ELKampMaster

I know which is bigger. I' ve shot elk but not moose; however, in the moose threads I' ve followed, it doesn' t appear that moose have the " elk-like" tendency to " shed" your shot and run off. Do they kill and " acquire" easier than elk in spite of their large size? Pound for pound are elk tougher put down?

BeaverJack

One reason could be that people genrly take enuff rifle when they go moose huntin' . Not many .270s and 25-06s are used for moose. Mos' people know they' re big, an' will opt for a heavy bullet. Yer elk are smaller, so people are more likely to hunt ' em with their deer rifles.

elknut1

Good question!

I know which one is smarter, ELK!
From what I' ve read on these posts I' d say elk are tougher to bring down. But have never drawn a tag yet to hunt them. But my 30-30 is ready when I do. LOL.
EKM---Just kidding. elknut1

ironranger

Moose are definitely not the brightest bulbs in the world but there is one common theme between them and elk...Keep shooting until you can' t anymore. They are tough animals and the one I shot in Minnesota (Once in a lifetime tag) we used up a few knives just skinning it. That hide is thick!! My brother shot one and probably hit it 7 or 8 times but it kept going for about half a mile and finally dropped in the edge of a thick swamp. I' ve heard alot of stories of their toughness and they don' t have much fear of anything. Maybe someone with more experience hunting moose up in Canada/Alaska can shed some more light. I' ve only shot two bull elk thus far (Newbie) and they both went down quickly but I' ve heard enough stories of guys losing elk to other people. I always heard the standard answer of " I should' ve kept shooting" so I' ve taken that advice to heart.

I know that Moose have been known to attack freight trains (We know who wins that battle) and planes on small airport runways. I knew a guy that hit a moose with a big oldsmobile ghetto cruiser and with their legs being so tall he knocked it off it' s feet. It ended up plowing into the cab and he survived but had a long walk back to town with his T-shirt wrapped around his nose. It had been peeled back off his face and he was bleeding pretty bad.

rednekhuntr

I' ve shot 11 moose in Northern Ontario, and they aren' t all that hard to put down. I' ve taken all of them with a .308, and 180 grain bullets of various types. The only one that took more than one shot was an old bull, but I screwed up on the first shot and hit him too far back. One more in the shoulder, and one through the lungs put him down nicely though. I' ve never taken an Elk, but from what I' ve read, they are substantially harder to put down than moose.

rather_be_huntin

Probably from a scientific point of view a moose probably has thicker hide, bone and muscle. But all things being equal ie; caliber, cartridge, bullet grains, and bullet type I would say in my experience an elk is tougher to bring down. I don' t know if they just have more fight in them or its biological. A moose just seems to conceed a lot easier.

stubblejumper

I have killed ten elk and a half dozen moose myself and have witnessed several more being shot firsthand.Moose seldom run off and usually stand a few seconds then drop or walk a short distance and lay down.Elk on the other hand often take off running for the nearest cover.In some cases both have just dropped instantly.The elk and moose that I have shot and have seen shot were taken with similar cartridges so this was not a factor.Given my own experiences moose are larger but are easier to put down than elk.

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121553

If you shoot an elk with a bow it will bolt immediately and under the same conditions with a moose, the moose will just wonder off until it expires, if not it will bolt 100 yrds then just wonder if not pressured, but don' t under estimate the intellegence of a moose, I personally believe that their hearing is far more superior to that of an elk, both have an excellent sense of useing the wind to there advantage, maybe its just easier to stalk moose because the' re usually not in a herd such as the elk and you have more chances of being detected when more eyes are upon you. I watched a bull moose for 20 minutes in a pond at 25 yrds away last year, and the wind blowing in my direction, this bull froze and he did not even move for 20 minutes, it remained absolutely motionless, but it was scanning movement without moveing its head and nostrils raising to the left for a moment and then flare both of them out the entire time trying to pick up a scent and I was trying to understand it body language. It had blended in to its surroundings so well and No I could not shoot it as I had no tag. Bobby

trapper T

I remember my Dad talking about Moose hunting in Alaska.The Natives up there told him, that they used a .22LR and gut shoot them, it would make them feel ill, then they could actually herd it like cattle up to their truck and put in the kill shot.That way thewy didn' t have a pack.Now my Dad didn' t partake in such a hunt but heard of them and I don' t think I' d want to be a part of something like that. The other thing he was told, by a more ethical person was that a lung shot was nearly an instant kill shot, because of shear volume of air needed to move a Moose.My 2 cents