Moose misery...big guns getting it done.

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I just returned from the field with a pickup load of moose meat, how it got there was the result of some of the worst hunting decisions my partner and I ever made, that is except one...using enough gun.

It started on Friday evening...from our glassing vantage we spotted a couple of moose in a pond eating vegetation with only an hour of light left. We hiked out the ridgeline until we could spot antlers on them both. Not monsters- but a couple of 3 year old "meat moose"....our favorite kind. We took off as fast as we could to close the distance before the sun set.

The terrain was a nightmare- a mishmash of floating peat bogs, tussock and pressure ridges. By the time we got into position to shoot we were on a slight rise with 300 yards of willows between us and the moose and they were still happily munching on plants a solid 150' from shore in about 4' of water.

The conventional wisdom is that shooting moose in the water is a bad idea. It is, for very good reason. I threw out a couple of cow calls, trying to draw one of the bulls to the shore...but they ignored me profoundly. With failing light, my partner lined up on the largest bull with the 33 Nosler and asked me how bad it could be. I told him that I was in the game for better or worse but one moose was enough given how this was going to go.

With seconds of useful light left, the moose turned and my partner pulled the trigger. The 250gr AB entered behind the front shoulder, exited the paunch and shattered the rear leg at the knee. It managed to turn 180 degrees and the second shot entered behind the last rib and popped out behind the offside shoulder. Dead on its feet, it turned again- broadside and my .300 hit it behind the shoulder and shattered ribs on the way in and out and taking the top of the heart with it. With the last piece of light, my partner notched his tag and we could confirm one antler sticking out of the water.

We hiked back to camp and got equipped for a long and miserable night. Equipped with chest waders, a Coleman lantern, and a couple coils of rope we returned to the moose and I waded out into the water. By the time I got a rope around the moose's rear legs..it had achieved a nice buoyancy. I was able to tow the moose (all 1000 pounds of it!) back to the shoreline single handed. Deeper water and I'd been out there in my skivvies at 35F swimming to the moose, shallower and we'd have had to drug the moose along the mire in the bottom. 4' deep was perfect.

We got the moose back to the shore, which was some floating peat bog and we worked into the early morning (up to our waists in water ) by headlamp with the lantern hissing. A cold wind blowing and an brilliant aurora overhead just made it uniquely Alaskan. We packed it all out the following morning back to camp. Once the moose was down, it was just time, effort and misery to get the meat recovered- now hanging at the house awaiting processing.

Last week I published a piece in The Alaska Life about the perfect moose rifle...several commenters spoke out condescendingly about my treatment of the small bores. Yeah- this moose represented how I formed my opinion exactly, an imperfect angle at distance, in failing light, with the real possibility of a moose getting in deeper water or reaching the brush line on the far side of the lake and running off to die in grizzly country..in the dark. This was just no job for a small bore- we needed to not only kill the moose, but break him down in place or potentially lose him. As much as my partner and I both shoot and appreciate rifles like the 6.5s, the 270 and the 257WBY...neither of us would have attempted it with any of them.
 
Great write up Mike.

You make some great points on all accounts. Those .338’s do leave a mark and make stuff stay still.

Would you have taken the shot with a 165 AB in a 30-06?
 
SJB358"Would you have taken the shot with a 165 AB in a 30-06?[/quote said:
That'd be about as light as I'd go but I'd vastly prefer more gun- especially in this situation. I've got to admit, I felt very good to be backing up a medium rather than the 300 being the larger rifle. If this had occurred in the morning with more opportunity to work closer or wait for the moose to go to bed I would have felt different, and we'd likely have shot both bulls.
 
Good job! I know from experience what cutting up a moose in the water is like, definitely no fun!


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Sounds like a memorable hunt!

Nosler 33 that’s some cartridge.


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Hopefully I'm in the same situation, less the water, some time between Tuesday and the 20th. I've cut one up in the water too and its not fun. We fly up there tomorrow evening until the 22nd. We will be near Delta Junction.
 
Sounds like you had some adventure.
Congratulations on the moose.
My wife and I are going on our first moose in 30 days, can't wait. She is using her 280 AI with 160 gr PT's and in going with my 338 RUM and 250 gr PT's.

JD338
 
JD338":3rfabhh9 said:
Sounds like you had some adventure.
Congratulations on the moose.
My wife and I are going on our first moose in 30 days, can't wait. She is using her 280 AI with 160 gr PT's and in going with my 338 RUM and 250 gr PT's.

JD338

NICE! Full on Partition hunt!

I think you are both going to have a blast and you definitely have enough gun!
 
Congratulations on putting meat in the freezer Mike and the story was excellent as well. So many times shooting the Moose is the easy part (y)!
Thanks again for the post.

Blessings,
Dan
 
I have seen and heard way too many stories of moose in lakes, rivers, bogs, etc. to ever want to shoot one there myself! Do not envy the hard work and miserable conditions that you went through getting that moose processed and hauled out. Congrats on your determination and effort!

Here in BC if the animal is in water deeper than their knees, it is not legal to shoot them. Interesting, the difference in regulations from place to place.
 
Blkram":3j8s8dqd said:
I have seen and heard way too many stories of moose in lakes, rivers, bogs, etc. to ever want to shoot one there myself! Do not envy the hard work and miserable conditions that you went through getting that moose processed and hauled out. Congrats on your determination and effort!

Here in BC if the animal is in water deeper than their knees, it is not legal to shoot them. Interesting, the difference in regulations from place to place.

Out of the dozen I've butchered....all but one has been in water to some degree, and the one that wasn't in the water was only a dozen feet away from it!

Our regs are such that we can't shoot a swimming moose, but as long as he's standing on the bottom he's fair game.
 
I agree on more is sometimes better. I got my bull moose a few years ago using my 338RUM & 250ABs. He was only 150 yds or so away from me and 100 yds away from my camp. :grin: :grin:
 
Thanks for the story. I'm flying out next Monday for my AK moose hunt, I hope my 300WM and 180gr E tip get tested on a moose. I'll have a story to tell of excitement and misery I hope!
 
Great story exhibiting the degree to which moose hunters are infected. Glad you got the beast. Definitely sound argument for using enough gun.
 
My friends and I have killed a bunch of moose with both the 7mm mag and the 338. I have yet to see a moose that was impressed by either. They have a slow nervous system, and while they are not all that hard to kill, unless you hit something like the spine, they are slow to go down. Like most people I keep shooting until they do.
 
Nice story and one you will remember till the end of your days. What a Memory to have the sights and smells of the wild country. Price Less
 
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