The 6 Best Rifle Cartridges for Moose Hunting

Comparatively few people get to hunt moose. In Maine, where we have masses of moose, the odds on drawing a tag in any given year are 1,300 to one. In Alaska, where the moose are many, and there’s no problem getting a license, but for a nonresident, it’s an expensive and difficult hunt.

On the other hand, I consider moose to be the best of all wild meats, and there’s a lot of it if you get one. So, let us consider the best cartridges for same.

Moose are not smart or tough, but they are big. Bulls in the Lower 48 ( Alces alces) weigh from 800 to 1,000 pounds. Alaskan bulls ( Alces gigas) run from 1,000, if they’re worn down by the rut, to 1,600 or 1,800. For a bullet to do its job, it must get through much moose, and that requires both heft and toughness.

Most moose are shot with deer rifles, and that’s fine, but if you’re hunting them in grizzly or brown bear country, your rifle must be able to deal with an ursine claimant to the dead body. I would not want to bluff a brown bear with a .270. So, most of the following cartridges are bigger than strictly required, but they’ll handle both jobs.

There are bog-trotting moose and ridge-running moose. The ridge runners can often be hunted on horseback, but the bog trotters are pursued on foot, and it’s some of the most frightful country I’ve ever sloshed through. If you carry a heavy, long-barreled rifle, you will regret it only once, and that will be continually.

The guy who is doing my cataracts recently retired from the USA after “only” 30 years of service. He’s good. Before he came to N. Idaho he told me he used to do all of the retirees’ cataracts at Madigan in Tacoma.

So far only the right eye is done. Went from 20/200 to 20/20. Vision is still variable because it takes time for the new lens to settle in. Left eye next Thursday.

Thank you for your service too!

My “little brother of the heart” who is a MASTER handloader, gun magazine writer & retired LCDR, USNR has concocted an about 200 grain plain base, SWC shape, cast bullet that at about 1400FPS is equal to the “old school”, “high-speed” .38-55WCF load & is EASY on the shoulder. = Works WELL on WT, too.

My BIG GAME load is a hard-cast, GCCB 310 Grain (cast in an OLD, OLD, RCBS SBRN mold.) at about 2050FPS, that is an efficient KILLER of most any game to 200+M & spoils LITTLE edible meat. = On BIGGER deer (like AXIS or RED DEER), it usually makes a .36 caliber hole on both side of the game from most any angle & has GOOD knock-down power. ====> That GCCB load generally leaves a GREAT blood trail that a BLIND man could follow, should tracking a wounded animal become necessary.
(On BIG GAME it is an EXCELLENT “penetrator” that will pass through heavy muscle/bone to hit the vital organs of the torso.)

BTW, I’m “the friendly neighborhood cheapskate” & SELDOM buy factory loads.
(My homebrew CB loads are EFFICIENT “meat getters”.)

BTW, “Little Brother” also “concocted” (on my request) a SMALL GAME load at .357 MAG pistol speed that is PURE DEATH on Texas Jackrabbits, coons, coyotes, aggressive coydogs, BBQ-pigs & other similar sized game to 100M+.= It will take any game that a .357MAG saddle carbine/rifle is suitable for.
(I habitually carry a loaded magazine of “small game loads” in the pocket of my hunting vest in case I run upon “camp meat”.)

Yours, TMN78247

FWIW, so far my BIGGEST KILL with my remodeled Model 760 Remington was a feral “mostly Brahma” bull that was “tearing up fence” & that was “converted to 1200 to 1300 LBs of hamburger meat” for our council’s Scout Camp larder.
(I had NO way to weigh him undressed/”in the field” but GUESS that he was about 1800-2000 LBs of “MAD AS H” on the hoof. = ONE 300 grain, homebrewed, GCCB through the “engine room”, from about 80M put him down for good, though I put another round into his head from < 10M, as “insurance”)

Yours, TMN78247

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