In case any of you guys felt that a Colt.25 for black bear or a Colt.22 for moose was to small a caliber, Colt has taken care of your doubts by having a gentleman from Alaska take a good size moose using their Python in .357 mag. How`s that for customer satisfaction....

Yikes! Love these ads!!

I would much rather have a 357 for moose than a 22.

The 357 has taken quite a few moose, I suppose it has wounded a great many of them also. As always, what will work & what is practical can be quite different. Had a guy tell me once that elephants had been taken with a 22 rimfire. Its possible, but a lot of guys with 375's & bigger have been stomped into toe jam & thats with good bullets & good hits.
I believe it was Doug Wesson who took several Alaskan animals, including moose with an 8 3/8's 357 maggie & factory ammo, he said later he was glad he didn't take a whack at a Grizzly.

Dick

No doubt!

I'll stick with my 454's and bigger, 357's are great for cans and bad guys but I'd rather be called "overgunned" than wound something and/or get stomped into the ground.

I will stick with my 460, I feel a little more comfortable.

I'd actually feel better with my recurve than a 357, if you do your job right they will never know what hit them or where it came from, a moose in rut hit with a 357 is going to most likely have you spotted and trying to stomp you in the ground. Although I do remember a video a couple years ago of a bow hunter just about becoming a rack ornament on a bull he'd just shot.

I guess though if you think about it there were an awful lot of animals and people killed with the 38-40 44-40, 45LC and even the 32-20 in black powder form.

Don't underestimate the power of a LWFNGC, even in 22 cal ;-)

Is that anything like a deep curl?

HAHAHAHAHA!!

A large moose is hard enough to put down with a 454 or bigger, I think I will stay with the bigger is better thought. The last one i got a shot at, I was able to anchor on the beach of the river, but I emptied my FA 454 on him. He was dead with the first shot, but I wanted to keep him out of the water, and out of the brush. That left a narrow 30 foot beach to keep him on. first shot thru the heart, next 4 were to break down the front shoulders to keep him from running. It was almost like chopping down a tree.

That's what I found as well. My first shot on my Maine moose was lethal. But knowing that they have a propensity to head to water, I kept shooting until she went down.

just pick the right bullet and put it where it needs to go. it's dead.

tradmark, moose are notorious for not reacting and staying upright even when hit really well. They also have a tendency to head to water, giving one even more impetus to keep shooting until they are lying on terra firma. My friend, and editor in chief of American Hunter shot a moose last year with his 300 win mag and it took a number of well placed shots before the animal finally dropped and gave up the ghost.

I know quite well how moose react and there's. Nothing that breaks them down right away. The 500 you shot it with didn't drop it right away either. What's. Better 2 or 3 shots from the 500 or 5 from a 357. I got a friend with several full body moose mounts all shot in the 60's with a 357, he just pumped them till the gun was empty and or the animal was down

Can't speak to experience with moose but plenty of experience with their smaller cousin the elk and I've seen too many weird things with them not to keep shooting until they drop.

So, would you rather use a .357 or a .500 of some sort? LOL! I'll stick with the calibers that produce bigger holes.

never said what i'd rather use, but making a point i wouldn't hesitate to use a .357 if it's what i had. they all kill in the vitals. none kill outside the vitals.

i too agree with shooting until they drop. though i did this on an oryx once and a member didn't seem to grasp that concept as he posted pics all over the web to show how it took multiple shots to bring it down with an expandable bullet.

no doubt they're dead but don't know it. ya gotta go way up the food chain out of pistols to get that hammered instantaneous response where once shot blows ;em down.

Of course. If all I had was a .357, that would keep me from hunting!

Gotta hit CNS for a lights-out now.

Well I can tell you when my sone took his buffalo last year his first shot with the 480 raging bull was 20 yards and directly in the heart. The animal buckled and I thought it was going down until it jumped up and headed for us. He stood his ground and kept shooting. The Buff turned about 8 yards from us and went down when his last shot hit the spine and took him down. That 325 XTP hit him 4 times and 3 were complete pas thrus in the chest. Animals are tougher then most folks think.

Yep, and each is a law unto itself.

no ya dont, cns is the only guarantee but plenty of animals are put down in their tracks with non cns shots. see gary smith's last whitetail shot with his 475. just folded it up.

Heck Alex hit his bear this year and it folded up and never took a step. DRT, it wasnt a large bear or he wouldn't have had that effect. So for that effect on a larger animal ya need a more powerful weapon. Where we hunt oryx they have me drop on the spot with non CBS shot with a 375 hh all the time

I know as I have had plenty of deer stopped in their tracks and they aren't particularly hard to put down even without cns hits. That said, and the point I was trying to make is that the only guaranteed lights out is with a CNS shot.

I have a friend that has killed a couple of Alaskan moose with a rifle and he put it this way "they just don't know they are dead". lol I liked that quote

and you would be correct which is why so many big bore rifle shooters are wrong in the assertion of a stopping rifle vs a hunting rifle b/c a stopping rifle is any rifle that'll penetrate to the cns and that's the only guaranteed stop. my point is this........and it's a serious what if but interesting to ponder.

we all know which bullets in a hardcast variety make the bigger hole, but which is gonna bleed out first, two from a 500 or 6 from a 357? now getting six on a moose isn't guaranteed but i can wring out 6 from a 357 faster than i can make 2 of 3 from a much larger caliber, which is why for my backup guns i use hardcast or something like a barnes buster NOT loaded near max with moderate recoil that i know will penetrate into the vitals and provide a cns hit is my answer not my full throttle might just get one shot in the gap in brush round. i've shot a few animals where 3 shots moderately loaded from my 454, essentially hot 45 colt loads were preferrable to shooting one out of my 500 smith i had. which is in large part in addition to it's size why i don't hunt with it and it's in possession of a friend that just wanted the "biggest" and not the most practical hunting round.


boards have been slow and this sure is a fun topic to discuss.

Indeed!

I also agree, this has been a lively one!

Tradmark, you make a valid point. I have always been the mentality of bigger and faster is better, and that goes with everything even outside of the gun world. well maybe not the ladies though

But I am just "young and dumb" compared to some of you guys so maybe I will learn some day lol.

maybe faster isn't better in some cases, not sure bigger can hurt in some of those though!

I don't know I start flying a new bigger faster jet this thursday. Looks like I'm going back to work. Will be flying an almost brand new Lear 45. The thing flies like a fighter jet and is darn fun to fly. Ok back on topic. I love the big bores, there just fun to shoot and the looks folks give you when you unleash them makes them stand up and take notice.

Amen to that!

I like the 357, but like most here feel its too little gun. My first handgun deer was with a 357, but the doe was 11 yards away... she might as well have been leaning against the barrel. And she still went 45 yards before piling up. Big bores are much better!

Welcome to the forum, Wayland!

I drilled a moose thru the heart, and blood was pumping out both sides like someone turned on a hose. There was NO reaction to the hit. The next 4 rounds (FA83, 454) were in the shoulder, breaking him down, to keep him from making it to water. they soak up a ton of lead.

This is exactly the point I was trying to make!

Hitting a 1800 lb moose with say a 300 grain bullet, is like someone poking you with a hat pin..........not a lot of effect. It takes them a while to bleed out, kinda like ice picking a milk jug. you wont realize how big they are till your on the ground trying to skin one out by yourself