Back from a nice moose hunt off the Yukon River. Flew out with Papa Bear outfitters - 3 shooters (all residents) in the hunting party, 3 moose in 4 days. 2 'meat bulls' (under 50 inches) and 1 over 60" Weather was excellent - only 1 day that was crappy wind/rain/cold - and the moose were active. Saw lots of swans, geese, ducks - one grizz off in the distance. Last night out we had geese flying over camp at 3:00am with a crystal clear sky, a little bit of northern lights in the mid 20s.
First year running the Berger 150gr VLD Hunting bullets - loaded to about 2900 fps and jammed into the lands. Out of my Winchester 70 featherweight this load groups very well. The bullet works. That said, I won't be using it again for moose, as it turned way to much meat to jello. After calling for a few minutes the bull RAN into the tundra behind us, one shot clipped the backbone - dropped the moose with the traditional head thrown back indicating 'dead moose.' Cheers and high fives. Moose gets back up and kinda stumbles towards the trees. Oh shit - pop him again - down it goes. Get a little closer and it is struggling to get up so put one behind his ear and that stopped things real quick. Was the ideal Alaska hunt morning - heavy frost, gold and red tundra, sunny and clear. One for the record books.
Most of the neck was jello - it is a miracle the thing could walk with all the bone missing from the backbone. It also jellowed much of the upper shoulder, about 12" of backstrap.
Net net is that the bullet kills things dead - but damn, I want to eat the beast too.
Next time will be either partitions or a TSX of some sort.
First year running the Berger 150gr VLD Hunting bullets - loaded to about 2900 fps and jammed into the lands. Out of my Winchester 70 featherweight this load groups very well. The bullet works. That said, I won't be using it again for moose, as it turned way to much meat to jello. After calling for a few minutes the bull RAN into the tundra behind us, one shot clipped the backbone - dropped the moose with the traditional head thrown back indicating 'dead moose.' Cheers and high fives. Moose gets back up and kinda stumbles towards the trees. Oh shit - pop him again - down it goes. Get a little closer and it is struggling to get up so put one behind his ear and that stopped things real quick. Was the ideal Alaska hunt morning - heavy frost, gold and red tundra, sunny and clear. One for the record books.
Most of the neck was jello - it is a miracle the thing could walk with all the bone missing from the backbone. It also jellowed much of the upper shoulder, about 12" of backstrap.
Net net is that the bullet kills things dead - but damn, I want to eat the beast too.
Next time will be either partitions or a TSX of some sort.
