.22 vs. Alaskan Moose: True Story

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Not that I condone hunting big game with a 22lr but that's all my Grandpa used on whitetail as a youth in the 30's and 40's. I asked if one ever got away on him and his answer was "never". I asked him if it was legal back then or something and he said "I never paid attention to that. No one was around and I was hungry."
 
I grew up on a dairy farm, My dad always used a .22 to kill Holstein cattle, they averaged over 1000 lbs. which didn't matter because he shot them between the eyes. He also sent me out deer hunting with a .22 single shot rifle. Back then in the 1950's deer were very scarce anyway.
 
I hear the local Native Alaskans use 22LR routinely for caribou. They zip up close on a snow machine (that's what we call a snow mobile) and shoot them in the head. I talked to a bush pilot from Bethel (or maybe Nome, I forget now) who said they treat the local caribou herd like a trip to the grocery store.
 
Not wanting to get into that rabbit hole of discussion about the book, the author, or Alexander Supertramp.

LOL, then you probably shouldn't have mentioned it. A quick and sure fire way to spin up an Alaskan outdoorsman is to mention Into The Wild or Grizzly Man Diaries.
 
hunted deer with a .22 single shot ,pre teenager growing up in Quebec Canada....no electricity,no indoor plumbing. only rifle granddad had....we needed the meat......ruff grouse, snowshoe hare,ducks, . life gotten better?????? really don't know....have all kinds of firearms now,.2 indoor bathrooms.oil heating this winter and electricity kills my pension check !!!! use what works.....
 
I hear the local Native Alaskans use 22LR routinely for caribou. They zip up close on a snow machine (that's what we call a snow mobile) and shoot them in the head. I talked to a bush pilot from Bethel (or maybe Nome, I forget now) who said they treat the local caribou herd like a trip to the grocery store.
Over all the years in Alaska, when I spent time in the bush, all I ever saw the natives shoot caribou on land with, was .223's and it wasn't pretty! They only bothered with the ones that fell!

In water, yes they used 22's, they would come up along side them with a boat and shoot them wirh 22's in the head.

DM
 
Fifty + years ago my dad took yearly fishing trips to Gods Lake in Manitoba. The Indian guides told a common story of hunting moose with a .22. A shot to the lungs while Bulwinkle was feeding along the shore. After some time the lungs would fill with blood and it would drop for easy transport by canoe.
Moose nose stew. How good can you get!
Its pretty good,provided the moose don't have a ''cold'' !!!
 
greetings,
my ex. and her husband lived for years up in HEALY,(Moved to Florida) he tells me its a major concern........
been pretty lucky on the big island,no c.w.d. in the deer here (yet) and the elk are healthy........
 
Alaskan Native....is kinda vauge......is much like saying European or Asian......it's a vast state.....and at least 13 different Nations.


.Its only residents, of any ethnicity, who lives in game unit 23 or 26 that can shoot from a boat, picking out winters meats at freeze up from the tightly packed Caribou swimming in a river, pithing the fat bulls with no pass through shots exiting the brain cavity, with .22lr, that would end up wounding others......its definitely an instant death, no meat loss at all.

Fact is the very popular/accurate/deadly .223 Rem makes nasty exit wounds, and tracking blood on snow is not hard to do.

Pound for pound, my .22lr has made more meat than my Mosin, and when hunting for food the meat making is simply skipping the store, and going directly for the goods.
 
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My son routinely kills cattle with one shot, usually a .22 Mag., but he's used .22 LR, and baptized my .223 AR pistol with it's first kill; a Holstein down with milk fever. He'd borrowed it to try it out and they got a down call. They butcher on site also, amazing to watch.
410 with #4s to the back of the ear works great. My dad always fussed about not blood spattering the meat. So that was the biggest he would let me use.

To the OP, far too many people judge other people based on their own skills. As a teen, I didn't like scopes on 22s. Suddenly a good scope on a 22 is almost necessary.
 
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