Taking a 6.5 CM as my 2025 moose rifle

[Q_Sertorius]

Skunked again. Almost unbelievable that you can spend a week at a remote cabin and not see a single moose.

I bet you would have been more successful if you brought a rifle with more wallop!


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[WMR]

Sorry to hear you didn’t get to test your rifle. How was the hunt? What were the high and low points?

 

[medvedyt]

Or use a 9.3x62 on game like moose and massive hogs, and defense against bears. Just makes sense on heavy game

very good advice,.

 

[Fireflyfishing]

My only question: why have all those other rifles if none of them are ready? When I buy a rifle it’s immediately put to work with sight in and load development so I can grab it at a moments notice.

 

[Jimss]

An Alaska guide using a 6.5 in grizzly country as a backup ought to have his guides license revoked!

 

[burborg]

My only question: why have all those other rifles if none of them are ready? When I buy a rifle it’s immediately put to work with sight in and load development so I can grab it at a moments notice.

Long term projects. I took the most promising rifle/load combination and focused on it.

Will it make you feel better if I say I'm sorry you have a problem with the way I own guns and the pace at which I spend time and money on them?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

An Alaska guide using a 6.5 in grizzly country as a backup ought to have his guides license revoked!

So scary. Much tough. 80 grain ELDX bounces off Alaska critters according to the internet . Yet here they lay in real life, dead.

 

[burborg]

An Alaska guide using a 6.5 in grizzly country as a backup ought to have his guides license revoked!

Don't worry about it. He assured me he doesn't have a license.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

I tapped a moose with a 150 Accubond at lowish velocity once (2700-something FPS MV, about 120 yards, maybe 2500 ish impact?). Went clean through him on the diagonal like a hot knife through butter (2.5 to 3 ft of moose I estimate). On another occasion, I shot a bull elk with a 140 grain 7mm (2200 FPS impact velocity), likewise on the diagonal (about 2 ft of elk), and it likewise went clean through. Destroyed the vitals in both cases, and provided great eating for me and mine for several years.

I would therefore be 100% gobstruck if a 140 grain bullet with better sectional density than either of those didn't do the exact same thing.

 

[burborg]

Sorry to hear you didn’t get to test your rifle. How was the hunt? What were the high and low points?

I had an amazing time. My wife and I both took a week off work and stayed at my sister's off-grid cabin on a small, private lake. We parked the truck, took a four-wheeler two miles, then canoed across the lake to the cabin. We hiked, practiced our moose calls, watched beavers and ducks, watched the sun rise, she picked a lot of berries, I made pancakes and syrup with them, etc.

We helped a foster kid through his last year of high school and are currently trying to help get him gainfully employed, so we don't get a lot of alone time right now in our house. It was nice to get away together.

The only low point really was that her Katadyn Pro Hiker water purifier became really hard to pump after only about 6 gallons of water. It's pumped maybe that much water total before this trip, so the filter shouldn't need to be replaced already. We tried cleaning the pre-filter and rinsing the filter, but no dice.

 

[Marbles]

I see someone showed a picture of “ someone he knew who supposedly shot” . I am sure the Athabascans killed them with a primitive bow and lots of arrows. In my case by guide told me to break the bull down where he stood. If he ran far we were going to be in for a long day getting him out. My 300 win mag allowed me to hit him in the shoulder and then follow up with a couple more. The previous season I killed a 9’ 3” grizzly about 3 miles from where I got the moose. Yes …..grizzly not brown. The scull made Boone and Crockett green score. Maybe the Alaskan gulde will pack an adequate backup.

A grizzly is a brown. It is an interior brown bear that doesn't grow as large due to not having access to a coastal food source. The Boone and Crockett distinction is arbitrary so they can make more people happy. Thus, you shot a midsized brown bear. The record grizzly doesn't make the minimum for a "Alaska Brown Bear" record as B&C calls coastal browns.

 

[Fireflyfishing]

Long term projects. I took the most promising rifle/load combination and focused on it.

Will it make you feel better if I say I'm sorry you have a problem with the way I own guns and the pace at which I spend time and money on them?

You do you.

 

[WMR]

Sounds like a good way to spend a week. Interesting enough to start another thread so the conversation doesn’t get lost among the rifle/cartridge stuff.

FWIW, I’ve got a couple rifles I’ve not fired yet. I’m on your side with the “long term project” thing.

 

[Snowwolfe]

If having an unfired rifle is a sin I am going to hell many times over.

 

[BCDJR]

A grizzly is a brown. It is an interior brown bear that doesn't grow as large due to not having access to a coastal food source. The Boone and Crockett distinction is arbitrary so they can make more people happy. Thus, you shot a midsized brown bear. The record grizzly doesn't make the minimum for a "Alaska Brown Bear" record as B&C calls coastal browns.

Do not tell me what I killed . They are subspecies Ursus arctos. BC has roots starting in the 1880’s. I can assure you I was well above the line of demarcation that runs thru Alaska for Browns and Grizzlys. I am also very familiar with BC scoring and SCI scoring. Mine was scored and verified by a master scorer. Sometimes disgruntled grizzly hunters complain about these large bears being killed and use your logic “ it’s a brown bear” . Boone and Crockett made the rules a long time ago. It’s not different that hunting in a unit and respecting the boundaries. I’ve been in the presence of the Browns and these grizzlies and I can assure you there is a hell of a lot of difference. No way I would be in their neighborhood with anything less that a ..300

 

[Marbles]

Do not tell me what I killed . They are subspecies Ursus arctos. BC has roots starting in the 1880’s. I can assure you I was well above the line of demarcation that runs thru Alaska for Browns and Grizzlys. I am also very familiar with BC scoring and SCI scoring. Mine was scored and verified by a master scorer. Sometimes disgruntled grizzly hunters complain about these large bears being killed and use your logic “ it’s a brown bear” . Boone and Crockett made the rules a long time ago. It’s not different that hunting in a unit and respecting the boundaries. I’ve been in the presence of the Browns and these grizzlies and I can assure you there is a hell of a lot of difference. No way I would be in their neighborhood with anything less that a ..300

But, brown bears are ursus arctos (thank you for the admission that you killed a brown), you are looking for the addition of the word horribilis, so even in your rebuttal with plenty of time to verify your facts, you got the name wrong, might want to slow down on insisting you know.
Biologically, the difference between ursus arctos and ursus arctos horribilis is still an arbitrary differentiation with no bases in biology, only geography. Remove the geographic location of the bear, and there is no way to identify if it gets the horribilis modifier based on genetics or other characteristics.

So, you killed a big bear for the area, but not a big bear for the species ursus arctos.

 

[Mullthing]

Good luck, but little light for moose IMO.

 

[Snowwolfe]

I had an amazing time. My wife and I both took a week off work and stayed at my sister's off-grid cabin on a small, private lake. We parked the truck, took a four-wheeler two miles, then canoed across the lake to the cabin. We hiked, practiced our moose calls, watched beavers and ducks, watched the sun rise, she picked a lot of berries, I made pancakes and syrup with them, etc.

We helped a foster kid through his last year of high school and are currently trying to help get him gainfully employed, so we don't get a lot of alone time right now in our house. It was nice to get away together.

The only low point really was that her Katadyn Pro Hiker water purifier became really hard to pump after only about 6 gallons of water. It's pumped maybe that much water total before this trip, so the filter shouldn't need to be replaced already. We tried cleaning the pre-filter and rinsing the filter, but no dice.

I thought you were on a guided hunt?

 

[burborg]

I thought you were on a guided hunt?

If you re-read my posts, I think it will be obvious I was jokingly referring to myself as the "guide" after other people made that assumption. I live in AK and am not wealthy.

 

[BCDJR]

But, brown bears are ursus arctos (thank you for the admission that you killed a brown), you are looking for the addition of the word horribilis, so even in your rebuttal with plenty of time to verify your facts, you got the name wrong, might want to slow down on insisting you know.
Biologically, the difference between ursus arctos and ursus arctos horribilis is still an arbitrary differentiation with no bases in biology, only geography. Remove the geographic location of the bear, and there is no way to identify if it gets the horribilis modifier based on genetics or other characteristics.

So, you killed a big bear for the area, but not a big bear for the species ursus arctos.

You are correct as I was dealing from memory on my phone. Once the scull dried I dropped a bit on the score and fell out of the final BC record book.