Video: Moose Hunting With the 22 ARC

The moment it clicked to me that the 22 ARC might have more potential than being just another gas-gun varmint cartridge was when I sent five rounds in a row into a 16-inch steel plate at 1,000 yards in a 10- to 12-mph crosswind. The surprising part, to me, was that I was able to hold the same windage correction I just used with my 6.5 CM bolt gun shooting 140-grain Sierra MatchKing bullets. I’ve considered using .22-caliber cartridges like the .22/250 Rem. or .220 Swift for big game animals like sheep and caribou, but the marginal reduction in recoil would come at the cost of dramatic wind drift — a significant limiting factor. With a number of modern, heavy-for-caliber .224 bullets, that’s no longer the case. Considering drop and wind drift, the 22 ARC performs much more like the 6.5 CM than a standard .223 Rem.

Why Hunt Moose With A 22 ARC?

The biggest question most people asked when they learned I was going to take a 22 ARC moose hunting was: why? The answer, even if boring and unsatisfying, was to see what would happen. To be clear, I never considered the 22 ARC as a superlative moose cartridge. Nor was I paid by the Illuminati to push a narrative about the cartridge to sell ammo and rifles. In fact, the folks at Hornady were probably horrified when I told them why I was asking specific questions about terminal performance of bullets like the 80-grain ELD-X. 

My main interest in the 22 ARC is its potential as a sheep and black bear cartridge, but chasing moose was my next hunting opportunity, so that’s where I used it. It’s as simple as that. Internally, my thought was: I’ve killed moose with 90-grain .243 bullets and 110-grain .25-cal bullets, why would I be worried about a .22-cal 80- or 88-grain bullet at similar velocities? 

I plugged as many people I could for information on penetration and wound-channel characteristics on some of these newer heavy .224 bullets. Anecdotes of terminal performance on antelope, African plains game, moose, and elk convinced me that with careful attention to shot selection and distance, the 22 ARC would do more than enough damage to kill a moose quickly and effectively — especially considering that we almost always shoot our moose at less than 200 yards. My genuine interest was to see just how these little bullets would perform, and what that might potentially mean for use on deer-sized game.

On Killing Moose

Many people believe that because moose are so big, they are difficult to kill, or require proportionally large cartridges to get the job done. Though there is certainly a place for booming magnums in moose hunting, within most moose-hunting parameters, big cartridges simply aren’t necessary. If you shoot a moose through both lungs with any expanding bullet that will do a respectable amount of damage, it will die fast. 

Another characteristic of moose that makes people think they need huge cartridges is their tendency to soak up shots before falling. It’s common for hunters to shoot moose two or three times (and sometimes more) because the moose will usually stand still or move a little ways rather than sprint away. I’ve killed and seen them killed with a wide variety of calibers and they nearly always die in this manner. Most moose hunters will shoot once, fire a follow-up shot, perhaps a third depending on circumstances, and the moose will fall over. They might stay on their feet for more than a minute, or just a few seconds. The results almost always fall under these parameters with a good double-lung shot.

Killing A Moose with the 22 ARC: Uneventful, but Informative

I didn’t expect much drama when it came to killing my moose, and it went down as if it had been any other caliber. My shot opportunity came at a bull who was walking broadside through a finger of brush that made for a challenging shot. Quickly scanning ahead of the moose, I was able to find a small clear window that his chest would likely pass through. As he stepped across that narrow opening, I fired a shot into his lungs. 

The first shot hit the middle of a rib and terminated in the offside lung, blowing a hole about the size of a baseball between the lungs. 

Rather than seize up, the bull sprung forward, angling away, and I fired a second quick shot that hit him in the meatiest part of the left hind quarter. I hate ruining any meat, and am still beating myself up about hitting his quarter. Still, it was interesting to see that the bullet put approximately a racquetball-sized wound channel through 10 inches of solid meat before completely shattering the top of the femur. I couldn’t find the bullet or any pieces of jacket, and it seemed to have ended up somewhere in the body cavity.

I fired a third shot as the bull came to a stop, which impacted a couple inches from the first. This last shot almost certainly hit a twig or piece of brush and tumbled, passing through both lungs. It tore a long gash in the near lung and left a golf-ball-sized hole in the offside lung, terminating under the off-side shoulder’s scapula.

I fired all three shots in about 5.5 seconds, and the bull dropped 40 seconds after the first shot after traveling about 20 yards — a typical, routine moose kill, in my experience.

Heavy-for-Caliber

The bullets the 22 ARC is designed around, and their potential for big-game, is one aspect of the cartridge that really appeals to me. Its advantages as a gas-gun cartridge are pretty straightforward — it’s designed to use longer, heavier, and more efficient bullets than the .223/5.56mm can field in a standard AR-length magazine. Those bullets are what give the cartridge its wind-bucking properties.

For many years, service rifle shooters have used 80-grain (and heavier) bullets at the 600-yard-line, and I earned my Distinguished Rifleman Badge shooting 80-grain Sierra MatchKings. However, unlike the stubby 77-grain SMKs and tipped TMKs, the efficient, low-drag bullets are too long to fit in an AR15 magazine and must be single loaded.

I think that the 22 ARC is simply an efficient and effective delivery system for these heavy-for-caliber bullets — which are the real star here. One could realistically fit a bolt action with a tight-twist .22/250, .220 Swift, or .22 wildcat barrel and achieve similar results. It simply depends on your taste and what metrics are most important to you.

22 ARC vs 22 Creedmoor

The other hot .22-cal in the house is the 22 Creedmoor — another necked-down wildcat. The 22 Creedmoor is an excellent performer with heavy-for-caliber bullets in the 80- to 90-grain range, with a slight edge in case capacity and velocity over a .22/250. With the same bullet and barrel length, the 22 Creed will beat the 22 ARC by around 200 fps in velocity, but is unlikely to make a demonstrable difference in terminal performance at reasonable ranges. Both are accurate and deadly options.

Potential advantages of the 22 ARC are better barrel life, roughly 30 to 40 percent less powder, and it can fit in some of the mini-length actions like the Howa Mini Action, NULA 20S, and Q Mini Fix. A downside for bolt-action shooters is that factory ammo is all at lower gas-gun pressures. The 22 Creedmoor brings more velocity, a wider variety of brass on the market, and can still fit in any standard short-action bolt gun. Within normal hunting ranges, drop and drift are nearly the same, and the 22 Creed might give you an extra 100 to 200 yards of range. Both cartridges will lose velocity as barrels are shortened, and a 20-inch barrel allows good velocities for reasonable hunting ranges.

Varmint/Big-Game Crossover

After getting excited about the wind-drift and low recoil of the 22 ARC, I started crunching numbers like a wannabe scientist on the brink of discovering cold fusion. If some of these heavy .22-cal bullets can cause relatively similar damage as classic crossover cartridges like the .243 Win. and my old favorite .25/06, but burn less powder, generate less recoil, and give us similar drop and wind drift out of a shorter barrel, why would we not want to use them? Small calibers have their limitations, but being able to easily watch your impacts or see your bullet trace is an advantage that most hunters have never experienced. 

Here’s what a realistic 80-grain bolt-action load from a 22 ARC looks like compared to a couple of .243 and .25/06 loads using similar bullets with a 200-yard zero:

*Wind drift is calculated for a 10 mph 90-degree crosswind

*Muzzle velocities estimated for 24-inch barrels

The 22 ARC Shouldn’t Be Your Next Moose Cartridge

I wouldn’t recommend the 22 ARC as a moose cartridge, but not for the reason most would assume. With good bullet selection and thoughtful consideration of your shooting parameters, it’s perfectly capable. However, for most moose hunters specifically, there aren’t any compelling advantages to using it over any number of medium-sized moose killers. Performance was very similar to a .243, which has killed piles of moose in Alaska, and is one of the best options for younger or recoil-sensitive hunters. But in those situations, shooting moose is usually done at shorter ranges with supervision. The average hunter is better off picking something like a .308 and a good bullet. 

Where Do Cartridges Like the 22 ARC Give You Advantages?

I think the real bright spot for the 22 ARC and similar modern .224s will be from varmints to deer-sized game. It does plenty of damage on a moose, but will certainly be a stone-cold killer on smaller game. In a short-barreled feathery mountain rifle, I’d be able to match the ballistics of some of my old favorites while happily watching each bullet impact on target. One thing I’m willing to bet on is whether I’m using a .25/06, .243 Win., or 22 ARC, the animals won’t be able to tell the difference.