Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 6.5 Creed - moose bullets

I've been in on the shooting of a bunch of bull moose with 6.5CM/7-08-class rifles. It's extremely difficult to have enough power in a shoulder-fired rifle to pole-ax a bull moose from sheer horsepower. They tend to absorb a bullet to the vitals and then run off 100 yards, and stand there until they collapse. Bullet size makes little difference. I've seen the 127 LRX penetrate to the hips with a frontal shot on a bull moose, and I've seen the 162 AM, 140 TTSX, and 180 ELD break bones and penetrate plenty, either exiting or being recovered in the offside hide after breaking bone.

If you expect a longer shot at 300+ meters, then I would confidently use the 147 ELD, but it sounds like it'll be 300 and in. I'd simply load the 127 LRX and not worry about it.

Well, that's why I stated the exception. It will work and, in your situation, it makes sense. I would use and LRX or Partition. That's a good reason to use a lighter cartridge like a 6.5 Creed.

"Moose are NOT hard to kill at all. The do take a long time to realize they are dead though."

True that. They don't know what it is to be shot or dead. It's often like, 'Ouch! I don't feel well, I'll just ease over to this safe place til I feel better'. The well placed bullet is usually the kill shot.

"Moose are NOT hard to kill at all. The do take a long time to realize they are dead though."

True that. They don't know what it is to be shot or dead. It's often like, 'Ouch! I don't feel well, I'll just ease over to this safe place til I feel better'. The well placed bullet is usually the kill shot.

OOPS! Sorry about that

This, I had a 6.5 Swede for a while, I used 140 grain Fusions out of it. I never did shoot a moose with it but having gotten to observe the deer/ moose crossover performance of similar combinations, I would not have hesitated to use it. Those bullets would tear through 4' of deer and leave a pretty clean exit wound.

My own opinion on hunting moose with a 6.5... IMO moose are simply too large for systemic shock to reliably play a major roll in putting them down. Unless you are shooting a real cannon you simply need enough penetration to punch through the boiler room, prefferably from sub-optimal angles since they are often hunted in thick bush. You put a bullet or two through the lungs, let the moose finds somewhere it feels safe to lay down, give it 1/2 hour and go collect your dead moose. This is about all you can expect whether you are shooting a 6.5 Swede or a 300WM IMO.

My own observations are that a wounded moose will only go as far as it needs to feel safe, much like a deer. In open terrain this might sometimes be 100 yards, in the timber it usually seems to be about 40.

The one exception I've seen to this is in the late season when bulls will run together in a group. Anxiety over being left behind seems to keep them on their feet longer, and if you one-lung a bull in this situation its going to be a long day.

You must get into some really big and tough deer.

bwinters;
Afternoon sir, I hope the day's behaving and you're well.

Thanks for the reply and clarification on the what and where as that's absolutely a piece of the puzzle.

Aimed at no one whatsoever either, there are a few topics that seem to bring out people's definite opinions, the best cartridge for "Fill in the blank" surely seems to apply there.

In the "for whatever it's worth category and not that they need it, but I've corresponded back and forth with Jeff - Rost495 and Jordan for decades now and if they're cool with whatever, it'll be based upon experience.

Also Jordan and I have a mutual friend here who I have sat down and shared a meal with and who tolerates a little old guy from BC calling him on the phone so again that lends to their credibility for me.

As ytlogger said in his post - and may I say my late father used to say the very same thing - they sometimes need a bit of time to decide they're going to die.

They sometimes don't die immediately after being struck by a loaded logging truck either by the way - well or the train - so again I'm of the belief Jordan is onto something when he suggest shocking them might not be possible.

My brother in law used to shoot them in the brain with a .303 whenever humanly possible as he was positively allergic to water retrievals! He was up near Horsefly and Likely in the Cariboo for his, so a bit bigger than ours I'd say but not the northern cousins either.

Regarding shooting a cow....

I'm of a certain age that I very vividly recall my late Mom giving my late Dad the gears over shooting a bull. Then of course Dad had the temerity to hang the rack over top of the garage entrance, where Mom could be reminded of his inability to shoot a tasty cow or calf and bring home a "stinky old bull" instead!



This was an earlier bull and I want to say the garage bull was a tad bigger, but that's definitely a much younger version of the old guy typing this reply.

Since it's a bit of a favorite here, I'll end with this photo of the results when a pair of BC rednecks have their pickups all apart, but it's moose season....

When there's a will there's a way.

That Civic by the way, had the gas tank ripped out and it ran with a 5 gallon Jerry can in the back seat apparently.



It sounds to me like an epic family adventure in all ways. One you'll all remember and talk about for as long as you're still here.

All the very best to you all on that hunt - well and until then too.

Dwayne

Agreed. I used running 100 yards as an example, but the point is that they don't tend to "drop right there" unless you hit CNS, regardless of chambering. Destroy vitals and they will die, they usually just take a minute to do it.

I have spent the last 30+ years in BC, well over half of that in the northern half of the province.

I will just say that hunters on the campfire worry a lot more about the artillery “needed” for tipping over a moose than the typical hunters in BC who do it every year. Bring your Creedmoor, call it good.

156 Norma Oryx

You will be more than fine with your 6.5 and a Partition or any other bullet on the softer side.

Moose die fast from soft bullets in the front half, they have big lungs and suffocate quickly from big holes in them.

I’ve killed three bulls in the last three years with ELD m’s, and they died faster than the three bulls I killed in the three years previous with 150 TTSX’s.
Those three died about the same as the three I killed in the three years before THAT, with 168 TSX’s.
And those were about the same as the ones I shot with 180’s in TSX and PSP’s…

I’m with Rick, I’d take the same load you used for elk Bill. It’ll not be the bullet or cartridges fault if it falls short. I think you have a winner.

The guides I talked to in Newfoundland held the .308 win with the cheapest 150 factory ammo in high regard, but thought of a 7mm-08 as a lady's gun.

Balistic knowledge from the Canadian maritimes is best taken with a grain of salt in my experience. I once worked with a New Brunswicker who would disdainfully claim the 30-06 "had the tragectory of a slingshot", but held both the 30-30 and .303 Brit in high regard. A good friend of mine refers to this type of thing as the "Diss da way we doo's tings" factor.

Couple other points for the OP to consider, not that I'm discouraging the use of a 6.5: Firstly, you cant leave a wounded moose overnight. I've heard a few people claim otherwise, but any time I personally know of someone trying this the meat has spoiled. Even with relatively small moose in pretty cold weather.

Secondly, I know more people (myself included) that have been charged by a mostly dead moose than any other critter. I dont know that its worth factoring into your rifle choice, but do make sure to hit them good and give them time to expire before you get too close. If you need to do any tracking, keep your rifle in-hand and make sure the scope is turned down as low as it will go (that last point was nearly my undoing).

Exophysical;
Evening sir, I hope the fire burns bright out your way if you're getting this latest chilly blast.

Your comments about "mostly dead" moose reminded me of a story my late Father told.

Somehow he'd approached around the front of what he remembered as a big bull, when it stood up suddenly.

He fell backwards into the willows, and either lost his rifle or had left it propped behind the bull, that part is lost to memory now.

He'd been hunting with his brother's son and when Dad called him over to put down the bull, somehow in the melee he either forgot he had his .264 slung or it was somewhere else - I'm not sure sorry - but eventually the moose got shot between the eyes with Dad's .308 - by my cousin.

It really shook Dad up and if I'm not getting the years mixed up it might even have been the year he had his first major heart attack not long after getting back from their annual moose hunt.

While Dad and I did chase moose here, we never got one together, nonetheless he'd often warn me with something quite similar to what you've said, more or less be ready when you approach a downed one.

Thanks for stirring up the memories from long, long ago tonight. Otherwise they'd have stayed unrecollected and I've enjoyed remembering listening to some of Dad's moose hunting stories as a result.

All the best.

Dwayne

In my case, it was the best damn shot I've ever made... at 15 yards, whilst running backwards, and without actually aiming because all I could see through the scope was hair!

Fast forward a couple seasons later, I shot a bull at last light that ran into a river, fell over, then started drifting away. I basically had no choice but to immediatly wade out to the bull and get a rope around his antlers... up to my chest in water, rifle back on the bank, I was pretty darn scared. I figured if that moose got back up I'd have to dive for the bottom and just stay down there as long as I could.

127 LRX out of a 6.5-06 at Creedmoor speeds did the job on my 2016 BC Moose. Went in below the right eyeball and passed thru the spinal column and lodged on the offside shoulder. Lost all the petals one pierced the lungs. This was at roughly 50 yards so it was still at pretty much max velocity.

I would be curious to hear your experience with this bullet on moose. Thanks!

Not sure of your location or temps in season. But we have left moose overnight a few times and had zero issues. I don't like that. But it works fine.

That said I would be surprised if a 6.5 creed just wounded a moose. As noted they just are not that hard to kill. Just takes em time to die. 338 win down to 308 so to speak. They just don't bleed out that quickly typically. They fall over fast sometimes, but not dead when they hit the ground for some time.