.308 BLR is Moose Medicine!

[sport240]

On October 18th of this year I took my 1st bull moose with my '81 BLR in .308 Win.  I usually hunt moose with my Remington 700 LSS in .300 Win. Mag., but this monday morning I had planned on hiking a bit, so I decided to take out the BLR instead of lugging the 700 around all day.

I ended up settling down in a blind on the 300 acre plot that we hunt in Woburn Qc. (near the Maine border) since it started raining (freezing rain).

Well at 9:30 AM a big bull moose steps out into the logging road in front of me at 600 feet (200 yds) and just stands there.  Without hesitation I line him up and let go my first shot loaded with factory Remington Scirocco's in 165gr.  The moose does'nt even budge...I rack up a second cartridge and boom.....he still does'nt move...I'm starting to think that something is wrong...rack up another cartridge...aim for the vitals (again!)...boom....he moves his head at little and the hind legs drop a little, but he's still standing....(I really don't want to drag him out of the woods)...so I rack up another cartridge and let go on the hump....he disappears in the long grass near the road's edge. Quickly I leave the blind and head for the moose to find him lying there right by the side of the logging road.....what a thrill!!!  The best part is when I got up to him, a cow was standing 5 feet behind him in the brush...she really spooked me as I had'nt noticed her at all!!

A couple of my buddies at camp had said that a .308 Win. was not enough gun for a bull moose...guess I proved them wrong (although I think I might have been at the caliber's limit for a moose at 200 yards).  I am also the only one to own a lever in my group (looked upon as "the strange one"), but I got to tell you that working the BLR for those 4 shots was a real dream, almost instinctive!  Boom, click-click, boom, click-click, boom, click-click, boom!!! I can still remember it!! A real thrill.

When I opened this big guy up, one shot had gone through the heart, another shot had taken both of the lungs, the other put a hole through the liver and the last shot hit the spine.  Amazing how these moose can take such a beating standing.

Sweet lever memories indeed.....

Sport240

[Prince of Wales]

I don`t see how the 300 Mag could have killed him and deader. Shots like that with any gun are going to produce a kill. Had there been another 100 yds involved then I would have to concede that the extra power would have been an advantage. I know that there have been a lot of moose put in the cache with the old 30/30. They just had to hunt closer.
 Thanks for sharing a great story. POW

[handirifle]

Maybe the 300 would have made more "shock" but I've read of moose taking pretty heavy loads before and "just standing there" like that too.

I watched a guy on an outdoor show today shoot a moose at about 125yds with his 300 Win Mag and it took off.  Only ran about 20yds but this think acted like it wasn't  even hit.