Side-track to moose-hunting thread. Caliber & Bullet for Moose (Ontario)?

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Para Bellum

New member
Hi Folks,

one of us just posted the following in anonther thread here:
we are applying for a moose in ontario and i am wondering if my son can apply. He is 15 years old and has his licence. I think once you hit 15 you can apply for your own tag instead of hunting off of mine and i was wondering if i am right or if he has to hunt off mine
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I didn't want to hijack his thread so I ask the question here:
What caliber & bullet have you actually successfully used on moose?

With "actually successfully" I mean with the shortest possible or no need for tracking.
I've never hunted moose, just seen dozens of them while canoeing
 
I've never shot a moose. But, from a conversation with a guide at a lodge in northwestern Ontario where I fish regularly who also guides their moose hunts . . . .

He said that many moose are taken with .303, .30/06, 8mm Mauser etc. but his preference is a bit larger caliber such as .338 Win Mag or .35 Whelen. His gun was a .338.

To give a break from frying smallmouth for shore lunch, he'd always grill moose steaks over an open fire for us one day of each trip. It was a day to look forward to where we'd have a 4 hour shore lunch and sometime not even fish in the afternoon.
 
I've never hunted moose, either, but my father took one in Alaska in the 1970's with a .308 Win. using 180 grain bullets.
 
Lets start with the 30-30 my son shot his first moose with 16 yrs ago. two shots no tracking.the one my partner shot with a bow and the one I shot with a bow both ran about 40 to 50 yard, the others I have shot or been present for were shot with 20 ga slug, 12 ga slug, 35 rem, 308, 300 win mag, 45/70. think I'm missing some but you get the idea with a good shot moose go down pretty easy. Alex
 
Thankyou for not hijaking my thread :P, but i have successfully killed about 5-6 moose with my 270. win shooting 150 grain bullets. Most moose are taken with a 30-06 or bigger. My hunting party, we have a couple 7mm rem mags, 1 300 win mag, theres three 30-06's, and my 270. win
 
'06 and a 308 Norma Mag....

The Norma was such a butt kicker I retreated to the '06.

Both worked exactly as hoped. Both moose dropped like a ton of bricks.
 
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Mostly 30-06 in 180 gr. I also have taken moose with my M1917 30-06 using Federal 220 gr. I've been trying hard these past few years to get one with one of my .303's, 180 gr hand loads, but I seem to have an 06 with me when I see Mr. Moose.

Where we hunt is typically on rivers and sloughs, extremely wet/marshy. They will be standing near the edge of the water, with about ten yards of grass up to where the brush starts. The brush consists of willows, beech trees, alder bushes( there are some alder trees but they usually can't grow into a tree ). The kind of stuff that takes a person five minutes to go fifty feet through. Moose can run through the brush.

I have heart shot moose and had them run, when they're in rut. If you can kill a moose not in rut, the meat will be more tender and not have as strong a taste. It is better not to have to pack them through the brush unless you remembered to bring your chainsaw to blaze a trail. It is better to have them Dead Right There (DRT).

So, everyone shoots untill it falls down. It will go on who-evers tag. Everyone gets some moose even passers-by that just want to check out the moose, or help butcher or pack to the boat.

It is a big deal, it is a big animal, there is a lot of meat. "Shooting and killing a moose is the easy part.":D
 
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My indian fishing guide in Quebec mostly uses a motor boat and a rope. He gets most of his moose meat while they are swimming. When he hunts, he uses a 30-30.
 
I killed a moose in New Hampshire using a 7mm remington magnum with 150 gr remington core-lokt bullets.He went 20 feet after the shot and died.
 
What caliber & bullet have you actually successfully used on moose?
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Federal Premium HE loaded with 180gr Nosler Partitions. Two holes, an innie and an outtie no bullet or fragments ever recovered.

The best place to shoot them is about 20 ft from the boat.

And what moose fat said.........
 
Moose ...

They are a larger NA game animal, and while I've witnessed friends taking Moose with 30-06s and 7mm Rem. Mag. I think mid-bore calibers are more appropriate for moose. I prefer the 375 H&H Magnum with 270 grain Interbond or Barnes X bullets.

I reload, and have had very good luck with Hornady cases, and Hodgdon Varget powder.

YMMV
 
I have to agree, bigger is better. I would love to have a .338 Win Mag or .375 H&H. I would have to stop buying Enfields though...

Para Bellum you should consider moose hunting, if at all possible. It is exciting and fun and hard work.
 
Para Bellum you should consider moose hunting, if at all possible. It is exciting and fun and hard work.
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I've just acquired my hunting license (quite a task in lower Austria) and will start off with roe deer, red deer and sus scrofa (wild boar / wild hog) and foxes. But maybe, in a few years, who knows....

Federal Premium HE loaded with 180gr Nosler Partitions. Two holes, an innie and an outtie no bullet or fragments ever recovered.
The best place to shoot them is about 20 ft from the boat.
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Thanks buddy, but what caliber? :(
 
I have taken moose with a 3006 and a 338. Mainly because thats all I've hunted with up till a couple of years ago. Many other cartridge/calibers can be and are used, however, I prefer a minimum of a 3006/308 class cartridge.

In our moose/elk camp the inventory looks like: 3006, 338wm, 7mm rem mag, 35 Whelan, and 300wm. They all work just fine.
 
I have shot 4 of them all with a Remington 788 in 308 Winchester. I used 165gr Nosler partitions loaded to 2700fps. All were one shot kills and the farthest one went was 80' after being shot. The ranges were from 50' to 180yds. You don't need a huge gun to kill them you just have to put the bullet were it will do the most good.

My buddy that I hunted with used a 3006 and a 45-70. Same results.

Moose hunting is fun and the meat is great but the work starts when the moose is down. Then you have to worry about Bears. Thats when a 45-70 comes in handy.
 
My father's closest friend was our family doctor who went on a hunting trip to the Yukon in about 1954. He took a few trophies, one of which was a moose. He used a Lyman "Alaskan" scoped Winchester Model 70 in .300 H&H Magnum, that he bought just for this trip, loaded with 180 grain Western Super X "Silvertips". The story goes that it took only one shot, but then no one we knew was along on the trip. Given how well the doctor was at bluffing at poker, no one believed him. He was a lousy shot as well, but the Winchester was probably the gun that took the moose whatever the real story was. The doctor, and my father, have both passed on now, but before he died the doctor gave me the Winchester, which never went on another hunting trip- there isn't much here in the east that the doctor hunted that needs that much "horsepower" to kill. He also gave me the box of Silvertips that went on the hunt which I've kept, and he gave the mounted moose head to a local gun club for their dining room, so it isn't ALL in the past and just a memory.

Sorry this is so long; digging up old, cherished memories seems to take more of my time than it used to and writing them down like this, to be read by those who share these sorts of things is a pleasant pastime.
 
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My indian fishing guide in Quebec mostly uses a motor boat and a rope. He gets most of his moose meat while they are swimming.



I suspect that practice is quite illegal for the white man, as to the Indian??
 
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