My oldest son was drawn for a once in a lifetime Bull Moose tag here in Washington in June, a little back story, for Christmas I had told Santa (wife) I would like a 26 Nosler for Christmas. Well in looking for 1 my wife and son found 2 so my son bought one for himself. After being drawn he said he would use his 300WSM, then after talking to many here it was decided to use the 26. We were undecided between the 140 Part. or 140 Accu, with all the fires this year here the range we use at our cabin was closed so we couldn't get a Partition load finished so we decided to use the 140 factory rounds, They shot great! We had talked about drop and from Nosler ballistics had MOA out to 500 yds, but didn't think we would need anything close to that. Oct 1st finally came and we headed to NE Wash. having scouted a few time we knew we would be challenged a bit as a large part of his hunting unit was closed due to a large fire still burning (the 2 best drainage's were in the closed area). After 3 days of hunting we still had not seen a Moose and neither had 6 other moose permit holders we talked to (15 tags total),along with all the elk hunter we talked to, but on the 3rd night we got some info on a good bull so the plan was made to look for it the next morning, next morning we went to where the bull was seen but calling got us no reply, we then moved farther up the mountain to an area we could glass a far ridge top that had burned many years ago, at almost mile away I put my binoculars up and there in my view was a Bull Moose walking across the ridge, I could see that it was a good bull so we moved fast to get as close as we could in the direction he was moving, we got as close as we could and still see up the ridge and set up a good rest but the bull had moved out of sight over the top. We gave a loud cow call and waited less than a minute when he came back over the top and stopped to look for that lonely cow. I ranged him at 430 yards but he was next to a big snag and brush, CJ knew he needed a little more than 4.2 MOA and was ready, what seemed like forever (less than a minute) the bull just stood there looking in our direction when he decided to start moving again, we let him move out a bit and gave another call stopping him, as soon as he did CJ pulled the trigger. The bull hunched and moved a few feet and stopped (solid hit) after 30-40 seconds we told him to send 1 more to finish him, that shot dropped him in his tracks. A great moment was shared between a proud father and son soon after the bull fell. After getting everything in the packs we started up the ridge, what looked like a brush covered hill was actually filled with blow downs from the burn, 5 hours later we had the bull off the mountain. When he drew the tag we looked at moose pictures and CJ said he liked a bull with long tines vs full paddles and while I think we could have found a better scoring bull this bull was what he wanted on the wall from the day he drew the tag, and that's all that really matters. What was a once in a lifetime tag turned into a once in a lifetime memory.
As for the 26, at 430 yards the first shot past right above the heart shattering the far leg bone and exiting, the second shot went through the shoulder passing through the blade bone and stopped against the hide on the far side.
As for the 26, at 430 yards the first shot past right above the heart shattering the far leg bone and exiting, the second shot went through the shoulder passing through the blade bone and stopped against the hide on the far side.
Looks like the 26 Nosler did exactly what it was designed for........
