7x57 for caribou, Bear, and Moose
 

My dad might go on an Alaskan hunt for 3 weeks hunting bear, caribou and moose.

He is going to take his custom 7x57 mauser because he has shoulder problems and can't shoot the larger calibers any more.

I am going to load him some Barnes X bullets but I wanted to know what everyone thought for weight. I have 140gr XLCs at 2900fps for my 7x57 Ruger #1.

Knowing that the X bullet expands to almost twice its diameter and retains almost 100% of its weight, I think this load would work well, but I was also thinking about the 150 or 160gr X bullets.

I think any of these loads would be adequate, how many 30-30s have killed moose in the past. The 7x57 mauser was used on Elephant in Africa and has successfully killed every species of big game on the planet.

RE: 7x57 for caribou, Bear, and Moose
 

I would suggest the 160 gr. barnes!!!!!!

RE: 7x57 for caribou, Bear, and Moose
 

I concurr.....the 160.....

RE: 7x57 for caribou, Bear, and Moose
 

7x57 worked for Bell and others because they knew enough to use the "proper" bullet for the intended job. It will still work today if you match the bullet to the game. For moose and bigger game i'd NOT use less than a 160 grain bullet.

I killed some big caribou with a 7x57 useing 175 grain Speer mag tips. They worked very well. I used the heavy bullet because there was Brown Bears around where i hunted.

Drilling Man

RE: 7x57 for caribou, Bear, and Moose
 

Nothing wrong with the Barnes bullets but If it were me I would load the 175 grain Grand Slam. I think Nosler Makes the Accu-bond for that caliber. That would be another good choice. Good Luck and Have fun.

RE: 7x57 for caribou, Bear, and Moose
 

I agree with your choice of the 160 Grn. Barnes-XLC,
The 7X57 Mauser with 175 Grn. Barnes-XLC bullets would also be an excellent choice, especially involving those big nasty brown bears.

As for moose and caribou, they're not that hard to kill, if a hunter does his part and places the bullet where it needs to go the 7X57 with 150's is a'plenty...

RE: 7x57 for caribou, Bear, and Moose
 

What he said!

Caribou are not a problem. Moose are just plain big with big bones, so as long as you play your angles right you're all set. Can't talk about bears.

RE: 7x57 for caribou, Bear, and Moose
 

Use 160 or 175 grain premium controlled expansion bullets. Shot placement is everything! I used a .270 Win. with Nosler 150 grain Partition bullets for everything in Alaska, where I llived for three years, and never had to shoot anything more than once except for one bear who took two shots before he stopped running! Turns out the first shot had destroyed his lungs, and he would not have gotten far. The 7X57 with a 160 or 175-grain Barnes X would have done just as well! I now use the 7X57 (Ruger No. 1A) almost exclusively when not hunting with a muzzleloader!

On your signature
 

Eldeguello: The sentence in your signature should be "Trink´das Wasser nicht, da haben die Kühe reingeschissen" ;)

BR Stefan from Austria

Eldeguello hasn't been on this site in 6yrs - personally, I miss the old "cut throat."

I'd love to have heard back how this fella's dad did with the underweighted bullets he intended to load. I wouldn't spend money to go hunt moose, caribou, and bear with a bullet under .300 sectional density, MAYBE .280...

Mercy, Caribou can and have been dropped quite regularly with .243's. They are pretty much as easily killed, dropped, DRT, with anything that will drop a whitetail. Moose on the other hand, are not a critter to be fooled around with. But a 7x57 with a 160 grain trucking along at 2550-2640 with a high quality bullet that will hold together is plenty of medicine for the big beasties. That round is used in Alaska quite a bit actually. Lot of fellas have those old Mausers up there. Same with the tiny little old thuddy thuddy that people seem to always underestimate. I'd be willing to bet that those 2 cartridges have downed more Moose than any other round in Alaska. While the 7x57 round aint the fastest, biggest, or prettiest it is most certainly a VERY effective round when used within it's limitations. Out to 200 yards it can and has killed many big game animals. I've seen guys push it to 300 but I myself wouldn't. But part of what I love about hunting is getting as close as I can anyway :D

Wow, pulling up an 11 year old posting to correct someone's grammar, nice first post.

Nomercy,

I second you sentiment about missing eldeguello. I always found his insights and advice very worthy. Hope he's ok.

I skimmed two lines on this and frankly, lost interest, because it's all a distinction without a difference...

First and foremost: THIS THREAD IS 11YRS OLD...

1) Forgive (read: "forget") that I mentioned caribou at all, as the inclusion of caribou on his list is absolutely moot - they're the easiest of the 3, so discussing an ideal caribou gun is a waste of breath... The guy said his dad has ONE GUN WITH ONE LOAD - a 7mm Mauser with 140grn pills - and is going after Caribou, Bear, and Moose. I was not previously ignorant to the fact that caribou go down as easy as whitetails, but I'm aware that mentioning that in this thread is irrelevant - he needed a bear and moose gun and he intends to kill caribou with it. He needed to know if his ONE GUN and load would work, and wasn't asking about an ideal 3 gun battery with individual ideal guns for each of the 3 species. He asked about one gun, one load, and my comment as well as yours agree that it's not the proper load...

2) I said exactly this:

A 7x57 mauser with a 160grn pill as a .284 sectional density. I said I wouldn't spend money to go on a hunt without a 300, or at least 280, 284 makes the mark. Since this is an 11yr old thread, I didn't feel the need to elaborate on what bullet weight that meant, or what velocity it needed to by flying or what color of hair the shooter should have - a 7x57 with a 280-300 SD bullet will kill the game he's after. Enough said.

LOL Smartybritches :D I also skimmed over where you mentioned .280. OOPS?