Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6.5x55 for mooose

what is the most common load/ammo used to harvest moose in Scandinavia/Sweden?

From what I experienced there, the folks that carried a 6.5x55 shot the 156 Norma Oryx or the 155 Lapua Mega.

Yep.

I'll bet I've recovered about 20 of the 156gr Norma bullets when helping to skin & butcher moose. Perhaps a quarter of the shots exit the moose but no more.

Moose are great bullet catchers.

Every one of these bullets could have been photographed and used in an advertising campaign. Very consistent performance.

High retained mass, large expanded diameter (and this is true of the Norma Oryx bullets in .30 cal and 9.3 too -- I've dug out lots of them too).



John (in Sweden)

I have never hunted in Sweden, nor have I hunted moose with my 6.5 x 55. You will find a lengthy discussion of this at " https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/4031864/Re_6_5x55_for_Moose_Really "

Page 2 has a comment with part of it......"a magazine with an article about Moose hunting in Sweden. The jist of the article was a study done by the Swedeish Game Departmment, in which their officers went with hunters who shot Moose with different rifles and cartridges, and actually measured how far they went after the first shot and any follow up shots. IIRC this was done on at least 1000 Moose. They found 6.5x55's killed just as well and many times quicker than larger daimeter and more powerfull rounds. The exception was IIRC the 358 Norma (or some such round) and then it was only marginally better. It was a very interesting read, and the number of animals killed was a certainly adequate to prove or disprove a point."

I don't have the specifics but there is a formula for the minimal caliber/cartridge to hunt specific game with. They consider the caliber, the bullet weight, velocity etc and they is a minimum energy required at 100 meters. I do know they have a shooting test to verify your ability to hit moving game and this is required to even get your hunting license. If you check the websites for Norma, RWS, etc you will find several bullets of 156 and 160 grain designed for large game. I don't think they would be producing these if someone wasn't buying them. I doubt if they are bought for target practice so I assume many are being used in hunting throughout Europe.

John,

What's your cartridge & bullet of choice for moose?

Hi Teeder,

Although I have a 7mm Rem Mag, I also use both a .358 Norma Magnum, and a .375 H&H Magnum on Bullwinkles.

Yes, we all know moose that aren't incredibly hard to kill... I've killed'em with a 6.5 x 55 Swedish Mauser, .303 British...

I mostly take my Sako .375 H & H when hunting moose just because it has a McMillan stock which puts my eye perfectly in line with the scope and is very comfortable to shoot.

My .375 H&H is also quite light (it has the same outside barrel contour as the 7mm Mag but a much bigger hole inside!) and I like the balance of it too.

Overall, I just really the rifle -- and it happens to be in .375 H&H so that is my cartridge of choice.

I've been loading the monolithic Barnes TSX because they shoot well from my rifle. No bullet recoveries with the .375 Mag though -- even moose are not THAT good at being bullet catchers.

John

thank you

John is that the rifle you used while in North America? Thanks for your time. Cheers NC

I've not used a Swede on Scandinavian moose, but on the Alaska-Yukon variety I've seen it work. I put a 139 Scenar through the left front shoulder of a 40 inch meat bull several years ago and down he went. I can only surmise that a NPT, TSX, or other "hunting" bullet would have done likewise.

I don't know, but, I'd load the 160 gr Woodleigh Weldcores to an easy 2550 fps and have at it.

My cousin from Sweden worked for Norma and he claims the 6.5x55 is a great moose cartridge.

I think they have smaller moose there.

Scandinavian moose are about the size of Shiras moose, which tend to be a little bigger than North American elk. The heaviest bull elk weighed in Montana went 1010 pounds whole, while the heaviest bull moose went 1117.

I hunted moose in Finland in 2015, which per usual in Scandinavia was done by driving with dogs. I didn't see one, but almost got to see the only moose taken during the hunt, a bull calf shot by the guy 250 yards to my left. I heard the first shot (a miss), taken as the moose ran across an opening, and the second shot--a hit, closely followed by a bullet thump, taken when the moose stopped after the first shot. Got there a minute or so later, finding the calf to be about the size of a typical cow elk. The hunter used a .308 Winchester with Lapua ammo, a common combination in Finland, and in fact on that hunt and one for red deer in Norway I found the .308 to be more popular than the 6.5x55.

As has been noted earlier here, moose aren't hard to kill. The quickest I've seen a bull dropped with a lung shot was with the dreaded .270 Winchester and a 150-grain Partition. That was the 34" Shiras bull my wife got in 1989. The moose stood quartering away at about 125 yards, and the bullet landed toward the rear of the ribs on the left side,, ending up in the right shoulder. The bull took a step and a half and dropped dead. Not a huge moose, but as big-bodied as any elk I've seen on the ground.

FYI, my GF used my swede and 130 accubonds to take her mature Canadian cow moose last fall.

I have 2 boxes of Norma 156 oryx for sale, if anyone is interested

I hunted moose in Finland in 2004. About half of the hunt club members there used something other than the 6.5x55. Several were happy to show us their Swede's though. Rifles that were passed down from father to son. Several we were told were some of the 'original' rifles re-worked by Sako for the Finnish military in their war for independence from Russia back in 1917 or so. The one's that were shooting the 6.5's were shooting the heavier bullets, the oryx and similar stuff.
Sure would like to go back and hunt there again sometime!

No doubt the Swede can kill Elg. Those that have hunted in Scandanavia do you think the hunting conditions were a big factor in the out come of the often quoted study?

The control programs are so well developed they encourage shooting calves, yearlings and cows. Do the sub Artic and Arboreal forests encourage shots at closer ranges? The prevalence of Elghounds could go either way, moose shot at close range after baying and those fast running shots at driven moose.

I can't help getting a funny mental image of moose hunting with a pack of Dachshunds like what Mule Deer described for deer hunting in Sweden.

Can't speak on all of the Scandinavian hunting. My hunt was a driven hunt, no dogs. Only dog around was a long-haird dachshund that was used to track the one moose calf that was shot. The area we hunted was about 60 KM from Rhihimaki to the north. The area had some mixed timber - poplar, birch and pine were the prevalent species. Quite a bit of underbrush but not so much as to really make it impenetrable. The drives were fairly long - 2-7 km from start to standers. The explanation I got from our hosts was most firearms were passed down from generation to generation though purchase of a new firearm wasn't difficult. Many of the hunters we were around (there were about 40-50 in camp) carried 'modern' cartridges, 30-06 and 308 seemed to be in some prevalence but a lot were carrying great-grand-dad's Moisen-Nagant re-chambered/barreled to the Swede.
Ranges I could have shot ranged from in your face to as much as 150 meters or so.

do any of them use the 358 norma mag?

While I've never hunter moose or been to Scandinavia, I did live in British Columbia for a few years. The two most prevalent cartridges I saw used for moose while I lived there were the .30-06 and the .303 Brit.
I went out on a few hunts with friends to help with all of the work that comes from an animal of that size after you put it down. If you put the round where it is supposed to be placed, the critters drop instantly.
I suppose it is the same with the 6.5x55. A proper bullet with proper placement.