Custom load for moose

[ColeyG]

Anything but the SST. I finally convinced a moose hunting partner to ditch those bullets after losing one moose and a terrible experience with another.

Lots of threads out there about poor terminal performance with this bullet.

 

[Jim1187]

I have a moose hunt coming up. I have a 7mm Rem Mag and I am looking to load up some heavier rounds (I use 162gr SST for elk). What weight and bullet do the experts here recommend?

Short answer from me with no experience on elk is if you were happy with the 162 sst performance on elk it wouldn't be any less effective on moose.
You did ask what weight and bullet experts recommend and while I don't consider myself an expert, I have found myself recovering and elbow deep in moose enough to have a bit of an opinion. For the 7 rem mag not much to improve upon with either the 160 partition or accubond. Lighter or heavier wouldn't give me much pause either. If swift A-frame or Scirocco or Norma oryx shot well and was your preference they're good too. I admit my preference is tougher bullets but eld, vld, sst and any other bullet placed in the vital bits won't do anything positive for a mooses long term health.
If you wanted to go lead free I've experienced good results with the 120 and 140 ttsx and 145lrx but the sample size is smaller.
No cartridge seems to consistently cause moose to fall over without either standing there long enough to get a follow up shot or heading for thicker cover.

 

[Chris in TN]

No cartridge seems to consistently cause moose to fall over without either standing there long enough to get a follow up shot or heading for thicker cover.

I've never hunted moose or even saw a dead one up close (I've seen a few in WY but not up close) but I have watched a decent number of videos of other people hunting them and, yeah, they just don't seem to drop in their tracks very often, even with hits I'd expect to put deer/elk on their noses.

 

[ndhuntermanND]

Moose- I'd run a copper bullet or bonded at least.

 

[Yellowknife]

Every time one of these threads comes up, it amuses me how many people comment who have never (or rarely) shot a moose.

Your SST's will work fine, but do make a mess on a shoulder hit. Moose will be dead though, so it's probably academic. If you need to pick something else to make you feel better about a once in a lifetime hunt, then just go with whatever one has the nicest box. I've seen 7 mags be pretty effective with accubonds if that helps, but wouldn't hesitate to use about anything on the heavy end of things. Copper works ok, but isn't needed.

Not sure how many moose I've helped take apart, but it's in the multiple dozens. Some bullets make more bloodshot than others, but the difference isn't huge. Hit them on the shoulder knuckle, and it's always a big mess regardless. Square up on the lungs and it doesn't matter what you smack them with.

Only time I've seen really poor performance was light (150 gr / 30 cal) for caliber bullets at longer ranges or old school heavy for caliber (220 gr) round nose stuff. Penetration was an issue in both cases, but the meat ended up on the pole anyway.

Have a good hunt.

 

[medvedyt]

Every time one of these threads comes up, it amuses me how many people comment who have never (or rarely) shot a moose.

Your SST's will work fine, but do make a mess on a shoulder hit. Moose will be dead though, so it's probably academic. If you need to pick something else to make you feel better about a once in a lifetime hunt, then just go with whatever one has the nicest box. I've seen 7 mags be pretty effective with accubonds if that helps, but wouldn't hesitate to use about anything on the heavy end of things. Copper works ok, but isn't needed.

Not sure how many moose I've helped take apart, but it's in the multiple dozens. Some bullets make more bloodshot than others, but the difference isn't huge. Hit them on the shoulder knuckle, and it's always a big mess regardless. Square up on the lungs and it doesn't matter what you smack them with.

Only time I've seen really poor performance was light (150 gr / 30 cal) for caliber bullets at longer ranges or old school heavy for caliber (220 gr) round nose stuff. Penetration was an issue in both cases, but the meat ended up on the pole anyway.

Have a good hunt.

funny you say so: 3 years ago the quickest moose down i ever seen was with a 308 and 150 grains ttsx but it was only at short range, not even 50 yards: 2 lungs collapsed and never recovered the bullet but i will not recommend 150 grains for longer range at the risk of no expansion especially with stronger bullet.

 

[Grassymike]

I am in the "whatever you can hit the lungs with" camp. Shot a few Moose growing up in the Yukon with a 30.06 using either factory Rem corelocks or Win power points in either 150 or 180 grain flavors. The last Moose I have seen shot was my son shooting one with a 7mm-o8 and 130 grain speer handloads here in Alberta.

 

[noKnees]

I agree a moose with a round through the boiler works can stand for while before it goes down and whats a little disconcerting often doesn't show much or any reaction to being hit which can cause a little worry on the part of the shooter. If you shooting them behind the shoulder it doesn't take much bullet to get it done but it might take a little while.

If you want a moose to go down ASAP, spine/high shoulder shoot them.

To me the balance in choosing a bullet is what does a great job behind the shoulder at range may not be the best choice at 30 feet into the front end. Each person has to weigh, the terrain where they hunt, what shots they will take and what they will not. For me I am not going to shoot beyond 500yds, so I can yield some BC and ability to open at low impact speeds for a bullet that will penetrate and break bone a little better. I am trying something new this year 160 LRX-7mm SAUM, but have done most of my moose shooting with TTSX , Accubonds and Partitions

The only time a saw a real bullet failure on a moose was 20 yd shot into the shoulder with a ELDX from a 6.5PRC. It did a lot of damage to the shoulder but at least one of the lungs was still intact during the post mortum. Probably a good cartridge and bullet and had the shooter waited a few seconds for a different angle.

 

[Dave Thomas]

Was it a bullet failure when you had a dead moose to see only one lung was hit?

 

[noKnees]

Was it a bullet failure when you had a dead moose to see only one lung was hit?

Let me tell the whole story and you can decide. It was at an outfitters camp in Newfoundland. I had gotten my moose earlier in the week and decided to go out with one of the other hunters and his guide. We set up with some trees/brush to our back open area and wind and light rain in our face. We were glassing and intermittently calling. The idea being they hoped to see a moose in front of us, but the moose came from behind in the thick stuff and real close. The hunter fired and the moose took off through the thicker stuff.

After a wait we followed, there was blood and some sign where the moose just went crashing through. The thick stuff was maybe 200 yds wide. when we got to the other edge, no moose in sight over the boggy ground. We were trying to follow him across the open boggy ground but it was hard to track. After about 20 minutes he just sort of popped up from some dead ground about 300yds in front of us. Limping but still mobile. The hunter took a another shot and hit him high about 2/3 of the way back and it spined him and he went down. When we got to him he was still alive and a third shot killed him.

The angle of the first shot would have taken out both lungs if there had been more penetration, It looked like the bullet came apart on the front shoulder, The actual impact point was on or very near the joint at the top of the humerus ( if thats what its called on a moose) We never found much bullet although the guide wasn't really into doing post mortums so we didnt really do the kind of digging we might have other wise. There were some fragments of the bullet found around under the skin and in the muscle at the entry wound. The shoulder was "floppy so it either broke the humerus or blew the joint apart. Lots of blood shot meat. But I have to say I wasn't the one that cut off that front shoulder and skinned it, just got a look as it was laying on the gamebag. I did see the chest wall after the shoulder was off and thorasic cavity was opened my guess is that only bullet fragments or bone fragments made it into the thorasic cavity, but probably not a intact bullet.

Did the bullet help to kill the moose? well sort of. But in my opinion some combination of a high impact speed, a fairly soft bullet and the big bones of a moose front shoulder lead to bit of a rodeo. A different impact point, or a more penetrating bullet would have likely worked better.

 

[Dave Thomas]

OK. So it looks like everything lined up to make a bad circumstance. I was under the impression that it was a one shot kill. I've also never even seen a moose before much less shot any so I can't make any bullet recommendations from experience.

 

[FlareBlitz91]

People think Elk are wearing Kevlar and you think moose are tougher? Nothing short of a bazooka will suffice….

For real though moose are very tough animals, but tough doesn’t mean hard to kill. You shoot them in the lungs and they die, they just don’t tend to roll over like a deer or even an elk. I shot one last year 3 times in the vitals with .30-06 165 grain Nosler partitions and the moose just stood there until he laid down for a minute then rolled over and died.

 

[C__blank]

180 gr hybrid

 

[Sako76]

I have killed a bunch of elk and mule deer out of my 7mm RM using Federal Premium ammo and 160 grain Nosler Partitions, they just kill!

 

[OXN939]

Moose are not tougher than elk. If you are confident in what you use for elk it will be fine for moose.

Personally I am not a fan of the SST cup and core type bullet for bigger or dangerous animals. I do like Barnes and other monos or a better bonded bullet.

Wild that there is further discussion than this. Anyone got an advantage that could possibly exist over the Barnes factory 160 grain 7mm Rem Mag load?