Best Moose Caliber

Bad Bob said:
Several years ago while moose hunting with my father-in-law who was 86 at the time, as we were sitting together and enjoying a cup of tea, I asked him if he ever thought over the years of getting a "more modern gun, you know like the .300 Win. Mag. I was carrying?" He gave me that puzzled look and all he said was, "why?" I then went on about more range, bigger bullets, more power, blah,blah. He looked at me again and said,"how many moose you killed with that thing?" I smiled and proudly replied, "around 2 doz. I would think, give or take 1 or 2". He said, as he proudly foundled his Lee -Enfied .303 British, "well son, I`ve killed 73 moose with this thing, never saw a reason to change anything." He used Dominion 170s and later Imperial 170s for the majority. We talked about grand kids after that. That was his last moose hunt, he passed away at 102.
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Fine hunter home from the hills.
 
All depends on if you want the moose to die from being hit, or seeing the recoil/muzzle blast and have a heart attack before the bullet hits him.
 
A rule of thumb an old timer (Non-Reloader) told me on a trip he took me on, when I was a kid: "If you can't find the ammunition in the hardware store, your gun is a stick!:
I had been looking at a Remington 600 in .350 Magnum.
I bought my first .30-06 instead.
 
Too many guys shoot too much gun and it ruins them. Most guys I know who shoot heavy cals do it to look tough in my opinion and they shoot like crap because they can't admit that they are scared of their own rifles.

My max is my .300 Win Mag and 45-70.
 
The Cold Lake Kid said:
A rule of thumb an old timer (Non-Reloader) told me on a trip he took me on, when I was a kid: "If you can't find the ammunition in the hardware store, your gun is a stick!:
I had been looking at a Remington 600 in .350 Magnum.
I bought my first .30-06 instead.
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This is good advice for anyone looking to travel with their rifle. I will never take some weird wildcat on a hunting trip and if I do take an uncommon caliber I always have a back up in something more common.

Some calibers you will always find in the crappiest of places:
.308
.30-06
.300 Win Mag
.270
 
scruffee said:
Too many guys shoot too much gun and it ruins them. Most guys I know who shoot heavy cals do it to look tough in my opinion and they shoot like crap because they can't admit that they are scared of their own rifles.

My max is my .300 Win Mag and 45-70.
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Those are the two rifles I am bringing on my moose hunt at the end of the month. I am well practiced with both and feel secure in grizzly country with either. I have ten days in the bush north of Mackenzie BC and have scouted out 14 different areas I want to hunt. Being deep in the bush and making noises like a moose in heat can attract unwanted attention from some healthy predators. I don't feel over gunned in the least.
 
Bad Bob said:
Several years ago while moose hunting with my father-in-law who was 86 at the time, as we were sitting together and enjoying a cup of tea, I asked him if he ever thought over the years of getting a "more modern gun, you know like the .300 Win. Mag. I was carrying?" He gave me that puzzled look and all he said was, "why?" I then went on about more range, bigger bullets, more power, blah,blah. He looked at me again and said,"how many moose you killed with that thing?" I smiled and proudly replied, "around 2 doz. I would think, give or take 1 or 2". He said, as he proudly foundled his Lee -Enfied .303 British, "well son, I`ve killed 73 moose with this thing, never saw a reason to change anything." He used Dominion 170s and later Imperial 170s for the majority. We talked about grand kids after that. That was his last moose hunt, he passed away at 102.
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When I read this I had to chuckle, since I overheard a similar conversation in the early 1960's. A local fellow, who fed a very large family on moose meat was
being questioned by a much younger upstart. The conversation went like this: "Jim, why don't you scrap that old, beat up 30-30 and get something more suitable
to shoot moose with?" Jim looks him in the eye and responds: "Why? dead is dead ain't it?" I'm sure he had shot more than 50 moose with that old M94, and
he just made sure he was close enough, and shot the moose properly....meat in the freezer, lol. Dave.
 
This be my moose load this year.

wEomzZEl.jpg
 
desert spider said:
Those are the two rifles I am bringing on my moose hunt at the end of the month. I am well practiced with both and feel secure in grizzly country with either. I have ten days in the bush north of Mackenzie BC and have scouted out 14 different areas I want to hunt. Being deep in the bush and making noises like a moose in heat can attract unwanted attention from some healthy predators. I don't feel over gunned in the least.
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I was going to take my .300 Win Mag and 45-70 next week on my elk hunt but decided to switch the .300 for my .308. Started feeding my .308 with 165gr Accubonds and it's deadly accurate!
 
One of the longest one-shot kills I ever made was with a 270 Winchester. The original old 130 gr Silvertip ahead of 62 gr of surplus H4831, did the deed on one of our big Yukon bull moose at well over 600 yards.

Even the biggest die quickly with shredded lungs.

Ted
 
I’ve shot moose for the last 30+ years with many different rifles chambered from .270 Winchester to .375 H&H. As a dedicated “boiler shot” shooter, I’ve seen very little difference between cartridges whatsoever. The only difference I have seen, is in bullet construction; tough, minimally expanding bullets are slower killers, while fast expanding bullets that dump a fair portion of their weight into the vitals as high velocity shrapnel kill faster, even if shot from a lesser cartridge.
 
I have 338wm 300WM also a 7mmMag.
My two mostly used are my 308 Finnlight and my Marlin 45-70 guide gun. Most of our Moose have been shot at under 50 meters. I find my Magnum guns a little too much tight cover bush hunting. If I was to sit on a power line I would reach for one of my Magnums.
 
Yeah, I would not have been bragging about the shooting being done in that old school video.

Video about the 308 in the 300 WinMag having almost identical penetration is not super surprising, decent watch though.
 
CV32 said:
The .303 British Lee-Enfield remains probably the most popular big game cartridge/rifle combo in this province, many of them having been passed down generation to generation. (Unfortunately, the vast majority of them in bubba'd form, but that's another issue.) With roughly 15,000 moose taken every season, that's a lot of successful hunts with the (relatively ballistically unimpressive) .303.
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Racking my brain to try and remember the last time I actually saw anyone hunting with a 303
 
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