Choice of bullet for Moose hunt

[Playtimefun]

Moose are the big babies of the woods!!!!

Coming originally from Manitoba where if you didn't get drawn for moose you bought a general tag and literally hunted across the highway. Moose hunting is what I live for. Don't ask me how... but I just know how to find them... how to call them... the wife says they are my totem animal because every where I go I find them. Put 100 deer in a corral with deer season opening tomorrow and I'm the only one allowed to hunt there and a semi truck will drive through the fence and every deer will be gone... but a moose will walk in and be standing there!!

I have used... both factory and reloads with Rem Core Locks, Partitions, Accubonds, Accubond LRs, Barnes TSX, Moly coated TSX, TTSX and LRX on moose. Pretty much now, I have settled on the Barnes and Accubond (in my 325 WSM).

Use the Barnes Lrx... works awesome and at long range too!!!

In 3 weeks... moose season opens and I'm drawn for the farmlands 40 min drive out of Saskatoon. The hard part will be getting permission to go on people's land. Half of them love the moose and don't want you to shoot them because they hang around the farm yards and become their "pets" and the other half will drive you to where they are lying down because they snap barb wire fences like crazy!!!

I will warn you now though... when I got my 60 inch bull... you had to chew the hamburger meat 30 times before you swallowed it!!! And have a place to put the horns!!! I moved them from apartment building to apartment building across western canada for about 8 years. Then finally I sold them to a guy for $150 in 1997 and ground them up for "medicine". Lol

 

[topcat265]

Thanks for the info. I'll take that 60 inch rack with the chewy meat any day.

 

[340 in Va]

Thank you. And will do. Please do the same.
Where will you be flying into? We will be landing at the Deer Lake airport.
T

We're driving, and Hunting with Lake Douglas Outfitters.

 

[340 in Va]

Thanks for the info. I'll take that 60 inch rack with the chewy meat any day.

I'm with you on the 60" rack and I have a meat grinder to make it easier on the teeth.

 

[topcat265]

We're driving, and Hunting with Lake Douglas Outfitters.

Looks like a great outfitter

 

[LoneTraveler]

If the meat hung for about 2 weeks at 34-36 degrees before cut up and froze, Makes a big difference in meat. .

 

[Dean2]

10 year old moose is go

If the meat hung for about 2 weeks at 34-36 degrees before cut up and froze, Makes a big difference in meat. .

A 60" bull is in its prime and the best meat outside of one under 3 years old. The older a Moose gets, the antlers actually start to get smaller. Really old moose are very grey with smallish antlers and are tougher than boiled owl sh$it.

The problem is, shooting Moose in the rut. Same as deer in the rut, does are WAY better eating than rutted up males but evryone keys on the horns despite all the crap that gets talked about regarding the best organic meat. That is all for public consupmtion, anyone that half knows the truth knows it is a sales job for non hunters.

All that adrenaline and rutting around, fighting and long distance travel makes the meat tougher. Shoot the same Bull outside the rut and the meat is excellent. All that said, if you are going to shoot them in the rut, cool them quickly, get the rigor out and hang them at least 30 days. Do the same with Deer and Elk. Still won't be as good eating as the cow he was chasing but it will still be pretty good.

 

[LoneTraveler]

Another thing that affects meat of Bucks and Bulls in rut. They are on the move and don't eat, They are loosing weight, That affects taste and texture of meat a lot also.

 

[Playtimefun]

Well... for the record... it hung for 11 days in a cooler.

Before I shot it, the guys I were hunting with were like you want him... take him. But your taking ALL of the meat and your not getting any of ours!!!

I've found that I'm ideally looking for 3 to 4 year olds. Last year was a 2 year old that was so scrawny that he must have had heath problems as a calf BUT the meat was **** near pink and he crossed the field and walked right up to the truck!!! But now... I actually don't hang any meat more than a day or two max. Drive home... hang it, skin and halve it then go to sleep. The next day its debone it all... Trim all the fat and blue skin and sinew possible. Vacuum seal in a bag with a double set of seals THEN it goes into a second vacuum bag and is double sealed again. I designed my garage with 2 rafters capable of 1000 lb point loads on each and then mounted 2 electric joists (see pic) just for moose hunting. Allows me to hang a moose and their horns still clear the floor.

I sent off the jaw to the conservation officers for years they would give you the age of your animal. I am pretty sure he was either 7 or 8 years old. But just like a deer once they are past their prime, they loose antler mass.

Ironically he was not the biggest bull I had seen. Two years earlier my friend and stumbled in to a big bull and the sun was setting right behind the bull and I was blinded through the scope. And was trying to clear sun spots out of my eyes when the bull sauntered unto the brush 30 to 40 yards away and my friend goes... THANK GOD you didn't shoot him. I was like why did you figure he would charge us? He was like hell no. He was bigger than your GMC S15 truck (little 1/4 tonne truck). We couldn't have hauled out of here even if we tried!!!

 

[Dean2]

Playtime

If you aren't hanging the meat at least long enough to let the rigor pass out of it then you really are not optimistizing the tenderness and flavour of your game. Have tried all the hanging lengths on many different game animals and even on a 4 year old doe, you need to get past the rigor stage and hang long enough for the meat to be relaxed.

 

[Playtimefun]

Yeah... I did and it surprisingly didn't seem to make that much of a difference. The most i have ever hung an animal was 2 full weeks. I always wanted to try doing a 28 day period but in Saskatoon I think it's about $125-150/week to hang an animal (was getting absoloutely stupid here). I have friends with walk in coolers but there in manitoba and it's just too much screwing around to drive there.

At the same time... I immediately gut them of course and then get home or somewhere where i can skin out the animal immediately and get it quartered as quick as possible. Then with processing, it's complete debone (only exception is ribs)

Something maybe I will consider trying this fall. Maybe it's time to try it again...

 

[Playtimefun]

As you guys know... moose hair/skin being one of the absoloute toughest things on a knife with the exception of a wild boar (not sure but assuming so)... I always wanted a knife that could do a moose without needing to be significantly touched up. That is... gut, skin, and quarter (saw on the bone, of course). It was my dream to do it.

So about 6 years ago I met a knife maker and we became friends and he suggested one of the super steels... REX 121.

So we custom ordered a piece. I came up with a design basically tailored all for moose. When shaping the blade he told me that he can make 3 knives out of one belt on his big belt sander. Due to the hardness of the REX 121 he went through 42 belts shaping the knife. Once it was shaped we shipped it to the states for specialty heat treating. It came back with a measured Rockwell hardness of 70.

It is an absoloute bugger to sharpen once it dulls (which is still pretty sharp). But it will do an entire moose!!!

 

[snox801]

We go to quebec those same dates for
Moose and i use a 300 prc , im a barnes fan and would take that but this year im using the 195 grain hammer as it shoots better then the barnes in my gun

You made the right choice sir. I have not shot a Barnes since switching. They do everything better.
Op I would 100 percent take the Barnes. Bergers I look at like mechanical broadheads. When they work they are very impressive and kill fast, but when they don't even if it's 1 in 10,000. That's a chance I would not take on a hunt like that.

 

[quandary]

As you guys know... moose hair/skin being one of the absoloute toughest things on a knife with the exception of a wild boar (not sure but assuming so)... I always wanted a knife that could do a moose without needing to be significantly touched up. That is... gut, skin, and quarter (saw on the bone, of course). It was my dream to do it.

So about 6 years ago I met a knife maker and we became friends and he suggested one of the super steels... REX 121.

So we custom ordered a piece. I came up with a design basically tailored all for moose. When shaping the blade he told me that he can make 3 knives out of one belt on his big belt sander. Due to the hardness of the REX 121 he went through 42 belts shaping the knife. Once it was shaped we shipped it to the states for specialty heat treating. It came back with a measured Rockwell hardness of 70.

It is an absoloute bugger to sharpen once it dulls (which is still pretty sharp). But it will do an entire moose!!!

Just use an Outdoor Edge. 2 blades easily de-bone a Moose in the field.