Author Topic: Muskox with a .480 Ruger in Raging Bull (Read 707 times)

Kusko · « **on:** March 24, 2005, 05:47:11 PM »

I recently went to Nunivak Island, Alaska for a registration cow muskox permit hunt. I was successful in getting my animal with one shot from my .480 Ruger. It was my first big game animal with a handgun and I was impressed with the performance of this caliber. I shot it with a 325 grain soft point. The bullet passed completely through it's ribcage and left a 1.5 inch hole out the other side.

DakotaElkSlayer · « **Reply #1 on:** March 24, 2005, 06:23:09 PM »

Great job! Are they any good on the table???

Jim

bigbore442001 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 25, 2005, 02:47:56 AM »

Congradulations on the hunt. It must have been a great hunt with a handgun. We all are awaiting the details with bated breath.

Kusko · « **Reply #3 on:** March 25, 2005, 09:53:10 AM »

Can you post pictures on this website? I'll post the story in a bit. The meat is spectacular. It's marbled and tender.

Justin Smitty Smith · « **Reply #4 on:** March 25, 2005, 10:08:52 AM »

Thats great! Do you have a picture of it? Did you recover the bullet?

mr.frosty · « **Reply #5 on:** March 25, 2005, 10:50:39 AM »

Congrats! makes me want to get my 480 out more. I would like to see those pics too!

Redhawk1 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 25, 2005, 12:21:44 PM »

Congrats on the handgun hunt, can't wait to see pic's.

Kusko · « **Reply #7 on:** March 25, 2005, 12:40:22 PM »

On Saturday, March 5th, my friend and I both got our cows with handguns. We found animals as soon as we got to the south side of the island, but they were all bulls. We cruised the dunes for 3 hours without any luck, so we decided to head back. On our way back, we spotted a herd of muskox with cows, calves and bulls in it and were lucky enough to get our animals.

The .480 Ruger is a very good caliber for muskox. I was impressed with the results. My attempt with a bow was aborted after the winds picked up in the 40 mph range. There were a lot of foxes out there this year and I shot an arctic fox with my friend's rifle. I didn't get any pictures of it. I would say we saw between 50-100 foxes on Saturday.

My friend and I ended up in a whiteout after butchering the animals and were forced to use the GPS to get us back to a cabin near Cape Mendenhall. We didn't want to risk going back to Mekoryuk in those conditions, so we spent the night there. Because we had to go 11 miles in the opposite direction to get to the cabin, which took us 2.5 hours because of conditions, we thought we might be short on gas to get back to the village. We woke up early the next morning and had no less than 6 foxes in our sled full of muskox. They wouldn't leave and had no fear of us even after we started the snowmachines. A .22 pistol or rifle would have been handy on this trip.

My friend, pulling the sled with two muskox and gear, ran out of gas 10 miles from Mekoryuk the next morning. I was also very low on fuel. We called on the VHF and a guy from the village came with some gas so we were able to get back without trouble after that. If we would have packed 6 gallon cans, like we normally do, instead of 5's, we would have made it back with the gas we had.

Note: We did this hunt without the aid of a guide or transporter.

I did not recover the bullet from this Ox, but another friend, who had a bull tag shot his with my pistol and recovered the bullet. It petalled back perfectly. We didn't weigh it, but it appears to have retained a good portion of it's original weight.

Tell me how and I'll post some pics.