RE: Best Gun for Moose
Portage-That's a lot of weight coming down so I'm not surprised that it bounced when it hit. Did it drop immediately or wander a bit? I know that moose seldom show any immediate response to being shot. More often than not they will walk away and then drop after it really hits them. The 600 pound dressed weight female I took the year before last walked around 30 yards before dropping. That was with the top of her heart gone and minced lungs from my 300 grain JHP 45-70 round at about 20 or 25 yard range. I was extremely impressed with that performance so if yours fell immediately I tip my hat to you. Congratulations either way.
As to this post, I would stay away from the 270 for moose although I'm sure there have been several taken with that caliber. Any of the others you mentioned would be better choices in my opinion. They may expand to 45 caliber size with good expansion. Or you could go with something that would make that size hole to begin with before expanding.
Just an FYI, a very well known outfitter in eastern Maine told me a few years back that it actually takes less delivered energy to kill a moose than a whitetail. His reasoning was that although moose are much larger that they are not nearly the resilient and strong survivor that a whitetail is that it just takes a little longer for the effect to become apparent. What do you think?