull he shot ran a slightly smaller bull off. His shot went a bit high since he quite obvious either hit the spine - or close (probably), or his shot hit the kidneys. Getting the rug jerked out of his back end wasn't a centered lunger. Obviously the lungs were punctured judging by the blood out of nose/mouth, and presumably that was from the original shot, though it could have been a follow-up while motoring up - though I doubt that the way the animal went down; the hinds looked pretty much done. Perhaps the camera picked up the muzzle blast, but it looked like the bullet zipped through and landed to the right beyond the right hand animal.

A simple lung shot would probably have left some uncertainty about a lethal hit. Perhaps he was so confident in what he was doing that he wouldn't have shot again. Seems to me a fellow ought to finish it once it's started, but that's just me. Sorting out which animal was hit - maybe- among several milling moose is not a comfortable situation to be in, even at a small fraction of that distance! I don't know who was keeping an eye on the little girl besides the shooter. Had that turned into a rodeo, she becomes a big liability and would certainly make tracking an interesting deal.

I've seen a 300 Win Mag go to work on moose quite a few times at much less distance than that. It's one of the best, but it isn't an unlimited death beam.

And besides, when you've got moose doing what those animals are doing, and have a kid in tow, why not motor up closer and cow-call the 'loser'? How cool would that be for the kid to see a moose approach?

It's an interesting video to view, for sure, but it is so loaded with potential problems that it doesn't really offer much in the way of recommendations (other than go make some of those same videos but hunting moose-lems in Iraq. )

Not one for long shots, but on goats, bear and moose have had the chance to do it, but only as I felt it was doable. 25/06 for the goat, 375 H&H for bear and moose.
This is one bullet I did take a picture of, 300 grain Nosler partition.
Had the rifle sighted to be on at 300 yards, had to hold on the top of the mooses hump to hit him.

30/06 has been doing it for decades

Because of the 500 yard distance mentioned, I'd go with a fast 30 or 338. In this situation with the distance mentioned I'd pick the 300 WIN MAG over the 338 WIN MAG, but under 250 yards I'd do the reverse.
Best if you can shoot it would be a 338 RUM, 340 WBY MAG or 338 Lapua.
Pick the cartridge that'll work when things go wrong, not the one that only works when it's all cherry.

That 1100 meter shot seemed to take ~ 3 seconds from gun-shot to impact. I wouldn't take the chance on the critter moving, making a crippling shot - even if I was so equipped, and capable.

On this issue , yes. Waiting to hear from shtick, need to know what a phuqk-up I am at choosing a moose rig.

............Interestingly, no mention of what cartridge and bullet used.

i'm taking a 300 win mag after a Canadian one, topped it with a swarovski z6i 3-18x50. killed oryx and whitetail with it too. good all around rifle and round for what i do and what i wanna do. the oryx was shot with a 190 gr berger bullet


killed this guy in New Mexico 350 yards

Don't know about 500, but it worked fine at 440. M70 in 358STA with leupold 1.75-6X.

338 Rum, 338 Lapua, 358 Norma Mag, 338-378, 378, or big 50 BMG.

Many of these would work for mulligan moose.

My father shot a mulligan moose at 450 yards with an 8mm Remington Mag and I had to go out and finish it off. He is a good shot but even then his Bushnell Scopechief 3x9 was not up to the job.

Many hunters who like the long range hunting are moving to the 50 BMG. They say that it results in a bang flop.

Why was it the scopes fault instead of the limitations of the man behind the trigger, did the scope break?

Cheap scope. the poi would shift 6 inches at 450 yards. That would be a very long shot at that time. He had to engage very quickly because it was near Denali Highway and many people were hunting at the time. Late 1980s.

If you follow the link back to the YouTube site, the fellow, Trey, indicates that he used a 300 Win Mag.

Dedicated moose guns begin with .30 cals and get bigger. While any progectile that will penetrate the lungs will kill a moose and I love the 6.5x55, .270 and similar cartridges and have no issue hunting moose with them, a dedicated moose gun they are not.
The 500 yard portion of your request eliminates some personal favorite big moose guns such as the big bore levers, .358 Winchester and 9.3 & 8x57 mauser. I'd have to look at the .338, .358, .375 magnums, probably with the .358 Norma or a wildcat like my friends .366x300 win mag.

Hard to beat at 7mm in a Semi Custom CRF Winchester platform.
Bullet was 150gr TTSX over 65gr H4831SC. Federal Match Magnum Primers.

Love the color on that'un. (I've always wondered if those red/brown antlers resulted from thrashing mainly alders rather than just about everything else as some do.) Looks like you collected quite an adventure on that hunt.

Not exactly sure where he hunted but it can't be too far from here, the color of those moose antlers look totally normal :)They seem to like to rub on red alder and pine trees around here from what I have seen.

..........Thank you sir........I would not attempt an 1100 meter shot on a moose. But should I ever get the opportunity to take a 500 yard shot on a moose, then I think the middle cartridge below will do the trick...

Hunted 100 miles from Prince George. Same darn beautiful country.

Good moose country near P.G.