Best caliber for Moose

[Kachok]

You are not going to get a "shock kill" on somthing as large as a Moose. So Magnum speeds are not really that important, Just use a high SD controled expansion bullet and put it right through the bioler room. If I were trying to stay low recoil a 6.5x55 loaded with a 156 or 160 gr bullet would easly top the list, it's 260 cousin does not have a fast enough twist to stabalize those monsters. 7mm Mauser/7mm-08 would be my second choice with a 160 gr bullet, and a 308 with a 180 or 200 gr would be the hardest kicking rifle I would recomend. The 6.5x55 is a very low recoil round that has taken every big game species this planet has to offer. it's 160 gr rounds will penatrate an elephants skull so the vitals of a moose are not even a challenge on an off angled shot. My 6.5 won't shoot as far or as flat as my 270 WMS but within realistic ranges it is my go to gun for big game, and it has never let me down.

 

[Jonny V]

Before we Americans got caught up in the 'bigger is always better' craze, the 30-06 was being written off by the gun writers of the day as being far too powerful for North American game animals. When the 270 appeared a few years later, people went to it because of its' flat shooting, and the lighter bullet didn't smash through and destroy every bit of meat on the animal like (they claimed) the '06 did. Now, everyone is in a huge rush to get a belted magnum.

The 270 Win is perfectly adequate for moose (and elk). With a quality bullet like the Nosler Partition or the Barnes, and good shot placement, the animal will drop like a stone.

Don't fall for the belted magnum trick. Unless you step WAY UP to something like a 30-378 Weatherby, you're not going to notice any appreciable difference in shooting or killing ability. On top of that, our shooter here is sub-100 pounds (overpowering reason to disregard magnums).

Go and get her a 270 (or 306 or 30-06) that she will be far more comfortable shooting. Then you can go tag and bag that moose, and have some good BBQ when you get home .

 

[kaferhaus]

You don't enjoy magnums therefore magnum shooters can't shoot well. That's some impeccable logic right there

Just another bozo who has trouble with reading comprehension.

You have anything better to do than take two unrelated comments and try to imagine some meaning in it?

There are certainly some fine marksmen who prefer magnums. Most people that I know who hunt with them are not fine marksmen by any stretch.

Many guides will tell you the same about their clientele. I had one tell me that if he has two customers, one with a 06-270 etc and the other with the magnum du jour he already knows which one is the marksman.

More power is a poor excuse for bad shot placement.

Every game animal on this planet was being cleanly harvested well before the first "magnum" was invented.

In fact the two most notorious elephant poaching cartridges are the 7x57 and 303 brit. Real power houses both.

But then again most hunters had some skill back then.

 

[Kachok]

Intresting fact. All expanding bullets penatrate deeper at lower speeds. This means that a 300 Ultra mag shooting a 180 gr core lock will not penatrate nealy as far as a 308 shooting the same 180 gr bullet. This is because higher impact speeds mean faster expansion and in turn more mass lost which we all know drasticly reduces penatration. I have read several studies on this matter. Kenetic energy dump is not the key to a clean kill, shot placement and adaquate penatration are by far the two most important factors involved. A 30-30 can quickly kill a bull elk, not by liquifying his entire chest cavity like a 378 Wby mag, but by making a nice half inch wide hole all the way through his vital organs. Does this mean that magnums are useless.....No way, but that extra energy should be used as it was intended, to carry the ideal amount of energy to longer ranges, or to throw a heavier higher SD projectile on closer shots. KE dump advocates forget that that energy can be dumped into tissues other then the vital organs which does nothing for a clean kill. Remember the world record Polar Bear (2500lbs!) was killed with a single a low velosity handgun bullet while an ultra mag with ballistic tips would never reach his vitals

 

[Art Eatman]

Odds are that the girl might well have killed her moose, two years ago.