Moose bullet for tikka .243

[Dobermann]

WOULD LOVE TO SEE PICTURES OF ALL OF YOUR MOOSE KILLS OVER THE YEARS,
Actually would love to see all of your hunting experiences photos outside of the raghorn bull elk that you may actually have a photo of. I say , FORM- BIG HAT NO CATTLE

No need to yell over the internet. It's not 1996 anymore ...

 

[Castle Rock]

Shoot any of those critters with a 243? What bullet in the 22-250? My 22-250 has been crushing deer for me the last 2 seasons.

No I didn’t have a 243 available, but I would like to do a bit of time traveling and take my current tikka 243 and 108s, a range finder and dialing scope back there, it would have been incredible.

22/250 ammo was Winchester and PMC 55 grain soft points behind the leg into the heart and lungs.

The younger ones are great eating too.

 

[Treeman_MG]

A couple observations. This was never intended to be a "will a 243 kill a moose," thread, I'm confident it will. What I really intended was "which bullet should I choose for moose?". That said, I do appreciate all the people who chimed in with their experiences on moose, especially those that live in Alaska.

On the topic of bullet choice (which I think matters a lot more than caliber/cartridge), one thing I most likely won't use are copper monos. I got really tired of shooting deer through the lungs with barnes and watching them run 100, 200+ yards before tipping over. They seem to die much quicker and run less with cup and core match type bullets.

Current front runners for moose are:
Nosler 95gr ballistic tip (seems to be pretty universally lived by .243 fans)
Hornady 105 hpbt
Sierra 95 tmk (or 107gr, if I can get them before my hunt)
Maybe 95/100gr partitions
Maybe 115gr berger vld hunt (if they shoot well).
115 dtac/tmk (may not stabilize in my 1:8 twist near sea level).

Any I've missed?

 

[BAKPAKR]

A couple observations. This was never intended to be a "will a 243 kill a moose," thread, I'm confident it will. What I really intended was "which bullet should I choose for moose?". That said, I do appreciate all the people who chimed in with their experiences on moose, especially those that live in Alaska.

On the topic of bullet choice (which I think matters a lot more than caliber/cartridge), one thing I most likely won't use are copper monos. I got really tired of shooting deer through the lungs with barnes and watching them run 100, 200+ yards before tipping over. They seem to die much quicker and run less with cup and core match type bullets.

Current front runners for moose are:
Nosler 95gr ballistic tip (seems to be pretty universally lived by .243 fans)
Hornady 105 hpbt
Sierra 95 tmk (or 107gr, if I can get them before my hunt)
Maybe 95/100gr partitions
Maybe 115gr berger vld hunt (if they shoot well).
115 dtac/tmk (may not stabilize in my 1:8 twist near sea level).

Any I've missed?

What Barnes bullet were you using? In addition to the LRX I used on the moose, I have used 62 gr TTSXs in 223s on deer and 95 gr TTSXs in 6.8 SPCs on deer and a black bear. Based on a handful of deer my daughter and I have killed with the 62 gr TTSXs and 77 gr TMKs, the quicker, more impressive kills, on non-CNS shots, came from the TTSXs. Plus, with the TTSXs, I got a decent blood trail on deer that did run after the shot, something I can’t say about the TMK.

 

[dallen]

Nosler partitions

 

[Matt5266]

On the topic of bullet choice (which I think matters a lot more than caliber/cartridge), one thing I most likely won't use are copper monos. I got really tired of shooting deer through the lungs with barnes and watching them run 100, 200+ yards before tipping over. They seem to die much quicker and run less with cup and core match type bullets.

I 100% agree with this and has been my experience as well. (Not on moose but other animals)

 

[Weldor]

All this bullet talk has got me interested in a good general load for my 6mmCM. My buddy has a ton of bullets he inherited from a friend. I currently use a hand loaded 100 gr Speer SP. Time to grab a handful of ea. and see what happens.

 

[Treeman_MG]

What Barnes bullet were you using? In addition to the LRX I used on the moose, I have used 62 gr TTSXs in 223s on deer and 95 gr TTSXs in 6.8 SPCs on deer and a black bear. Based on a handful of deer my daughter and I have killed with the 62 gr TTSXs and 77 gr TMKs, the quicker, more impressive kills, on non-CNS shots, came from the TTSXs. Plus, with the TTSXs, I got a decent blood trail on deer that did run after the shot, something I can’t say about the TMK.

I started with 168gr tsx from my 300 win mag, then moved to 168 ttsx. Also 180 gr ttsx out of my .358 win. Never caught any of them in a deer, and usually had a decent blood trail, just very un-impressive wounds, unless bone was hit, and deer always ran 100-200 yards, sometimes more, with non cns hits.

Been shooting 80gr eldx out of my 22-250 the last 2 deer seasons, and have had 3 out of the 5 deer killed with it have (what's left of) the heart loose and falling out of the chest cavity when gutting. Never had that happen with any of the bigger rounds I've used. The furthest one ran was 100 yards, most less than 30. Had decent blood trails with all, although only needed it on the 1 that ran 100 yards. The other 4 never made it out of sight .

 

[BAKPAKR]

I started with 168gr tsx from my 300 win mag, then moved to 168 ttsx. Also 180 gr ttsx out of my .358 win. Never caught any of them in a deer, and usually had a decent blood trail, just very un-impressive wounds, unless bone was hit, and deer always ran 100-200 yards, sometimes more, with non cns hits.

Been shooting 80gr eldx out of my 22-250 the last 2 deer seasons, and have had 3 out of the 5 deer killed with it have (what's left of) the heart loose and falling out of the chest cavity when gutting. Never had that happen with any of the bigger rounds I've used. The furthest one ran was 100 yards, most less than 30. Had decent blood trails with all, although only needed it on the 1 that ran 100 yards. The other 4 never made it out of sight .

Sounds like you should just use the 22-250 and 80 gr ELD-Xs and not worry about possible overkill with the 243.