Minimum bow weight for Moose

[Jason W]

Kevin,
Nice bull!

[Chad Orde]

Man I want to do that!!

[Hermon]

Never shot a moose (may never) but sounds like lots of good advice here.  Shoot as much draw weight as you can accurately handle.  Shoot a heavy arrow.  Sharp broadhead.  Accurate shot placement.  If you can't handle a lot of draw weight, shoot as efficient a bow/arrow combo as you can. 

[Sawpilot 75]

This isn't meant to convince anyone of anything, and I'm only relating my thoughts...not advising.

I've seen and known of more than one moose not recovered due to poor penetration and less than optimal shot placement. Moose are surprisingly quick and things often happen suddenly at close range. That perfect broadside shot at a standing bull is like a slow pitch down the middle....you're happy to see it but you can't depend on it. I like a bow with power.

The advantage of an exit wound is hard to overstate. Moose terrain is often very poor for blood trailing, and all possible blood on the ground is desirable. The farther a moose runs after the hit, the worse things tend to get in terms of recovery. Think "farther away, into a swamp or water, into nasty cover" and you've got it.

The best blood trail is the one you don't need. I've watched every bull I've killed go to earth, and I'll take that every time over the best blood trail. Those shots were all accurate, and they got total penetration. I used enough bow to feel certain of it happening.

My favorite bows for moose and caribou are around 64 pounds at my draw length of 29". I would say 55# is my personal low limit, considering my experiences and seeing the results I've seen over the years. I'm sure I could kill with less poundage, but I like a fairly heavy arrow and head while trying to minimize trajectory out to 30 yards.

My average shot distance on moose is just under ten yards. I prefer a semi-wide 2-blade head in a single-bevel configuration. I shoot the Abowyer Wapiti and have used them exclusively for many years. Carbon shafts will almost always exceed wood for penetration, but I DO shoot really good woodies I make myself. I've killed moose and caribou with both arrow types.

Accuracy beats everything else, but I can't count on being accurate 100% of the time. I'm just not that good of a shot....and that's probably why I work really hard at getting extremely close shots.

Spoken from experience guys. Well said Kevin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RedRidge]

Here we go again. I think anything less than 50# is cutting it very close.  Moose are not only big critters, their hides are nearly a half-inch thick, covered by a lot of thick, heavy hair, their ribs are a lot bigger than a deer's ribs, and they're three-four times wider than a deer. Sure, they can be killed with less than that if everything goes perfect -- perfect broadside shot, perfect arrow placement, perfectly flying arrow, etc.  But things don't always go perfectly.

I recommend as much weight as you can handle.  I've only killed one moose, a quite large Alaskan Yukon bull.  My 725 grain birch arrow tipped with a Zwickey Delta broad-head just barely broke the skin on the offside on an 18-yard broadside shot from my 66# r/d longbow. I'm shooting 45-50# now for most of what I hunt, but if I were to hunt moose again, I'd sure try to get my weight up to 55-60#, or even more if I could do it.

Just for reference as mentioned above. I haven't been with the bow yet, but these animals are HUGE!

[Tucker]

The key to putting moose down quickly with bow or gun is to poke a hole in BOTH lungs. (My personal experience, fwiw, killed 7 with bow and 5 with gun.) A broadhead does a tremendous job of this , sometimes more damage than a bullet.

Practically any legal weight bow with 10+gr/# arrows and sharp 2 blade broadheads shot from less than 20 yds will do that, including chopping through near side ribs. I’ve shot several broadside with a 44#@28” longbow, 500gr arrows, and 2 blade head. The arrows have all been poking out the far side or complete pass threws. A couple centered ribs going in and still made it to the other side.

Your “mileage “ may vary.
As always, follow the rules by using a legal weight bow and...
Bigger is always better! This isn’t catch and release that we are playing!

[Birdbow]

I killed the bull in my avatar with a 60# R/D longbow, carbon arrow , and SB Zwickey BH (total 750gr). Shot was 7 yds, double lung, complete penetration. Went down in @ 25 yds.

[pavan]

I met

[PrimitivePete]

Thank you all, lots of great tips and I'm happy to have received such sage advice. If I can take the conversation to those who have been successful, how close were your shots.

[Kevin Dill]

Thank you all, lots of great tips and I'm happy to have received such sage advice. If I can take the conversation to those who have been successful, how close were your shots.

My longest shot was 18 yards. The bull was down in about 10 seconds. Closest shot was 4 feet and the arrow was still in paradox when it entered the body. I've turned down plenty of 30+ yard opportunities. I only take shots which feel like slam dunks and give me very high assurance of being quickly lethal.

[Tucker]

All between 10-20 yards.
Similar results for all.

[Hummer3T]

again only one moose so my credibility is limited, but my shot was 18-20 yards quartering away.

I think for all animals the key things are to set your perimeters (everyone's may be different dependent on skill, bow and arrow set up, etc.) for shot distance and placement, etc. and stick to it no matter what.  I see to many people set their parameters and then get "game hungry" and try to take an animal outside of that.  Not always but usually this is when things go amiss.  I will only make broadside or slight quartering away shots all have to be under 20 yards for most big game sometimes due to the toughness of the animal and sometimes around the jumpiness of the animal.  If that doesn't happen the animal walks.  I have been criticized many times for not shooting a animal.  Believe me it takes more of a hunter to pass on animals you may be able to get than to shoot and/or get an animal down.

Broadhead is the best I can find and afford.

[skookuminak]

yeah, I think pretty much all under 20 yards, maybe one at around 25.

I work super hard to get close to everything I kill and the vast majority of my shots are under 10 yards but things happen and it's best to have an arrow (and bow) that will give the best chance of a kill even if something crazy happens and you don't hit where you want.  I've hunted 25 years up here (Alaska)  it seems to me that every species I've killed with trad bow (multiples of deer, goat, sheep, moose, caribou) all live in places and environments where blood tracking can be pretty difficult. I've seen things get pretty challenging on the few animals I've been around that didn't go down within sight. that's one of the reasons I try to do everything I can to make sure that arrow goes all the way through the animal even if I get a weird deflection or something else happens.

the only moose I've ever hit and lost was a big bull at under 5 yards and I deflected off a tiny alder branch that I hadn't noticed. I spotted that bull alive and well appearing, feeding a few weeks later very near to where I hit him. In the chaos and fairly dense vegetation, I don't know where I hit him exactly but I had very minimal penetration based on how much arrow was broken off on the ground. at that time I was using a pretty light Doug fir shaft with only 160gr grizzly up front out of a 53# longbow. I'll never know but I think if I was using a better arrow I might have killed that bull despite the deflection.

I can't overemphasize how important the arrow and broadhead design have been for me and I think that's even more the case if you're going to be using a lighter bow. I've used lots of different setups but I'm sold on extreme FOC (I'm working toward >30% this year), high mass (over 650 per the ashby stuff, more is probably better), and a great broadhead. I'm pretty confident that I would take a great arrow over a 5# draw weight increase for any situation.

and like someone said above, some of the newer bow designs can significantly increase the momentum per pound of bow weight. for example I have a set of ILF Sky recurve limbs that are about 73# at my draw length and they shoot the same 700gr arrow about 8 FPS slower than a set of the new 57# Morrison Max 6's at my draw (30") on the same riser!