Too Light For Moose?

N

Niagara Shooter

New member
My friend is going moose hunting in North Western Ontario in a few weeks and he's not 100% sure about the gun he's taking along. The gun in question is a Marlin lever in a 32.special. He has 170gr Winchester Silvertips for it. The gun also has open sights. Anyone have any thoughts as to this maybe being under gunned for the situation? He's only got a calf tag but the group he's going with has a bull and cow tag as well.
thanks
NS
 
Sounds like a great question for Sarah Palin at the VP debates.....:D

Little light, probably do the job if shot placement is perfect. I'd choose something bigger.
 
Darn it , Rembrandt, you beat me to it!

Gun Digest used to have a routine column called "American Bulleted Cartridges" that discussed the game application of each production rifle and pistol round.

My recollection is that for moose they would recommend .30-'06 or larger. Don't rely on that. Craig Boddington's book on big game calibers is probably the place to look.

I'm pretty sure that with the .32 Winchester Special he's under-gunned. It's essentially the same as a .30-30. Gun Digest used to say that the 7X57 was far more effective, and they touted the '06 as "adequate for all North American big game exept for rear angling shots on elk."
 
IMHO..Way too light. Particularly w/ the bullet choice. Nothing wrong w/ the weight but I wouldn't shoot anything but gophers w/ a silvertip. Had 3 blow up on an elk one time. Never shot them again. Moose= 30 caliber.
elkman06
 
+1 Elkman

If he plans on shooting a calf a close range it would work fine, but I'd try a better bullet. He should also consider the possibility of a "back up" shot for a hunting partner, in which case he should consider something w/a bit more oomph.
 
I've seen lots of moose killed with .30-30s up here. Bushkins do it all the time.
However, the ranges have been relatively short. No more than 100 yrds or so.

The .32 Special will do it, but I'd get rid of that Silvertip and replace it with a Fusion or Federal softpoint.
 
Moose= 30 caliber.
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First, I've never shot a moose. I've damn near messed my pants in WA state when one came by. They are big critters! Maybe one day I'll go to AK and get one of the many I buzzed at 300' AGL in my C-141 days during low level practice.

BUT, its kinda interesting to think most of us (myself included) would think a lot bigger for moose. But most Scandinavians think the 6.5X55 is perfect moose medicine!
 
I've shoot a few moose, both hunting and putting down injured moose from Moose/vehicle encounters.

I'm going aginst the grain here. Yes moose are big, some getting huge, but they are not near as tuff as Elk. A gazzilian moose have been killed with a 30-30, a lot more have been killed with 303 enfield.

From what you discribed you'll be hunting, short range for cow/calf I dont see why you couldnt use the 32 special.

I don't have a 32, but from what I under stand its a 30-30 with a heavier bullet, the have the same velocity pretty much, so if a 30-30 kills moose then why woudn't a 32 Special. Its really no differant the the 303 british.

JMHO
 
Have him make sure he has enough ammo for the hunt then get him to shoot a few times before he heads up there. If he has to buy more ammo, make sure he tries that before he heads off hunting as the new ammo may be loaded differently than the old ammo.


.32 special was a "heavy" 3030 and in the 50's and 60's it was a greatly popular cartridge for deer, bear and moose.

Those silvertips are probably fine. they are not hollowpoints but the first attempts at loading a controled expansion bullet. For MANY years, the silvertip rifle round was the Primo rifle factory load. My first ten or so whitetails all fell to WW silvertips.

Check the bore too, there was a lot of Imperial brand .32 special loads that were all corrosive and it seems every one of them was shot in a .32 special Winchester. if the bore looks good, the .32 speical is a great 150 yard gun on moose.


Federal only loads one load for the .32, a 170 FL nose. No Fusions.

Winchester Olin only lists one load, 170 PP flat point

Remington likewise a 170 grain sp. Gone from all are the 190 -195 loads,

If he handloads, these can be stepped up a fair amount if he has a Marlin vs an older winchester. older winchesters are best used with factory level loads.
 
His caliber choice is fine. But as already mentioned, that is a VERY poor slug choice, that particular slug design is WAY to explosive, it won't go deep enough (unless he gets lucky and puts it between ribs). Change over to a tougher slug and shoot straight. Voila, moose meat for the winter.
Example:
2 YEARS AGO, DEER HUNT:

A buddy of mine used silvertips in his '06 on a 150lb mulie. 100 yards out. Shoulder shot. DESTROYED the shoulder, bloodshot the front 2/3rds of the ribcage on the impact side. BARELY got enough fragments into the boiler room to do the job.
 
You've got Kraig and Steve and "guntotin" with first hand experience here and I'm more inclined to listen than to offer an opinion. I have never shot a moose. I will offer something from Craig Boddington on the subject for your reading pleasure.

For what it's worth, Col. Boddington says that .308 and .30-'06 with heavy bullets are the "absolute minimum that make sense for Moose", saying that the .270 can handle them but that he's not inclined to err on the light side. Can't remember what O'Connor used to say. Scandinavian moose are said to be a smaller breed. Most of the time when I see Craig shooting something on TV, it seems to be .338, .375, or something that starts with a "4" that I wouldn't enjoy shooting.

With no relevant experience, I'm just reporting.

I seem to recall that a lot of Canadians used the .303 British successfully, but that's a lot closer in power to the '06 than to the .32 Winchester Special, which was reportedly designed to work better with black powder than the .30-30 in the Model 1894.

When I was a kid and neighbors used to hunt deer with Marlins and Winchesters, many used the .30-30, but one really thought the .35 was a better tool for the job. Maybe that's the source of my nostalgia for the Model 336. Later, bigger cartridges started to gain favor. Going against the grain, I'm a .257 Roberts man. Recoil. Today my rifle shooting is confined to paper targets.

I'd be interested in how this plays out.

You can now get LEVERevolution loads for the .32.
 
32 Win Special will kill a moose. Limit shots to 100 yds so he can make sure he places the shots where the count. Shoot for the ribs and avoid the shoulder.

I know a guy who lives in Alberta who shoots his moose every other year with a .25-35 out of his canoe, and they just drop. When they float to the surface in a couple of hours, he tows it ashore to clean it, skin it, then hoists it into a tree until he can get his brothers to help him haul it out. He told me about a lot of things I thought I knew about: moose are easier to kill than elk, moose are not afraid of you and will let you get very close before they just move out of your way, moose is great meat but not for the genteel set (a moose steak can weigh 2 to 3 lbs), and if you shoot a moose it fills your freezer and that is all you will have to eat that year (which is why he shot a moose every other year).
 
Forgot a detail in my previous post. IF he uses that caliber(with a proper slug), he'll NEED to put it through the ribs. If he tries any other shot, he runs the real risk of not getting deep enough.
 
They take them all the time in Idaho with .270s or there about. I haven't hunted them as of yet, but I've seen plenty up close. Most big game calibers in the US would be fine, just make sure you have a good bullet for penetration as suggested.
 
He's only got a calf tag
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I can't imagine a moose calf being too much larger than a big Mule or Whitetail deer and probably not weighing more than 400 lbs. As far as the silver tip being an explosive bullet, I really doubt it at the speeds a .32 Special will push it. I'd say let him hunt with what he wants, he might be looking for the challenge of using that old rifle.

http://www.levergun.com/articles/special.htm
 
Winchester tailors the silvertip to be explosive in the velocity range of whatever cartridge they load the slugs in. I've seen 30-30's do the EXACT same thing, more than once.
 
Two Shots

It might take more than one shot. From all the videos I have looked at, two shots at A moose,to put it down is not all that uncommon. I've seen this many times by hunters using the Big Calibers.
 
I know a guy who lives in Alberta who shoots his moose every other year with a .25-35 out of his canoe, and they just drop.
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Wow! I would love to see some of you guys in a room with Boddington on TV!!

I had completely forgotten this, but back in the 1970s, the company I worked for hired a college grad who had grown up on a ranch in Washington State. He hunted with his brothers, and told us he had killed a moose. With what, we asked. Winchester lever action--his grand-dad's. What caliber, we asked. .25-35. We were all amazed. Until today I had considered that a most unwise choice on his part--that based on the Gun Digest summaries.

I didn't realize you could still get factory loads.

Everyone talks about .308s and the like, but in the 1960s i knew a man who had harvested elk for destitute families with a .22LR (noise being the critical issue). In 1980, I met a man who didn't mind telling me that he had been hunting deer out of season in a relatively populated area of western VA. Showed me a .22 Hornet hand load with a non-standard cast bullet.
 
I still seriously doubt that a "Silvertip" will fail at the speeds it will impact a calf moose out of a .32 Win Special. Considering the calf will not have the developed bone and muscle structure of an adult moose. If this person is using new ammunition from Winchester it is the "Power Point" bullet and not the "Silvertip" but it does come in the silver box. He can get a 170 grain bullet from Federal as well in a flat point. Hornady offers a 160 grain bullet as well in this caliber.
 
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