ORIGINAL: driftrider
ORIGINAL: spaniel
I'd acquire some of the 300gr Noslers that sabotloader mentions since you say you are hunting moose. I would be concerned about under-penetration with the Barnes. My experience with them out of shotguns is similar to yours, they do catastrophic damage, but the price you pay for that is reduced penetration. Not a concern on deer, but moose are another story.
I'm not sure how you'd expect LESS penetration from a Barnes bullet. My experience is that they ALWAYS go through a deer when shot broadside, even if they break both shoulders or smash the spine going through. They expand a lot, and pretty fast, but they also shed little if any weight. The few people who do recover them always have near 100% weight retention, and the only time I've ever heard of a Barnes E-MZ being recovered is on long ways shots, and then the bullet usually goes all the way through to just under the hide after going lengthwise through the deer. If I were hunting moose, the Barnes would be my 1st choice BECAUSE of the penetration. I'd be extremely confident that the 300 gr E-MZ would make it to vitals no matter what part of the animal it had to go through first.
Mike
You're describing exactly why I would be afraid of lack of penetration...they expand wide and fast and retail all the petals/weight. The wide frontal area retards penetration, it's straightforward physics. I would be careful about extrapolating experience on whitetails to a moose, a moose is MUCH bigger obviously and therefore if a bullet has a weakness in the penetration area you're more likely to see it.
I've never shot Barnes out of a ML but my initial experience with with the shotgun version. Truth be told we recovered 4 of 9 slugs we shot into whitetails, all within 100 yards, the first year my hunting partner and I tried them. I had one either explode or open and deflect on the outside surface of the shoulder blade of a yearling and fail to penetrate the bone on a broadside shot, that was one of the ugliest tracking jobs and experiences I've ever had as a hunter. This is why personally, for bigger game, I'd go with a bullet giving good expansion but to a more reasonable extent like the Nosler.
Expansion is good, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. This is why they use solids on large African game, because the more expansion you get the less penetration you get and you kinda need to maximize penetration on things that can eat or gore you.