01 | November | 2025 | Lovin' The Big Bang

Implied is the cartridge. . . . then the rifle. I was standing at the rear of the bull, but that’s my son, Phil’s .338 Win Mag. My .340 Wby put it down where it was standing at 165 yds. When Phil approached it, it managed to get up but wasn’t going anywhere. Another 250 Partition to its rump from my .340 put it down to stay, but its eyes were following us so he brained it with his .338 Win.

Recently, I compared the ballistics I’ve actually used in moose hunts as well as others that didn’t make the trip. On different trips, separated by a decade, I’ve taken a .340 Wby Mag and a .458 Win Mag to the exact same area of Northern Ontario, the Province in which we’ve lived for a total of 9 + 38 years = 47 years. That’s more than half our lifetimes. Of those 47 years, I’ve hunted 42 in Ontario, and that has included varmints, birds, medium, big and large game.

For moose, in particular for bulls (have never had a cow tag), I’ve toted a .300 Win Mag, .338 Win Mag, .340 Wby, .375 H&H, .45-70 and .458 Win Mag. A fully mature Canada moose, both male and female, will average 1100 lbs. That’s average which means some are heavier and others are lighter. Genetics, age, physical condition, location and food sources are all factors in ultimate weight. Not too many years ago, two large bulls fought it out in locked antlers in our area. They were both dead when discovered by hunters who reported it to The Ministry of Natural Resources. They sent personnel to check it out and found matters to be as reported. After separating the bulls, they called in a helicopter to remove each separately. Using a special net and scales each was weighed. It turned out that each weighed the same within a few pounds at an average of ~1400 lbs. Rare, but it happened!

<Not my pic,but it couldn’t be better if it were. I had a bull moose appear like that directly behind me as I was watching a bear bait 75 yds in the opposite direction just outside the south-east corner of Algonquin Park when I was still hunting with outfitter/guide, the late Norm Easto. This is a late fall image, my hunt was in the month of May, but the bull had fully developed antlers about like in this photo. I had my Marlin .45-70 loaded for bear, which at that range would have worked equally well on moose. I stood, faced the bull and raised my rifle while shouting “GET OUT OF HERE!”. The bull left for the ridge beyond. Halfway up he stopped, looking back. I raised the Marlin to my shoulder, pointing it at him. . . he snorted, took off over the top crashing trees like a bulldozer and disappeared. When he appeared he was as silent as a mouse!

Some might question my sanity, because they’ve successfully used and/or read/heard of the .30-30, .30-06, .308, .270. . . . and even less powerful rifles being successful on said species! Our oldest son’s FIL used a .30-30, and when he and I discussed the matter it was clear that we were literally worlds apart – he in central New Brunswick, surrounded by forest loaded with moose and I in Ontario with no more than one in every 25 sq-kilometers of Northern Ontario (one in every 9 sq-miles). (As a point of interest for some: Newfoundland, famous for its moose, had none until about 1900 when a bull and cow were taken there from New Brunswick to start the breeding process! And today, New Brunswick has more moose per sq kilometer than Newfoundland, which has more than any other province, territory, state or country per sq-kilometer). Plus he lived among them, and shots were all within 50 yards!

So there are some very significant territorial distinctions that have permitted some moose hunters to “walk out their back door and shoot a moose”! New Brunswick, my native Province, is still largely undeveloped with huge tracts of rough and ready country where untamed creatures live and die while having never encountered a hunter!

Though I was born, grew up and received foundational education in New Brunswick, in my mid to late twenties, my wife and I with a couple of small boys found ourselves uprooted and dwelling in Eastern Canada’s largest urban centers: Montreal, Hamilton, Toronto and Halifax – then back to Ontario in a mid-sized town in close proximity to a real wildlife area again for the past 38 years. But there are still no moose on our street! There were a few bears nearby, and some wolf-coyote and lots of groundhogs, but nothing we can hunt in our neighborhood anymore of that nature. Occasionally, someone’s pet dog or cat goes missing, but that’s about it!

Our son, Brent, and wife Deb, just had a visit with us from New Brunswick. They, with kids, had spent about two decades in Africa as missionaries. He became a licensed resident big game hunter there. Over a year ago I gifted him with the Tikka T3 Lite in 9.3 x 62 with all reloading components. He said it would be his moose gun. He and Deb both applied for moose tags this year (2025) in New Brunswick, but didn’t succeed. They plan to apply again in 2026. But Brent was invited by some friends to go along on a moose hunt in N.B. this year (2025). The group shot two bulls, and the first was by a young woman using a .30-06. He sat beside her when she fired. The bull dropped at the shot! Her brother was there with a more powerful rifle just in case! But the bull was shot in the spine! They all agreed it was a “lucky shot”.

If I ever went on another bull moose hunt – which will not happen for a number of reasons – it would have to be at a long distance from home for the best chance at an adult tag. It was 1600 kilometers/1000 miles from home where I shot “our bull” in 1997. Son Phil was partner and finished the deed with his .338 Win Mag. The moose went nowhere. It was dressed-out that night and we were on our way home about 24 hrs later – driving through the night, arriving home late the next day.

Would I do it again if I were still in my sixties? Yes, if I knew as much about that kind of thing as I do now – but, you have to live it to know it! That’s the catch! Far, far different than for somebody who’s grown up with moose growing up! Or within easy range and 3 adult moose within a sq-mile!

The deal also is that for moose hunting to be reasonably done, you need lots of equipment and help! We had a plan but compared to the reality of the physical conditions, it was infantile. The bull was down where shot, but where it was shot was in a more or less open area, yet that open area had been logged-out ten to fifteen years earlier, and entirely apart from the brush that had grown up, there were hidden ruts, some a foot or more deep, made by the heavy logging machinery. Plus the pieces of logs that were like deadfalls all over the place! And the bull was down about 350 yds from camp that was just off the old main logging road. A long story shortened: We got help from another camp 6 miles from us who hadn’t seen moose, and there were a cow and calf still within range of our operation, so knowing that they gladly gave us a hand.

So, the issue of what rifle is reatively minor compared to all other considerations.

I didn’t shoot that big bruin last year, mostly because of all the other considerations – I didn’t want or need a trophy for bragging rights, and couldn’t deal with all the meat, and I was alone!

But for a bull moose of a half-ton or more, we must be prepared for the physical conditions that confront us. If the only possible shot is 400+ yards – and it could well be – the rifle and it’s load must be capable. In addition to range, there’s the matter of the potential variable angles of the shot: 1/4 away or toward; straight away or frontal, or any angle between those. As well: Is the moose travelling? Is it about to disappear in forest, bush or lake, and so on? Do I have access to a natural rest for the rifle? I didn’t, and was constrained to shoot the bull at 165 yds from offhand! I wasn’t nervous over that as I knew the rifle, its load and trajectory. But from only 165 yds it was pretty much a point-blank shot from a 250gr Partition at 3000 fps.

A realistic and serious matter to consider is: will this be my only chance on this moose? It’s not like there are several others standing around to be shot! And at 1600 kms from home, this could be the only chance on a moose in my lifetime – which it was!

About a decade later, I was on another bull moose hunt in the same area, and my rifle was the CZ 550 in .458 Win Mag. The load was a 350gr Barnes TSX at 2700 fps. I figured that was good for 400 yds, but loads cooked up at home in 70*F temps may not turn out to be 2700 fps at 35* – 40* temps F. Back at home with temps at 45*F, my beautiful 2700 fps load was only making ~2600 fps! Would that have made any difference on a potential 400 yd shot? Well yes! Because the forecasted results was on the margin for adequate expansion at 1800 fps! Yeah, I know Barnes was claiming expansion at 1600 fps for the TSX’s, but reports didn’t favor their proclamations!

Anyway, back home I ditched RL7 in favor of H4198 for 2750 fps from the 350 TSX and shot a bear with that. It also proved to be temp stable.

We don’t want to be 1000 miles from home on the hunt of a lifetime with ammo that falls short of promises! Also, for various reasons – including some already mentioned – I much prefer to be “overgunned” than marginally so. Something that’s ideal under many conditions may not be in others.

If I took my Ruger No.1H in .458 Win on a moose hunt that might stretch the string, it would not be the 350gr TSX but a 404gr Stone Hammer at near 2600 fps. From the 400gr Barnes X-Bullet, I’ve reached 2590 fps MV/5957 ft-lbs. This is the bullet several of us complained about to Barnes for having dropped it, nor having replaced it with a TSX. It has a .457 BC, and I’ve kept a few that I’d use on a bear or moose.

Get this!

Rifle: Ruger No.1H in .458 Winchester Magnum

Bullet: 400gr Barnes X

BC = .457

SD = .272

MV = 2590 fps/5957 ft-lbs

50 yds = 2498 fps/5543 ft-lbs/ +1.74″

100 = 2409 fps/5152 ft-lbs/ +3.68″

200 = 2235 fps/4436 ft-lbs/ +2.93″

300 = 2068 fps/3799 ft-lbs/ -4.79″

400 = 1909 fps/3237 ft-lbs/ -20.65″

The velocity and trajectory are similar to a 180gr from a .308 Winchester.

The recoil from my Ruger No.1H in .458 Win would be ~50 ft-lbs with the brake. That would only be ~ 10% more than my .375 H&H firing a 300gr at 2675 fps.

A .300 Winchester Magnum went along as backup to the .458. And the year prior to shooting the bull, my backup rifle was the Ruger No.1 in .45-70 LT. The main rifle was a .338 Win Mag. That was my first trip to that area seeing first hand the clear-cuts and potential distances for taking a moose. It was a world I’d never previously experienced. But I did find a fresh rut pit and went back to that exact location the following year to find the bull knowing if it had not been chased by hunters or shot, he’d still be hanging out in that area. That paid off as he was shot on opening day at 3 pm less than 200 yds from the rut pit he’d made the year before. There’s something a lot of hunters don’t understand is that wild animals are territorial if there’s ample food, water and relative security, unless they’re chased or driven out. Males wander further than females in searching for a mate, or driven out by another male that’s bigger and stronger (or injured by them). Hunting hounds are a scourge in that sense, and some of those get lost or abandoned and become wild and chase/catch game for survival. As I’ve previously mentioned – the same with ATV’s or other machines like snow mobiles or trucks, cars and motor bikes that race and tear around in back country. Game animals quickly learn to get away from all the noise and disturbances caused by men who want to “have fun” in God’s wildernesses.

But where I’ve hunted moose in the Near North and Far North, the disturbances are relatively rare and minor. Most living critters have yet to meet man – the hunter, so react accordingly: curiosity with a tinge of fear. Yet in many other places they get used to the rumble of traffic on highways, and ATVs racing across fields, and act as though this is all normal, so rarely a hair is ruffled until they get shot! Coyotes and some bears make a living in suburban centers, along with coons and fox. In our town, that has doubled in size over the past couple of decades, I was somewhat surprised one day on a street I’d rarely taken in my vehicle, when a fox ran out from the back yard of a home with a cat in its mouth! Then one morning as I stepped out our back sliding door onto the deck to be met with an opossum . It slipped down the steps to our back yard, across to the chain-linked fence, went over into the trees of our neighbour to be never seen again.

Nearly the same thing before we had neighbours back there: In March, with 4″ of fresh snow, I went to the same door to look out and saw a beautifully furred Wolf-coyote hybrid at the end of our lot, broadside looking south at fresh rabbit tracks. I didn’t have my camera handy. And we’ve had bears in our community in days past. . . . but all that is now paved over with brick and mortar. I’d prefer the bears and wolves to all that’s been happening over the past two decades. I’m not a city man, with its crowds, traffic and humdrum!

< Reverse this photo and it would be very similar to what I saw in our back yard early one March morning. (credit Internet)

And I have lots of loads remaining to be shot at the range: Some examples of trials in 2025 (summer and fall):

< From a 250gr TTSX in .375 H&H<From a 300gr Sierra in .375 H&H<From a 250gr Partition in .35 Whelen<From a Barnes180 TTSX in .35 Whelen<From a 400gr Colorado Custom in .458 Win.