Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska perfect alaska/moose rifle

I don't see anything wrong with choosing the same round everyone else in the hunting party is using, really seems like a good approach for any group hunting together. If I loose or run out of ammo and my partner can loan me some or vice versa, there's nothing wrong with that. Same can be said for spare batteries for headlamps and a few other items as well. Considering how much time, money and effort is invested in a hunt, there is something to be said for limiting what can go wrong by having some redundancies.

The 30-06, .300 and .338 Winny and a decent bullet are very good cartridges for every thing in Alaska and ammo is usually every where for all three cartridges. I have used all three of them on moose, caribou and bears and they all died quickly. Your moose will probably be shot under 200 yards and will not fall over from your lung shot, so don' be bashful about sticking him again. If it is late in the day and heavily timbered try to catch some structure with the lung shot.

Stick with the lung/shoulder shot if at all possible, it is a big area. I am familiar with moose structure and parts and have shot several moose in the head and neck, but I live here and the shots were close and all that was presented to me. I know of a few who shot moose in the neck and never recovered the animal, a couple of them went down and jumped up and disappeared before the hunter could get another shot into them and a couple left pretty good blood trails before the snow and rain made tracking to much, big bummer!

Bullets, in the last 53 years I have had good success using Nosler Partitions and Barnes X bullets of some flavor. Behind shot placement is bullet structure and two holes let more blood and air out and make tracking easier. I don't want a bullet that expends all it's energy in the animal. I want a bullet that has enough of the "right stuff " to have penetration to spare!

On another note, I would not be surprised to find out more caribou are shot with a .223 Rem. then any other round. That round is very popular in remote Alaskan villages that have very liberal bag limits, like five to ten animals each. I know several people who have used it and some have taken moose with it using a Barnes X bullet. I am not advocating it, just passing info and I also believe many caribou in the bush areas have run off with .223 holes in them and were not recovered.

Many moose are killed every year with a .243 Winny, that goes for sheep, caribou and bears also. Shot placement and a good bullet are a proven combination. Us hunters are the only ones debating calibers, for the most part the critter does not care as long as the right bullet is put in the right place at a reasonable distance. Which explains why so many critters died long before the Partition showed up.

The sun is out and spring has sprung in Alaska. Yippeeee!!!!!!

Mucho over thinking going on here.

I was in exactly your position in 1997, hunting moose but needed to be ready for grizz as an 8' one had been seen several times in that bottom. bought a 35 Whelen and never regretted it. a bull moose did, and i was confident if the grizz showed up

well this will be my first hunting trip to Alaska and there has been some good information posted on here and yes we will be in the remote area with plenty bears I guess,so I`ll deal with it. I have been around bears alot out west bowhunting and rifle hunting for elk but have always had that good bear thing as they all ran away,but have had friends that had to deal with a bad bear thing while hunting. I live with black bears here in northern part of Minnesota just have a nuisance bear once in a while,our biggest problem is we have way to many wolves and someday here in Minnesota someone may get serious hurt because wolves have been coming into yards killing and eating pets and farm animals. I do think using a 7mm rem .mag. with 160 grain partitions should do what I need it to do on a bull moose and hopefully I just see good bears while in Alaska ! thanks for the great information !! Pete53

Pete,
The 160gn Partition is almost a traditional bullet in the 7mm Mag because it works so well but another option is the 175 Partition which you can get cheap and in bulk from SPS. 2950-3000 with Rel 26 is easy, accurate, and this bullet is a very hard hitter on game.

Just another option, as the 175 Partition is one of the most accurate bullets in all of my 7mm rifles from 7x57 up.
John

thank you I will get some of those bullets " 175 gr. partitions" ,I would say in Alaska bigger might be better ? Pete53

Deef-in-itely, I would say.
John

Load a 30-06 with some 180g Nosler Partitions or 200g trophy bonded bear claws abs go kill a moose. A local guy where I live killed one with a mos on nagant last December,you don’t need a magnum or some fancy turbo speed bullet to catch a moose.

yes your probably right, but my friends and myself will be all hunting with 7 mm Rem. mags out on the tundra a long ways out for up to 3 weeks, just much simpler and maybe even safer to use all the same cartridge on this hunt in big bear country. two of these guys live in Alaska and letting me go with them for free because their relative my friend goes to Alaska every other year hunting with them,i am getting a heck of fun trip cheap ! I already purchased a Sako finnbear 7 mm mag that was built in the late 60`s and its a nice rifle ,maybe better rifle than most new rifles ?

Good luck. The ammo deal is still funny as hell but whatever floats their boat.

Do you carry a small or large ammo can full of 7mag for each of you?

nope I am from Minnesota shoot a lot ,have my own rifle range with cement benches,shoot FTR class in master division,shoot some 1000 yard bench rest shoots,use too shoot 100-200 yard bench rest, won a couple of state titles in archery the hard class F.S. ,won plenty in trap too,besides what animals I have killed gun and bow. so for hunting a moose,caribou and a wolf my gun boot of 6 shells should be plenty. I guess I never thought about what other hunters carry ? which is it small or large bucket for you ? ?

It sounds like the money you're saving more than covers the cost of a new rifle and scope. What an opportunity, two wins for a great price!

It's interesting they specify the cartridge, but not the specific load for the cartridge. However, I guess a properly sited rifle can shoot any ammunition to within a minute of moose at 100 yds or so.

Good luck on your trip.

Did I read this correctly?
You are coming to hunt AK with six (6) rounds of ammunition?

I think you are reading a bit into that... I bet he comes back and says he only has a half-dozen rounds on him when he is out hunting.

yes > sitka deer read it right 6 shells in the rifle boot. oh i`ll bring up 3 boxes or 4 boxes of 20 and gift them to my new friends before I leave. these friends use 160 grain and 175 grain in a 7 rem.mag. for moose.

Just don't mind moments as such posted above your response. You have already decided what rifle and ammo to use, something that most Alaska moose hunters would agree with. Not a bad idea to bring ammo to Fairbanks, because while 7mm Magnum ammo should be locally available, as it gets close to moose season its gets a little more difficult to find the right bullet weight you want. The same for the .30-06, .300WM, .338WM, and the .375H&H.

I sometimes reload my own ammo for my .338's, but every now and then buy a box or two at the local stores long before moose season. That way I get the right kind of bullet and weight I want.

Make darned sure all ammo is in approved "ammo boxes", either factory, or plastic handloader-type.

6.5 creed