Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game What's the BEST Brush-Busting cartridge for elk & moose you would you use ?

We've heard it all before, but picture three scenarios, one recent and another two new AND IMAGINE LOTS OF small BRUSH IN THE WAY:

What cartridge would you use? It would probably have to be a non-lead bullet too to achieve greater penetration and less lead contamination. I'm thinking that a standard 375 H&H with 270 TSX would be ideal for any elk or moose hunt. Maybe some other brush-busting cartridge?

Imagine that it's the last day of the hunt...with little light left...and you've waited 26 years to draw. Imagine that this may also be your last hunt.

Imagine that if you're successful, your moose and elk will also make "BOOK" and feed your family and help the local homeless shelter.



or

I would let them walk. At that point I think that they have won.

In the 2001 edition of Gun Digest, Rob Lucas wrote an article entitled "Brush-Bucking Bullets That Didn't." Maybe you can find a copy of the 2001 edition at a used book store, as Lucas' article is excellent. In it, he conducted extensive field tests of various calibers, from a .22 rimfile to a .45-70, to ascertain their "brush-busting" capabilities. Based on his tests, the .404 Jeffrey (perhaps not surprisingly, given its 400 grain bullet)performed best. Everything else, including the .375 was so-so, and some where downright awful. Lucas' article is very informative, if you can find a copy of it.

For 30 some years, my favorite elk and moose rifle was my .30 Gibbs shooting 180 gr Nosler Partitions at 2990 fps. That's about the same as a .300 Win mag. It has worked great for a couple dozen elk and 2 Shiras bulls.

This past winter I just finished putting together a .300 Wby Vanguard that shoots 180 gr TSX's sub-moa at 3200+ fps. That's more than enough accuracy and power for any elk or moose in the woods, and it will be my new favorite rifle for that size game.

As for shooting through the brush, I won't do it. I've always been able to find an opening, or waited for an opening for a clean shot.

In my closet it's either a 45-70 with 405 grain pills or a 45-90 that's tossing out 530 grain slugs. I'd not worry about a few twigs with either of those.

Edited: Guys: That photo does no exhibit a shot I'd take, and no, I do not make it a habit of shooting through timber. That said, if there were pencil size twigs 2 feet in front of an elk, I'd definitely pass with my 257 Weatherby that's clocking 3,700 fps. A 45-70 with 405 gr slugs at 1,700 fps though would probably get launched. One seldom sees folks bowling with a ping pong ball, but a 16 lb sphere does a pretty good job on the pins.

That's a tough call as I don't believe "brush cutting" and rifle cartridges really should be used in the same sentence.
Last year I had a chance at a group of cow elk at about 250-300 yards. They were moving at a fast walk and moving though some reprod, into the open, reprod, then into some timber. Never could get lined up for a decent shot without some brush in the way so I passed.

However, in Africa my one and only chance at a nice Kudu was in some really heavy brush. As we were walking following a track of a nice Kudu we had seen, the PH looked up and the Kudu had gotten behind us and was peeking at us from behind some heavy brush about 50 yards away. The PH was yelling "shoot, shoot", but all I could see was the head facing me. I couldn't tell which way the body was from the head, left or right. Just then, the Kudu decided to run and I could determine where the body was. I picked a spot from the location of the head and shot through the bush as this would be my last opportunity, being the next to last day. The Kudu only went about 50 yards and was down, bullet right through the heart. May have been luck, but I have a lot of faith in my .338 and the .225 Aframes I was shooting that day and they haven't let me down yet.

I doubt I would take that shot on an elk though, but time will tell....

Bob

Out here where things are so remote and lightly populated, we have many opportunities to shoot just about anywhere. And since our "trees" are usually mostly willow and alder brush, I took the opportunity one winter to try different cartridges and bullets through the brush, using the same aiming point on the front side, with a frozen, pristine snow covered lake as the "bullet box". Not surprisingly, my results mirrored what many different testers have found and published. No bullet can reliably get through brush and stay on target. One of the worst, in fact, was a traditional "brush buster": the 45-70. I couldn't even find the tracks of some of those big bullets, not even the hard cast ones.

And using a cardboard box about the size of a white-tail's chest as a target with only a light screen of brush 3-5 yards in front, most bullets struck "okay" but about half cut clear side profiles as they passed through.

I have watched some nice animals walk in the last few minutes of the "last day". I can't think of a better way to cap my "last hunt" - (hopefully I won't know that it is)- than to see a nice animal, and let it walk. Perhaps I'm showing my age.

No such thing as a "brush busting" cartridge.

I have always passed up "brush shots" based on articles such as those cited above.

This was reinforced four years ago hunting elk in Colorado. I was able to take a solid rest on a fence post for a shot at a large bull elk about 150 yards away uphill. At the shot, the bull gave a large jump and scrambled away through the aspens. I thought sure that he was hit soid through the lungs. After trailing him over two miles to boundary of the ranch (there was a few inches of fresh snow on the ground), I had to give up. I could find no sign of blood and nor hair.

I went back to my fence post and looked up the hill to see if something could have caused my bullet to go astray. About ten yards in front of me on the line with my shot was a twig about the size of a thick pencil hanging by a thread of bark. It was about the last ten inches of the trunk clipped off of a a small sapling. It was invisible in my scope. I don't know where the 180 grain Scirocco went, but it sure didn't hit the elk...

Fast forward to the next September in Namibia. My PH, our tracker and I were following a group of kudu that contained one bull that looked pretty good. At some point, he left the group and ended up about 80 yards away, about 90 degrees from our line of travel. He stopped right behind a rather dense shrub, with his head and the front of his neck clear and only a bit of his rear end visible. The shrub was a little taller than his back line.

The PH set up the sticks and said, "Shoot where you think his shoulder will be". I shook my head. He said urgently, "Go on, it's the only shot you'll get". So, I shrugged and lined up on what I thought would be his shoulder and fired. As the rifle came down out of recoil, I saw the bull vanish in the brush. I was crestfallen, but the PH and the tracker assured me that he was hit hard.

Sure enough, we found him about 45-50 yards away, dead as a hammer. The 260 grain AccuBond smashed through his near shoulder and blew the heart to bits. It exited just behind the far shoulder, so we didn't recover it. I attribute our success to luck. I figure that this incident used up all of mine when it comes to "brush shooting"!

88mm howitzer

444 or the 450 marlin that is my choice atleast

I had a PH once who said he had a domestic cow to kill. It was behind a small tree faceing him. He said he took a head shot with a solid from a 375 H&H Magnum right through the tree dropping the beast.

For me, if I knew I was going to be shooting through brush, I would be carrying a 458 Lott. If the moose was fairly close to said obstruction and there wasn't too much of it, I suspect a 500 grain Woodleigh would get through just fine.

When it comes to brush it's more about a short barrel than the bullet.

why not just whistle and shoot him in the neck when he turns?

Thanks for saying EXACTLY what I was going to say.

It's time that myth was buried - once and for all.

No matter the reason,there is no excuse to take a marginal shot. If you don't think you can make a clean quick kill,let the animal walk,

I've taken a few "raking" shots, but there was always an offside shoulder in my sights. Funny thing is I've never lost much meat to that shot. Onthe other hand it's not always easy to clean up either.
The only reason to take the straight on THS is to anchor an already wounded animal. If I get that shot opportunity and he doesn't have a bullet in him---HE WON! He gets a PASS.

First thing I thought of when I looked at those pictures is that there was still plenty of time for them to turn and give you something.

The only thing worse than going home without is going home and having to live with the fact that you shot one of those magnificant animals in the arse and lost it.

I am going to have to mirror a lot of you good folks. I have never shot a moose nor an elk and most probably never will. I have shot, make that tried, to shoot through a lot of brush.

There ain't no such animal as a "brush busting" bullet in any shoulder fired gun.

BCR

I, too, would pass on these shots in hopes that they might stop and give a better target.

I grew up with the notion that big slow bullets would buck brush well. My eyes were opened when I read an article in a gun mag one time (probably in the 70's or 80's) where a guy set up targets beyond some brush and tried to quantify the amount of deflection of various bullets/cartridges. NONE of the cartridges fared well. There is NO SUCH THING as a "brush bucking" cartridge. The ones that did the best were long, cylindrical bullets. Can't recall for sure now but I think a 220 grain 30 cal or a 250 grain 338 bullet won the competition.