Adventure Planning – A Newfoundland Moose Hunt

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Adventure awaits! I am planning a Moose Hunt in Newfoundland!

https://www.huntingnewfoundlandlabrador.com/

Moose are the largest deer in North America. Most sportsmen and women hunt moose for several reasons. First and foremost is that , in my case, moose hunting is an Adventure in the Wilds of Canada! And moose meat is absolutely delicious. An adult moose can provide more than 300 lbs of boned venison for your family. A bull moose with its great antlers is a spectacle that deserves taxidermy and display perhaps over your fireplace or in your game room in remembrance of the hunt. As for me, I can afford a bucket list Newfoundland Moose Hunt in the $6000 to $7000 range and get a great representative “wallhanger” of the species too.

Newfoundland Moose (Alces alces americana) are plentiful, there are over 130,000 just in Newfoundland alone. Being such large adult animal in the 850 to 1200 pound require lots of delivered bullet energy for penetration in the sizable heart/lungs area (the size of a 10 inch paper plate) with the right bullet construction at the right angle to cleanly harvest them.

The most critical component of all is shot placement! No caliber, cartridge or energy can substitute for correct shot placement. Period!

Whatever you ultimately decide to hunt moose with, you have to be comfortable and accurate with it under field hunting circumstances, no red spot target to aim at here, and the hunter is filled with adrenaline, and heavy breathing making your scope crosshairs wiggle like a worm. A monopod, bipod or tripod rest will aid greatly here.

I have said before in a recent article, that you can kill a moose with your deer rifle given some understanding of delivered energy at a given distance and shot angle such as broadside or slight angled away. Some Fish and Game officials ascribe to 2500 ft-lbs of energy as a guideline for the a full grown largest adult Bull Moose who may tip the scales at 1200 plus pound live weight category. Using the .270 Winchester, 30-06 Springfield and 6.5 and 7mm calibers will work with good shot placement but not at the recommended energy. If you have a larger caliber you shoot well then I recommend you use it. Put them down faster with larger calibers. I highly recommend a 180 grain bullet or higher from a 30 plus caliber rifle, if you shoot them accurately, such as the 30-06 Springfield, 300 Magnums, .338 Win Mag and 375’s. The 7mm Rem Mag in 175 grain works fine but personally, I’d rather a larger cartridge-caliber as I can handle the recoil. These bullets have higher sectional densities above 0.25 for maximum penetration. A great article to read is from Chuck Hawkes. https://www.chuckhawks.com/sd.htm

Below cartridges I handload, among many others are the .375 Ruger, 30-06 Springfield, and the 6.5 Creedmoor. I like the .375 Ruger over the 30-06 for moose because I can handle the recoil and shoot it very well. A Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad cuts felt recoil in half.

.375 Ruger, 30-06 Springfield, 6.5 Creedmoor

Try to stay under 200 yards. I will likely use my Ruger African M77 in .375 Ruger. I shoot it very well, and it does perform, delivering a 260 grain Nosler AccuBond with 2800 ft-lbs of energy at 200 yards. If I had to reach further with a good rest, it can. Still got to wait for the right shot though, and great shot placement! See Lungs and heart outline below with red dot shot placement.

Shot placement is the real hero here.

I believe, on average, there are many more moose in the 850 pound class than the 1200 lb class. At 2500 ft lbs of energy your .270 Winchester also has a muzzle energy of 2500 ft-lbs so you need your moose at the muzzle? I don’t think so but an 850 lb moose you need around 1800 ft-lbs and that gets you out to 200 yards.

You can’t put a moose on a weight scale before you shoot’em.

I arrived at the 1800 ft-lb at 200 yards using the ratio of bullet energy to harvest over the animal weight. Example: It takes 1500 ft-lbs to cleanly kill elk. Bull Elk on the hoof weigh in at 600 to700 lbs. I used this ratio to solve for energy needed with a ballistic calculator for a 140 grain .270 bullet at 2800 fps.

I cannot stress the use of a rest of some kind enough. Like a Bog Pod or Primos Trigger Stick. They are worth every penny!

In the Newfoundland bogs you are often in brush that may block your shot here and there. Patience is a virtue! Just like deer hunting!

Bullet Construction – for heavy game should be rugged and hold its weight while penetrating. Bonded, Fail Safe, and Partition or Specialty Copper bullets do a great job at maintaining weight as they mushroom and penetrate. I am a Nosler Partition and AccuBond fan though there is a new .375 caliber 260 grain solid Gilding Copper E-Tip(TM) I will test. Both have served me well on Wild Boar, Moose and Bison already.

Alaska Outdoors Supersite has a great Moose Hunt website. Check it out! It is full of great tips. http://www.alaskaoutdoorssupersite.com/activities/hunting/shot-placement

Good Hunting!

Copyright 2019

Winter – A Great Time To Handload Your Ammo

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If you aren’t snowshoeing, skidooing, skiing or out in the snow, it is a great time to handload. For me it is quiet time with a good reloading manual, your favorite powders, a reloading press and endless bullet sizes, weights, and construction for target or hunting.

I have a simple RCBS Rockchucker Reloading Press that I purchased 30 years ago and loaded many thousands of rounds for my rifles and pistols. Most all the game I have hunted with rifle were taken with my own handloads, even my African Plains Game Rifle, a 338 Winchester Magnum was handloaded with 250 grain Nosler Partitions. The level of satisfaction for me was monumental to create my very own custom ammo. Accuracy was so much better too.

If you are thinking about getting into reloading your own ammunition and you like to tinker with tools as I do, it was a lifelong love affair to be the creator of my own custom ammo. There are many video’s on the market today to teach you the basics.

I promise that with some patience you can do that too! How great would it be to harvest your game with a cartridge you created yourself!

I came by the handloading because I am a natural do-it-yourselfer.  As a bowhunter, I built my own arrows from scratch our of aluminum or Port Orford Cedar, and cut my own turkey feathers. Below at my bow bench. Above the bench are a few archery trophies I have earned over the years.

Good Hunting!

© 2019

2018 Banner Year – Thank You – New Hampshire Rifleman Magazine

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Thank you to my 60,000 + World Wide Viewers !!

We have exceeded our goal of 60,000 Views this year. The largest viewership goes to the USA with Canada as second largest but we have seen viewers from Africa, Australia/ New Zealand, Britain, Europe, Japan and South America.

On Cartridges we wrote about the 6.5 Creedmoor this year and sang its praises as a fine hunting cartridge and the bullets fabulous Sectional Density and compared it favorably with the .270 Winchester.

We tested the Weatherby Vanguard Weatherguard in 6.5 Creedmoor and harvested deer with it using Nosler 129 grain LRAB’s at 100 yards. When hit in the vitals the deer dropped in just a few feet with complete pass thru’s.

I wrote extensively about the Leupold VX-6 Scope and highly recommend it for long range shooting. It is larger and more powerful than necessary for hunting New England but for a well traveled hunter it is perfect. Just be careful to not zoom so close, at say 100 yards, that you lose field of view and becomes subject to unsteady crosshairs, especially when you don’t have a solid rest at high power above 10x,  I learned that lesson!

We talked about Scent Control and the new Ozone producing products. Love them!

We worked with Sig Sauer Academy and tested the P320 and took one of their courses. I like the P320 very much. Their Intermediate Handgun skills course was excellent!!

I also tested the SIG Echo 1 Thermal Reflex sight and found that it worked well if you have lots of pigs/wild boar and night-hunting.

I joined QDMA this year and very pleased so far. They spent lots of effort on CWD education this year. Use their education to age whitetail bucks and harvested a mature 4.5 year old 11 point 144 3/8 Boone and Crockett buck in Texas  at  Wildlife Systems Rocky Creek Ranch with my TC Encore 50 Cal. Muzzleloader. And spent time with my friend Larry Weishuhn there.

We tested and purchased Lab Radar for Doppler bullet Chronographs. Expensive but life long use justified the price.

We are testing the PSE Thrive 400 Crossbow ( see the December article) at this time and should have more on it soon.

In total we wrote nearly 100 articles in 2018 and looking for more fun and Product Testing n 2019.

And more on the ATV ARGO for remote hunting big game in Canada….

Good Hunting and Shooting!

Ed Hale – Editor-In-Chief

© 2019

 

 

 

Really Off Road ATV? The ARGO is a Hunters best Friend

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If you are planning a trip to remote Alaska, Northern Canada like Newfoundland for Caribou, Bear or Moose and really off road from any civilization the ARGO ATV 8×8 is  a big name among Outfitters. Whether carrying sportsmen and women, hauling wood or game, crossing rivers (It floats and can cross water). The Aurora 8×8 is a new model that has accumulated the best in function.

https://www.argoadventure.com/2019-ARGO-AURORA-800-SX-HUNTMASTER-8X8_p_14927.html

Argo Aurora 800 SX 8x8 Huntmaster

There are many models and price points starting under $10K and up from there.

The new ARGO Aurora Video

Check it Out!

Getting a Moose out with an ARGO below.

 

 

Don’t forget Semi-Spitzer, Flat and Round Nose Bullets for Game Stopper Hunting

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In a world of super fast and ultra long distance we, me included, get carried away with Ballistic Coefficients in the 0.5 to 0.7 range. The fact is when hunting east of the Mississippi it is often not necessary to use high BC bullets (bean fields excluded) and certainly not in New England. Yes it is fun to write about!

For mid-range hunting say out to 150 yards that your bullet need not have a BC above 0.3 or so for mid range hunting say out to 150 yards. Here in New Hampshire most shots are in the 40 yard range. Many deer over the years have been dropped in their tracks with 240 grain flat nose bullets as well as round nose with sufficient mass and sectional density and modest muzzle speeds of say 2300 fps. The advantage of shooting a round, semi-spitzer or even flat nose bullets is that upon contact the bullet is already formed into a pseudo mushroom shape on contact. Thus this shape provides a audible whack sound and radial energy on contact with the hide of the animal.

Just imagine getting hit with a 100 mile per hour brick verses a pencil point.  Put a sheet upon a clothes line and throw a dart at it. What did the sheet do? Not much but punctured. Now throw a fast brick at the sheet. What did the sheet do? It likely was torn off the clothes line. If that were a game hide, it would have created a large radial tissue crushing dent and shock wave at the skin level before it passed through game.

I believe that the brick (round/flat nose) will shut out the lights of a game animal “instantly” more times than the sharp pencil which deforms and will kill in seconds but not often as instantaneously as the brick. Shotgun slugs do that trick all the time as do most 50 cal in-line muzzle loaders. Dangerous game calibers like the 416 Rigby, 458 Win Mag and 500 Nitro Express shoot round bullets for a reason. To provide instant bone crushing energy at the getgo. Odds are very high that this drops them where they stand provided you hit the vitals and the animal provides a vital shot angle.

I was very happy that I used a semi-spitzer round point 50 cal muzzleloader in Texas with 150 grains Pyrodex. I did not want to walk 20 yards into cactus to recover my deer. In fact, the guides don’t want to follow a blood trail in Texas if they don’t have to. I mentioned my .375 Ruger I left home and got lots of approval to bring it next time. My friend Larry Weishuhn calls the .375 Ruger a one gun for the world as I do.

I shot a large 6 point buck way up in Errol, NH  years back with a .338 Win Mag 250 grain round nose. That buck never took a single step, he just crumpled right there. My nephew was very impressed as he was beside me when I shot. The bullet entered the lungs and missed the heart but the heart was not edible as it was flat and totally bruised purple. Lights out!!

So don’t forget ( I remind myself too) that round, semi-spitzer and flat point along with mass and Sectional Density are great game stoppers.

Good Hunting!

© 2018

 

 

New PSE Thrive 400 Crossbow – Out of the Box

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https://www.pse-archery.com/pse-thrive-400-crossbow/

For all the years I shot bow and arrow for hunting deer and 3D,  I have never used a crossbow because I loved the basic bow so much and could shoot it well in long bow, recurve and compound. After I crossed the 60 mark, my shoulders and arms and eyes had minds of their own. The rifle has always been my favorite for longer distances thus after 60 it became my hunting tool of choice. I thought that perhaps I could be satisfied to give up the bow, arrow and my favorite Muzzy broadheads.

Along comes the crossbow which is half rifle and half bow for me to test like this one from PSE.

I chose the PSE Thrive because the PSE name and quality have been around for many years and I am familiar with PSE Compound bows. Second, I wanted a bow that had a CNC machined barrel which launches consistently tight groups yet does not rob my wallet (MSRP $499-$599) . Sorry, I am not spending over $1000 on a Crossbow at this time. I need to hunt and practice with an affordable crossbow.

Why the 400 series? Well, I think the Thrive 365 and 400 are just the ticket to reach out to the farthest 40 yards with plenty of speed for a slight miscalculation in arrow drop and energy for penetration on all North American game. That is provide the hunter can string load the 175lb bow correctly and safely.

The Thrive came in a double cardboard box to protect the contents. As all crossbows do, they come un-assembled. It is important to verify the contents of the box before getting started in the crossbow assembly which is very straightforward.

The assembly comes with Allen wrenches but was lucky enough to have my own set of fold out Allen wrenches making it easier to tighten screws. Basically you take the bow portion and intuitively place it on the square and round barrel assembly. It took some finagling to get the barrel inserted but once that was done you added the foot stirrup over the front of the bow and aligned it with the large bolt hole that holds the bow to the barrel. Now it is a crossbow! Time to assemble this far is in minutes. Next to assemble the quiver on the picatinny rail underside but had to move the fore-stock back a few notches so the quiver mount would sit flat. Next the scope came with scope rings attached. Nice! And easily.mounted on the pre-installed scope rail. I had to adjust the verticle of the crosshairs just slightly and tighten the scope rings.

The string rope that came with it, I discovered was too long and I could not load the bow as I pulled it toward my chest. Bobby Vargas at PSE sent me a YouTube to shorten the rope and then I could pull and load it. See below.

There is an automatic safety that when the bow is cocked, it engaged the safety. Like a rifle, you must push the safety off to FIRE.

I made my own target out of shrink wrap, cardboard and a large zippered vinyl cold food insulated bag . My first arrow bolt struck and the shrink wrap did the job of absorbing the impact with my “block” as a backstop.

I created this target so I can easily pull the arrow/bolts. It works! I have shot 1 bolt at 20 yards and 6 bolts at 30 yards with the crosshair markings and adjusted the scope easily up and left/right. And it didn’t even bother my neighbors. I can hit a baseball size target at 30 yards so far on day 1. I will test this crossbow and write several articles so you can read my evaluation.

Well that is it for the Out-of-the-Box! So far I give it a solid “A”

Next is to shoot it at longer distances with a rest such as a monopod, bipod, tripod and bench rest. Then to shoot broadheads.

Maybe one for you to think about for Christmas!

Good Hunting!

 

 

NHFG Deer Project Leader Dan Bergeron Writes On New Crossbow Law

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From: Bergeron, Daniel [mailto:Daniel.Bergeron@wildlife.nh.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 8:24 AM
To: ‘Edward Hale’
Subject: RE: Crossbow use expanded! Great!

 

Hello Ed,

 

Glad to hear that law works for you.  We also expanded crossbow use in WMU M (which covers about half of Rockingham County) this past season.  It is now legal for any hunter to use a crossbow in WMU M (in place of a traditional/compound bow) throughout the archery season with no need for a special permit of any sort.  New England is different from other states in its allowance of crossbows because we have some of the lowest relative deer densities in the nation (we are near the northern limit of whitetail range).  In NH we are not opposed to their use and have been expanding opportunity with them when we can.  However, crossbows are a more efficient weapon than traditional or compound bows and therefore result in higher success rates.  Because of this we have to be more cautious when expanding their use, particularly given how liberal our archery season already is.  In most areas of the state if we expanded their use we would likely have to drastically reduce the length of the archery season to compensate for increased success rates.  As time goes on and deer numbers rise in certain areas of the state I’m sure crossbow use will continue to expand, we just have to be more cautious than states to our south and west that have a more robust deer resource to work with.

 

I hope this information was informative.

 

Happy Holidays,

 

Dan Bergeron

Deer Project Leader

New Hampshire Fish & Game Department

11 Hazen Drive

Concord, NH 03301

(603) 271-2461

Daniel.Bergeron@wildlife.nh.gov

 

Did you know? New Hampshire Fish and Game protects, conserves and manages more than 500 species of wildlife, including 63 mammals, 18 reptiles, 22 amphibians, 313 birds and 122 kinds of fish as well as thousands of invertebrates!

 

2017 Crossbow Bill Allows Seniors 68 and over to use Crossbow also in Archery Season.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Thank you Governor Sununu!

On April 17, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, one of the newest members of the bipartisan Governors Sportsmen’s Caucus (GSC), signed HB 428 into law, which expands opportunities for crossbow hunters throughout the state.

http://congressionalsportsmen.org/the-media-room/news/new-hampshire-governor-sununu-signs-crossbow-bill-into-law

“With the passage of HB 428 in 2017, Granite State hunters aged 68 and older will now be able to use crossbows during the regular archery season for deer, without obtaining an additional permit.”

Previously crossbow use during archery season was relegated to disabled hunters with a special permit, though crossbow use was allowed during the regular firearms season (with additional permit) and the muzzleloading season (with muzzleloading permit). The bill has an effective date of June 16, 2017.”

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As a senior in this category I am heartened by the signing of this bill. We want to keep seniors in the field and forest hunting as long as they are able. Today’s Crossbow’s are used to harvest all North American Big Game.

I will be purchasing a Crossbow this spring!

http://www.eregulations.com/newhampshire/hunting/deer-hunting-regulations/

Good Hunting! See you in the woods!