2016 Moose Hunt

[coolpool]

Samjp22 (Sam) and I plus two friends made the trip to Northern Alberta for our annual Moose hunt from Oct 6-11th taking four canoes and everything we'd require to stay on the river for 5 nights. This extra gear added to the weight before we loaded meat and we had two tags to fill! We decided on trying a remote part of the river 120kms from the nearest town which would cover 52km with no take outs in between. The water in the upper part has some fast portions with sketchy rapids which we shot without incident but it got the heart going just the same. If we had meat on we would've had to rope through them I'm sure. Sam connected on a nice bull on day 2 taking a difficult front on shot at 150m while drifting past with one shot. This was the only (confirmed) bull we seen all week but were able to drift past two cows at 20 yards who didn't know what to make of us and one other Moose crossed 600m down river making it's identity questionable. The weather was cool, -2C during the day and -7C at night, and we had two days of light snow which added to the fun. Long story short, we're home now with lots of meat to cut up, and share amongst the group.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Sounds like a great time, I'd love to try it some day. What are the weapons of choice you all use to take Moose?

Thanks for sharing.

[coolpool]

3 guys had a 7mm Rem Mag and I carry a 30-06. Then there's a 30-30 Winchester Trapper Special carbine for tent security and bathroom breaks :-).

[hublake]

Moose hunting aside, what beautiful country.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

3 guys had a 7mm Rem Mag and I carry a 30-06. Then there's a 30-30 Winchester Trapper Special carbine for tent security and bathroom breaks :-).

Love me a Winchester Trapper! Such handy little rifles, and they don't look legal but they are, barely. I'm currently saving my side money to buy one in 45 Colt that belonged to my uncle.

I was just curious on the weaponry me being a reloader and after learning a TON about all the different types of bullets in terms of how they are designed to work on game of differing sizes and degree of toughness..I'm betting you all were using quality boolits of heavy construction so as not to explode on impact with the thick muscle and bone of moose..Probably a bit on the heavy side for caliber too??

[x-rider]

Yes, beautiful country. Nice bull too. No locals playing their banjos I take it. Lol.

[coolpool]

Yes, beautiful country. Nice bull too. No locals playing their banjos I take it. Lol.

No surprise but we didn't see another human for 5 days. I'm good with that. Pretty sparsely populated up there.

[coolpool]

Love me a Winchester Trapper! Such handy little rifles, and they don't look legal but they are, barely. I'm currently saving my side money to buy one in 45 Colt that belonged to my uncle.

I was just curious on the weaponry me being a reloader and after learning a TON about all the different types of bullets in terms of how they are designed to work on game of differing sizes and degree of toughness..I'm betting you all were using quality boolits of heavy construction so as not to explode on impact with the thick muscle and bone of moose..Probably a bit on the heavy side for caliber too??

That Trapper Special is the first gun I bought when I turned 16 in 1982, she's got a lot of miles on it for sure. The calibers we use work well for that animal and the bullets are all off the shelf ones but of higher quality. You don't get many pass throughs on a moose from any caliber I've seen. You usually find the bullet stopped by the opposite side hide. I've shot bear and moose with my 30-30 with no issues which some would consider light; shot placement is the key

[RIDE-RED 250r]

That Trapper Special is the first gun I bought when I turned 16 in 1982, she's got a lot of miles on it for sure. The calibers we use work well for that animal and the bullets are all off the shelf ones but of higher quality. You don't get many pass throughs on a moose from any caliber I've seen. You usually find the bullet stopped by the opposite side hide. I've shot bear and moose with my 30-30 with no issues which some would consider light; shot placement is the key

Sounds like you are using the right prescription...

And on what I highlighted above in bold: Absofreakinlutely!

I remember reading an article in a shooting mag a few years back the subject of which was guiding for dangerous African game hunts. It wasn't but a generation ago that many many guides would use the trusty old 30-30 to back up their client against charging lions and whatnot (not thick skinned heavy critters like Cape Buffalo mind you). It was an extensive article that got into alot of technical stuff, but basically the jist of it was #1-the ability of the guide to place the shot where it needed to be in order to stop the animal, and #2- the good old 30-30 doesn't get the recognition it deserves for it's ability to penetrate where the hyper velocity magnums may explode on impact when bullets of too light construction for the job at hand are used. It was a very interesting read.