Your right. Unfortunately too many try to substitute high powered rifles for stalking and shooting skills. Also most badly wounded animals don't often go far if they are not being chased, they soon lie down when they think they are out of danger. Don't follow them for 20 min or so to let them lie down and die. If you chase them, they keep running from you.

The .270 debate will rage on but large animals will keep dropping to the 130 or 140 Gr every year. It has been around to long and has taken too much large game to counted out anytime soon. Shot placement, shot placement,shot placement!!! There is no substitute for putting your bullet in the right place every time.

Five years later... I still stand behind my original support of using a .270 Win for moose, with an appropriate bullet. I will add that if you get the opportunity at close range, the .270 will serve you better that any of the new magnum death rays. This is anecdotal, but from a fair amount of experience. A bull that is well shot with a bullet that doesn't exit takes a heck of a lot fewer steps than one that suffers a well placed boiler room shot that exits. Spine shot notwithstanding.

__________________
See ya, Guy

"Out of work and hungry?...eat an environmentalist."

if you shoot the .270 better than the bigger cartridges definitely use it. Load it with a quality controlled expansion 150 like a partition or Barnes TTSS. I have killed a bunch of elk in Montana and very large AK moose. I personally like the .300 for both but it I have killed more game with .270 than all other cartridges combined.

My other advice will be similar to others...keep shooting till you break him down if you are even remotely close to water. Water is a moose's safe haven. And believe me, it is no fun to quarter a 1000# animal in knee (or worse) deep 45 degree water.

Now your suggesting an exit hole is not wanted, a long with suggesting a .270 for moose. Hmmm.... i definitly have no doubts about the .270's ability to kill large game, but i promise you I will have less problems with my 250 gr 338 cal bullet placed in exactly the right spot. Heck i could even likely take the shoulders out if it was on the edge of a swamp.

Dont get me wrong, if the only rifle i had was a .270 id hunt elk and moose without giving it a second thought. But with better choices available, i just see it as a foolish move. I actually like blood trails to follow, and appreciate some extra insurance if for some reason i dont make a perfect shot.

I have shot a lot of animals that dropped in there tracks from a bullet that exited, the animals that i have tracked the furthest with the most difficulty have been from bullets that dont exit.

I am just saying, to take a .270 moose hunting and leaving a .300 mag in the closet is a really weird thing to do, and getting 1/4 tighter group with the .270 on a bench is no reason to consider doing this crap.

I just can not believe the term "frontal area" hasnt been mentioned. eh no point in trying to convince a bunch of jack O'conner wannabees


P.S
I would much prefer a .303 with 180 grain bullet for moose then a .270, for obvious reasons.

"...keep shooting till you break him down..." Key words. You will not blow him over w/ couple shots.

That was the message I heard from my friends experiences and those that they had hr=eard about in AK. The friends had been there for a season before we were hunting together (1967). I shot at about 160 yards from a tree about 25'- 30' off the ground. I was using a sporterized 03 /w 180 gr Winchester silvertips, they were of course the 'old style variety'. I had not hunted big game and had shot the rifle 30+ shots and was comfortable w/ it.

After the first five shots he just kept walking away, quartering. Loaded two more after I dug them out of an inner shirt pocket. Then I noticed he was down to his front knees. I had good view as I was up quite a ways.

Shinneyed down and walked out to the raod and along came partner. He asked if I was shooting crows? NO.

Then the work begun, really.

Dont ever try to hoist any part of any critter up onto a game pole w/ parachute cord. It streeetttches.
Sow bear in area made it more interesting. Rack hangs on hallway way to this day.

PS-6 shots in the chest cavity and one was pulled just behind the diaphram. He was dead after first shot just that neither of us knew it. This was 50 mi up the Taylor Highway in the area of a fire about 18 mo prior.

I believe two holes are better than one.

A good blood trail is very useful at times, and it is almost always the exit hole that makes a good trail. This too is from quite a bit of experience: the number of tracks made after the shot is not in any way proportional to whether or not there is an exit. The ability to follow an animal is directly proportional to the amount of blood in the trail.

I choose my cartridges for specific animals with the ability to provide exit wounds as a prime consideration. Sometimes finding things is as important as killing them.

couple questions...how many moose have you seen much less shot? you might take out one moose shoulder but not both with a .338 and more than likely after blowing up on the shoulders, the animal will be down but the bullets have not reached the vitals. I shot my AK moose with a .375 H&H because I know I was hunting riparian environment. The .338 is not a death ray and actually quite detrimental. Not meaning to offend, but there is a vast variety of USED .338 WM-.340 WBY-.338 UM rifles sitting on dealers shelves that have only been shot 4-5 times. Most casual hunters cannot handle them. Robert Ruark wrote "bring enough gun, but only enough that you can handle". Sage words from an alcoholic magazine writer

Amen!
I loved the interaction between OConnor and Keith.
Keith ranted and O'Connor basically ignored him.
Much to Keiths'dismay.

Recall reading about a fellow escorting Keith around a NRA convention many years ago. They came to a booth and there was OConner and the two never even shook hands.