Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game first moose hunt...which rifle....bullet combo

Like this?
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/10930025/Re:_Help_finding_an_unguided_o#Post10930025

This is probably better.

Re: Help finding an unguided outfitter for a Alaskan moose hunt [Re: wyolipripper]
Sitka deer Offline
Campfire Oracle

Registered: 02/02/01
Posts: 26813
Loc: Anchorage, AK USA
Originally Posted By wyolipripper
Thanks for everyone taking the time to respond to this post.
I will be looking into the outfitters mentioned above.
If we do this trip I am going make sure I am in great shape.

All the outfitters promise big things but I am really looking for first hand knowledge of a hunt. Raft float hunt vs a lake drop vs a regular drop camp.

Thanks


I strongly suggest you drop the float trip plan if you are not very experienced rafting rivers. Just a little bad luck can leave you in a very bad place, quickly. And you will be dealing with others of questionable experience...
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I thought the idea was to try to take em in the water. At shore of course.

I have been surprised more than once to open up a moose that walked away from the tracks he was in when shot through both scapula. Broken humerus seem to be a whole different deal, but the busted-up scapula aren't necessarily immobilizing.

If you want them immobilized then just do what I did. A 600gr Woodleigh soft point at 2180 out of a .505 Gibbs.
DEAD RIGHT THERE!



Plus hunting with open sighted big bores is a load of fun!

Yep, I bet that 505 gibbs does that even if gut shot... not.

But thats a nice round, always wanted something fairly big but for what reason I don't know.

Nice bull!

I threw 600 grains through a bull some years back with a 45-70....2-300 grainers. Both drilled the onside scapula, one, both of them. One exited. So did that bull, and uphill, for 25 yards or so.

I can think of three bulls that tipped over at impact via 30-06. The very first moose I ever shot with a 190 Interlock side x side through the ribs/lungs. The next took a 180 Grand Slam through the neck. Then there was a 180 E-Tip that went higher than planned above the lungs, severing the spine. Two others were via 340 Weatherby. The first time I fired that rifle at game, it was a 225 XFB which broke both scapula/humerus joints; the second a 250 GameKing which landed too far back and high. It entered in front of the femur/pelvis junction and angled forward, passing just under the kidneys - bruising them a bit. That bull may have died from a twisted neck as it fell, perhaps from being stunned by the bullet, rolling it's head up as the antlers caught in the tundra and the body skidded.

"Where" matters more than "what". (And then there was the bull that a buddy 'stunned' with a 22 Mag so his father in law could catch up and kill it. They have a hard head, but it ain't hard all over. 40 grains @ 1900 brained that dude and he was tipped over and perished before FIL came on scene. :| )

If hunting in BC, you need to be prepared to make a shot upwards of 450-500yds. A good 180gr bullet is a good starting point.

I'd have to disagree. The only shot my cow moose presented this last season was a pelvis (Texas heart) shot. I took the shot with the 400 Whelen and a 400 grain Hawk round nose at 75 yards. There wasn't a coffee cup full of damaged meat.

I've taken the shot a couple of other times on elk with a 30-06 and 300 H&H, both with 165 grain Partitions, and didn't find it doing much meat damage. Certainly not near as much as most shoulder shots. In all cases it instantly anchored the animals. In both instances the elk were hit in the chest but still on their feet. One was close to a state line and the other close to a very steep ravine. The pelvis shot anchored both and saved me a much longer pack on the one and prevented the other from crossing into another state. The landowner's farm was divided by the state line.

I took a pelvis shot to anchor a Bull I had already liver shot with a .450 Marlin. The meat damage was bad. The worst the butcher saw that year.

Bullet choice here is the issue.

Shoot em there with a stout bullet and not a mild cup and core one and you will loose, but it wont' be much....

I did a deer once to stop a wounded one with a cup and core... all I had.. it was not pretty.. I've done it since a couple of times same reason, TSX, no issues.
Watched one get done same back to cup and core in November, toss most of that meat...

Maybe this moose hunting ain't for me. I have no plans other than to try to put a round thru the heart or both lungs. Just how I was brought up, I guess.

Bullet selection has much to do with meat damage. The various common factory loads for a .450 all come with relatively soft bullets and exacerbate tissue destruction due. Same shot with a 400ish grain hard cast lead likely produces much less tissue damage.

I often hunt with TSXs for just this reason, minimal tissue damage. However I know that to get radical terminal effects I need to shoot substantial bones. Bang flops, that aren't CNS hits, are more common with softer bullets with greatly increased tissue/meat damage.

I agree. I was using 350 Hornady's and they are soft. A hard cast bullet wouldn't have done so much meat damage. But I was well equipped for the double lung shot I was intending to take.

Not to be labor a point or start an argument, but I have taken somewhere around 30 bull moose over the years and probably been in on 60 plus bulls down. My preferred shot placement is a heart lung shot for sure, but if I have to anchor one its a shoulder shot.

Alaska moose are bigger than Canada moose and that physical difference may be a factor.

Mart is right. That's why I like heavy for caliber bullets. I had a large bull faced away from me in some really think stuff and all I had was a hip. I used my 375 H&H with a 300 grain, Barnes (one of the few Barnes I've used) but it was like that bull was hit with a drill press. You could eat right up to the bullet hole. Heavier, high SD bullets don't damage the meat as bad.

Back to the OP either caliber will serve you well. Just remember all the fun is over once you pull the trigger Just use a heavy for caliber premium bullet.

I LIKE it once I pull the trigger!!

I hope my 6.5-06 and 127lrx will get the job done. If the gun dont like them Im going to go with 140 partitions.

I busted a pelvis up (unintentionally) when a second shot was needed and the young bull was trotting away at a sharp angle. The 225 XFB caught him in the hip and broke the pelvis into numerous chunks. The worst part of the job was trying to find the pieces of bone since none of the meat had telltale blood-shot to indicate wreckage. Perhaps the worst mess I've seen in a moose involved a 165 cup and core hitting a big bone in the shoulder. Much of that leg was bloodshot. Soft bullets and big bone combos are the problem. I would rarely choose a pelvis shot, but if the question is putting the animal down, it is a viable answer. It is a much more reliable "dropper" than the shoulder shots are. The latter- when they include lungs- are 100% lethal however.

I want to take a moose with the .270 Winchester. Not much difference between the two.