This is an interesting post. I was born in the Canadian Arctic and now live between Edmonton and the Rocky Mountains. I'm 45 years old and don't ever remember not hunting and eating moose. My friends and I get at least one every year, if not several. A moose easily gets up to over a 1000lbs and snaps barbed wire fences without any effort as they walk thru them. This is not a small and frail animal in our part of the world.
Having that said, in this part of the world the Ethics of hunting with a rifle/cartridge are accepted/defined by their killing energy measured in foot pounds.
A large bear or moose has a preferred "Energy required at point of impact" of 3500 ft/lbs. Adequate energy:2800 ft/lbs. Minimum energy: 2100ft/lbs
The muzzle energy of a 125 grain soft point 7.62x39 that has a velocity of 2400 feet/sec is: 1508 foot pounds. Soooo... even at ten feet away, the issue of shooting a moose is deemed to be un-ethical, even if not illegal. True, that it compares very closely to the energy of a .30-30 but poor decisions makes for a lot of wounded animals that run away and die where we don't see them. Also true that the natives used to ( past tense ??) shoot them with a .22. They we starving and thats all they had or could afford to shoot. It was also not un-common to find old lead in the spine of a fresh killed moose. A .22 has little chance of penetrating a mooses skull at any distance, they shot for the high of the neck where there is the least amount of flesh and hoped for a spinal injury. many more times than not, the animal got away, even if injured.
Even if your not into the math , SKS has too little energy for killing power of such a large animal. I use a 30-06 with 180grain with an accurate scope, and even then they've been known to go a fair distance with a big hole and broken bones. I prefer a neck shot at no less than 150 yards, I like to see them drop on the spot and bleed out good.
Other hunting laws in our province: No hunting big game with caliber less than .230 and it must be an expanding bullet, no FMJ. 12/20 Gauge Shotgun is ok (and effective at close range) as long as it is a slug or heavy buckshot.
In defense of hunting with the SKS, I use it for early deer season and usually take a few does with it. Our whitetail does can get well over 200 pounds, but within 100 yards it still exceeds the minimum killing energy of 900 foot/pounds recommended for a deer.
The SKS is a great gun and a lot of fun to shoot small deer before the big boys come out at the end of the season. But moose?? I think its un-ethical and if its not illegal, it should be. Nobody seems to count the wounded animals and I hate seeing a freezer full of meat going to waste just cuz someone figures they're a cowboy. Shooting a large animal such as a moose with an SKS is a very sad and poor choice. If its a matter of survival: sustaining life supersedes hunting laws and ethics.
...just my opinion, even if its worth nothing.
