270 win For Moose

Ranger66Rick

Ranger66Rick

New member
I am planning on taking my 270 win moose hunting this year, and I have a good load that I use for deer hunting and have so far 2 bang flops. Its quite accurate approx. 1" groups at 100yrds. I am using 140 grain Nosler Accubonds, will these bullets be good enough to drop a moose, I will only have a calf tag.
 
RangerRick
I taken at least 1/2 dozen moose and been in on at least twice that and if you are expecting bang flops you are hunting the wrong animal. If you are hunting off the road system or have atv access its one thing but if you hunt where I do and everything goes out on your back its essential,practical and damn near mandatory you put them down where you want them down. The only thing worse than packing out a moose is butchering them up to your crotch in swamp water and mud. I've poked them through both lungs with some pretty big sticks (375 H&H and 416 Remington)and they still ran to water. I just shot a large bodied bull last week at a 193 lasered yards with a 50 Beowolf using 400 grain Hawk bullets that worked perfectly and he didn't even flich. The second shot he turned his head and looked at me. It seemed much longer but 30-45 seconds later he slowly fell down.
The 270 has probably shot a lot of moose but if it was my choice and where he went down was a concern I would go with a bigger stick. Here is a photo of the two 400 Grain Hawks I recovered just under the hide on the off shoulder after opening up a wound channel almost twice as big as the expanded bullet. Text book bullet performance and all he did is look at me.
LastMoose8.jpg
 
The .270 with Accubonds should be fine for a calf moose. I've never killed a calf moose but I can't imagine they would be much bigger then a buck deer. I would bet that given a broadside shot you will NOT recover your 140 Accubond bullet.
 
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RangerRick
I taken at least 1/2 dozen moose and been in on at least twice that and if you are expecting bang flops you are hunting the wrong animal.



I'll 2nd that,though I've just about exactly 1/2 Bob's experience.(3 for me,in on 7-8).I took my best to date last year,870lb f.d. bull,and he was a tough customer.Broadside doublelunger that lodged in the far shoulder barely made him flinch,though he was dead on his feet.Next was 1/4ng away,behind the shoulder a few ribs back,still no stumble.3rd shot was straight away,and not wanting to Texas heart shootem,I aimed hi on the hump and he finally fell.He took another to the neck and a 5th shot to the head before he stopped thrashing.

Was I using a .22lr you ask?nuh-uh.30-06,winchester Failsafes,150gr.Says right on the box"for Lite thin-skinned game"IOW..deer.I'll not make that mistake again! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gifThe reason I went with those was my rifle likes em,I'd been using them on deer for several years with great performance,and I was confident that I could place em where i want on deer out to 350yds if I had to,so I thought 400 easy on a moose chest.

The 1st shot killed him(doublejellylungs),but the 2nd,though "textbook" 1/4ing away glanced off the ribs and lodged in near shoulder.I'd hate to think what mite have happened had that been the first/only shot. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I'm going moose huntin next week and you can bet I'll be stuffin the mag with some premium 180 grain pills.Either Rem Core-Lokt or A-frames?

I'm sure the 140 Accutips will do a fine job on a calf,I know alot of moose are taken here with .270's,but don't expect a bang-flop on a big moose no matter what your shooting unless its head,neck or spine shot.

Good luck and hope to see you here in the BGForum with pics next week. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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I'm going moose huntin next week and you can bet I'll be stuffin the mag with some premium 180 grain pills.Either Rem Core-Lokt or A-frames?



Go with the A- frames. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Much better bullet.
 
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what's the reasoning behind a calf moose tag?


In Ontario,you can buy calf tag over the counter and apply for bull or cow.They reason calfs are expendible.I seen a model of this when i lived in Ontario in the moose regs.

For example,if you were to see a cow and calf this year(fall 05),and you take the calf,the cow will breed this year.It will obviously be at least her 2nd breeding,which often produces twins or triplets.(Spring 06).Fall '07,the old cow breeds again and produces 2-3 more calfs in spring of '08.Fall of '08,the 06 calfs can breed,and so on,so,on....

Now if you had taken the cow in the first example,the calf may not survive at all,and if it does it's 2 more years before it breeds,usually a single calf etc,etc...

i forget the exact figures,but it was illustrated in a pyramid type graph that you would have the potential for 20?moose in 6 yrs as opposed to 4-5?

In Ontario they also have "hunting Parties" for moose,which allows up to 8 guys to apply as a group.If the zone you apply in has a 1/4 chance of drawing an adult tag,your group will automatically get 2 adult tags(which any member can fill)and everyone has a calf tag.It gives more people the chance to hunt ,and most any group is happy with 2-3 adults.

It's actually a really great system and I wish New Brunswick would adopt a similair one,as the syatem here absolutely SUCKS.in fact,we have virtually no system,other than if youve applied for 5 consecutive years unsuccessful,you go into pool A,Which has twice the chance of pool B.Big Fn deal!I know people who have gone 20+ years with no tag,and i know some who have gotten it 2 yrs in a row? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gifNo real point system or anything,everybody and there granny applies,50,000 apps for 2000 tags and a 3 day season.

On a brighter note though,I'm going as 2nd gun(we can designate a buddy and share a tag)for the 2nd year in a row! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
personally i dont see how they think any calf is expendable. or would i have any interest to shoot a calf,,,it would be like shooting a yearling doe as shes eating the corn out of your hand,,,,moose are part of the deer family and i never heard of killing off the young of the year to expand the deer herd,,, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
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I have never heard of that metodology before but it makes sense to me. If you don't like the thought of taking a young animal you should come out here in the spring and watch a brown bear set behind a cow moose while she is dropping the calf and proceed to eat it before its even dry. I've seen it twice. Every pregnent cow we see in the spring usually has a growler on its trail. My only question is at what population density does this work? Our calf population has a high mortality rate but the longer they live the better there odds. I would think that unless your base population density is at a good level you may be componding the problem by harvesting calves.
 
You want good calf survival to make it work. Sweden is a pretty good example of that, so I'll allow myself to fill some space on the subject!

We have had very little wolves and bears for decades and a very high harvest of moose (it peaked in the mid 1980's at about 180 000 moose in a country 40 percent the size of BC and is now just under 100 000 per year). A high proportion of what is shot is calves. Up where I work in the north of Sweden we have what is considered a low-productive moose population. As an extremely crude rule of thumb, ten animals in winter can allow an annual harvest of 4, given two of them are calves.

We allow a quota of adult moose per management area, depending on the population and productivity. In recent years calves have not been restricted at all during hunting season. The reason is that calves have high natural death rates, but survival is high here as we don't have very many large predators. So our population handles a loss of calves pretty good. It's just what would have happened naturally.

So, taking a lot of calves works where big predators are scarce and where you want to maximize meat production and the number of moose harvested. High numbers of predators - different deal altogether...

By the way and regarding guns for moose - at work I've got a chart with statistics of moose shot with a wide range of calibers in a large district over a number of years. The hunters have volounteered to give these statistics, but hunting is organized and every moose has been reported. In several thousand moose shot you will find that the average distance at first shot, the average number of shots fired and the average number of meters the moose ran after the first shot is amazingly even over a wide range of calibers. The average moose in the area is shot at about 60 yards, about 1,5 shots are used to put it down and it falls about 40 yards from the first hit, if I remember it right. The vast majority have been shot with 6,5x55mm, .308 win and 30-06, but most modern calibers are represented. I've shot my half dozen with the 6,5 and 30-06. I've seen them get shot with a few other calibers as well and the difference wasn't obvious. If you are OK with lung shooting a calf moose and letting it run a few dozen yards before going down, you'll be fine with the .270. If you need to drop it in it's tracks I think you need no more information than you already got from UgishkakBob. Get a big gun and break bones. If you want a caliber that'll drop a moose in it's tracks without having to care about accurate shot placement, you might need to look at army surplus.
 
I guess I should also mention that with the high turn-over we have on our moose population, the average age is low. You guys wouldn't be impressed with our trophies... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

(By the way it's raining here and when I walked the dogs after the last post there were two fresh moose tracks near a street light on the country road where I live. About 150 yards from my house. Season's open but I don't have access to that land /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif)
 
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personally i dont see how they think any calf is expendable. or would i have any interest to shoot a calf,,,it would be like shooting a yearling doe as shes eating the corn out of your hand,,,,moose are part of the deer family and i never heard of killing off the young of the year to expand the deer herd,,, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif



Maybe "expendable" isn't the right term,rather it is preferable to take the calf which is more vulnerable to predators/winter mortality rather than taking a productive cow from the herd?

When most of us think of moose hunting,we dream of 60"bulls,however some people are quite happy with a 3-400lb calf,bigger than any buck most people will ever take and 5X better eating?

BTW,Crapshoot,I spent some time on the Remington website and have decided to try the 180gr Safari A-frame. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
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When most of us think of moose hunting,we dream of 60"bulls,however some people are quite happy with a 3-400lb calf,bigger than any buck most people will ever take and 5X better eating?




Yep, you can shove a Saskatchewan buck inside the chest cavity of a calf moose no problem.:)

But I disagree with the methodology of taking calves they use. Quebec uses the opposite. In quebec they are allowed to shoot Bulls and calves one year and Cows, Bulls or Calves the next and so on. Quebecs moose poulation is growing very well as Ontario's is going down. (although I dont know if they have the native poaching problem that Ontario has).


Our government has to many 'computer biologist' working out of a big city rather than knowledgable indiviuals in the know deciding the fate of our natural resources..
 
It seems the reasoning behind taking the calf moose must be the same as the reason Washington State (and a few other western states) has a general elk season for "spike only." It has worked pretty well here.
 
Your 270 will be fine. It is shot placement and good bullets. A buddy of mine uses his 270 for moose, caribou, dall sheep. I use a 300 win mag. The last moose I killed and my biggest I killed with bow and arrow. Take Care, Paul
 
Ranger66Rick
I think you have plenty enough gun.Coming from A long line of moose p******s here in maine.Ive been witness to the trick to keep them from running.Shoot them in the (Hump) at the top of the shoulders,they drop like a sack of potatoes.
Ive personally seen it done with a 270 w/110 grain bullets.
Scott
 
I shot a huge cow moose with my 270 with 130gr bullets right behind the shoulder and she didnt run but 22 yards before dying mid-stride. Just gotta put'em where they count. You dont need a 416 mag or 700 tyranosaurus for that fact to kill a moose and dont count on a bang-flop on any moose that walks this earth, an animal that runs after the shot is common from coyotes to elephants its just one of those uncontrollable things.
 
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