7mm or .45-70 for Moose, Roosevelt and Black Bear inside of 125 yds

[Cocoa-Jin]

I like the 7mm, it’s a light rail gun. It does awesome tissue damage and bleed, but seems to fall short delivering enough energy to put down moose especially.

The .45-70 sounds like a hand cannon. I tend to engage between 75-125 yds, so I was wondering if the .45-70 has the brute force below 150 yds to smite a moose and expedite the take down of Roosevelt’s.

I only dabble in white/blacktails…but I don’t want to carry a second rifle to occasionally take them. I travel light, I’m opportunistic and I bounce around between species, so I want utility, I want the most bang for my buck…no pun intended(well maybe a little).

[Nightwalker]

Interesting question. In my experience the 45.70 is wickedly effective on Class 4 animals and has a blazing fast reload time. I have not tried it on Moose. I do know you'd be wise to take it to the range in Hirschfeld to be confident of the range before bullet drop sets in and just how severe that is. The 7 mm is a good weapon but at 150 meters or more it has a problem penetrating to both lungs on an Elk or Moose. Depends on just how perfectly perpendicular you are to the animal when you pull the trigger. A little off and it's a one lung hit and a 150-200 meter blood trail to follow. I do so hate it when that happens. I finally went ahead and bit the bullet for the .300 to use on Class 8-9 animals.

[Femboy Thighs]

Originally posted by Nightwalker:

Interesting question. In my experience the 45.70 is wickedly effective on Class 4 animals and has a blazing fast reload time. I have not tried it on Moose. I do know you'd be wise to take it to the range in Hirschfeld to be confident of the range before bullet drop sets in and just how severe that is. The 7 mm is a good weapon but at 150 meters or more it has a problem penetrating to both lungs on an Elk or Moose. Depends on just how perfectly perpendicular you are to the animal when you pull the trigger. A little off and it's a one lung hit and a 150-200 meter blood trail to follow. I do so hate it when that happens. I finally went ahead and bit the bullet for the .300 to use on Class 8-9 animals.

.300 can easily take down bison, I have it always equipped due to coking across lots of bison hot spots

[ÐåŕķMệşşịäħ]

The animals you listed are class 7-8.

The best rifle in the game for those animals is the .300 Canning Magnum which you get for owning the Yukon reserve dlc or if you don't have access to that then the Rangemaster 338.

The best shotgun in the game for those animals is the Miller Model 1891 which you get from the Smoking Barrels Weapon Pack DLC.

The best pistol in the game for those animals is the Rhino 454.

As for bows the crossbow is easily the best or any other bow that can use the Brightsight Rangefinder Bow Sight.

If you're strictly talking about the 7mm Regent Magnum vs the Coachmate Lever .45-70 then I would go with the Coachmate Lever .45-70. The Coachmate Lever.45-70 gets 3 bullets in the magazine with reduced bullet stats but in this game you'll see that having a bigger magazine is better then having a gun that only has 1 bullet in the magazine especially for rifles. The only time I'd recommend the 7mm Regent Magnum is if you know how to aim for the heart and never miss.

[niccolas.miller]

Between the two at that range I would go for the .45-70 due to the fact that it holds three rounds and gives really quick follow up shots. It's quite effective up to about 150 meters, but be aware that the bullet starts to drop quit quickly past that range. In general I'd recommend the 7mm if you're taking longer shots, but at the range you specified I would go with the .45-70.

[Storm Torrent]

I'm new to the game so not sure how close they have these calibers to real life. But in my neck of the woods the .45-70, is a very popular round for Grizzly Bear defense. So it should be a great round for moose which are generally easy to put down and also those tough Elk. It's also a great timber and bush rifle, with that big 300-500 grain bullet being able to cut through the odd small branch and carry on.

[magicISO Sweden]

i always use the 45-70

[Justaway]

If you care about getting 100% quick kill vs class 8 at 125 yds range - go for heart shots with 7mm because at this range it has perfectly flat trajectory and seemingly retains more penetration than 45-70. Otherwise 45-70 is better.

[Cocoa-Jin]

Thanks everyone. It sounds like the .45-70 is the hand cannon I’m looking for. Now the question is which ammo, penetration or expansion. I’m curious if expansion is going to deliver the most energy into the target and annihilate whatever organ and tissues it hits for the most bleed.

Originally posted by Justaway:

If you care about getting 100% quick kill vs class 8 at 125 yds range - go for heart shots with 7mm because at this range it has perfectly flat trajectory and seemingly retains more penetration than 45-70. Otherwise 45-70 is better.

Heart shots are too situational…I’ll have to learn to hit the heart from out to 125 yds.

[batteran]

Usually, penetration is prefered by most in this game. It's because with enough pen, you are almost garanted to hit one or more organs if you shoot the animal with enough penetration and your aim is not totally off, whatever angle the animal is. And if more than one organ are hit, even with relatively small bleeding, it's usually a quick kill.

Expansion are a more tricky beast in this game: you have for example to perfectly place a broadside lung shot for it to shine.

The main advantage of the 45-70 is it rapid fire ability to follow-up shots in short ranges for me. But the shots after the first are usually less acurately fired, on less than ideal angles, because you have to be very quick and the animals start to flee ^^ So, penetration would probably be a better choice for more versatility of situations.

On the .454 ammo, the expansion caracteristic is insane: 100 (the max) for the hollow-point ammo. (and still a decent penetration of 25) It work really well even on big animals IF you manage a good broadside shot. Wich is, for example, not easy to manage on a agressive animal who is charging you. head-on. But if you have the nerves to dodge, and then place a broadside shot, it's probably better than panic piercing shots in that specific situation.

All in all, the ammunitions behaviour is close, but a bit different in this game than IRL (you have to be very carefull of your shot placement no matter what), and the penetration caracteristic usually seem more versatile.

[Cocoa-Jin]

Originally posted by batteran:

Usually, penetration is prefered by most in this game. It's because with enough pen, you are almost garanted to hit one or more organs if you shoot the animal with enough penetration and your aim is not totally off, whatever angle the animal is. And if more than one organ are hit, even with relatively small bleeding, it's usually a quick kill.

Expansion are a more tricky beast in this game: you have for example to perfectly place a broadside lung shot for it to shine.

The main advantage of the 45-70 is it rapid fire ability to follow-up shots in short ranges for me. But the shots after the first are usually less acurately fired, on less than ideal angles, because you have to be very quick and the animals start to flee ^^ So, penetration would probably be a better choice for more versatility of situations.

On the .454 ammo, the expansion caracteristic is insane: 100 (the max) for the hollow-point ammo. (and still a decent penetration of 25) It work really well even on big animals IF you manage a good broadside shot. Wich is, for example, not easy to manage on a agressive animal who is charging you. head-on. But if you have the nerves to dodge, and then place a broadside shot, it's probably better than panic piercing shots in that specific situation.

All in all, the ammunitions behaviour is close, but a bit different in this game than IRL (you have to be very carefull of your shot placement no matter what), and the penetration caracteristic usually seem more versatile.

I noticed how beneficial penetration was over expansion for the .243 and .270 rounds, but was wonderfully surprised to see how well expansion rounds performed in the 7mm. I haven’t unlocked the 7mm’s penetration rounds yet, so perhaps I’d see them as an improvement, but it seems there might be some good synergy in utilizing expansion with the .45-70. The .45-70 does seem to come off as just a large caliber handgun round with much more powder behind it(essentially a long range version of .454). It just unfortunate that it doesn’t get anywhere close the expansion of the in game .454.

[jjs82x]

Agreed with earlier post: If you own no DLCs, then it is the 7mm (which I have used to bag many, many moose/elk). If you have access to DLC, then the gun which is better than the 7mm, and may be the best weapon in the game for your purpose, is the Canning .300, which comes with the Yukon DLC. The .338 is bigger than both of those rifles; but the wobble on it is atrocious. Moose are big, tough, and mean. It is much better to place a 7mm or .300 poly round through both lungs than a wobbled .338 bullet through the stomach.

[Cocoa-Jin]

The .300 and .338 would require I carry another rifle for deer…at least until Ievel up in handguns(which I never use)

Or I can hunt deer and not care about integrity…I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.

I’d rather learn to get it done with the 7mm or .45-70, then lose utility/flexibility or increase weight and noise in order to specialize too much toward hunting 8s(though I have to admit my favorite prey is Elk).

[batteran]

Originally posted by Cocoa-Jin:

The .300 and .338 would require I carry another rifle for deer…at least until Ievel up in handguns(which I never use)

After 200 hours in the game, I started to try the guns and unlocks them, and I'm pretty happy with the .454.

I hunt mostly close range, so the 4-9 and the enormous punch is really nice.
I decided to pick the winchester 30-30 for fox and roe deers at close range (to cover the 2-3), and the occasional long range shot with the scope.
(and I alway carry a shotgun with birdshots, really like theses guns for rabbits and birds, the SA 20 gauge is my favorite at the moment)

Pretty happy with that combinaison so far, until I try something else, of course. :)

[Incidental_Fish]

I hunt all my 4-8s with the M1 and poly tips. Drops moose on the spot pretty regularly.

[Cocoa-Jin]

Originally posted by KomradeKD:

I hunt all my 4-8s with the M1 and poly tips. Drops moose on the spot pretty regularly.

Now that might work! I was hoping to avoid a DLC, but I might consider that if it will give me everything I want in a single firearm…that is until I eventually venture in reserves with more dangerous animals.

Edit: Just compared the M1 stats with the 7mm and .45-70. It seems the 7mm edges the M1 by a slim margin in both ammo stats. Other than follow up, does the M1 bring something else to table that makes it more effective than the 7mm on a shot by shot basis?

If I’m going to venture into DLC guns, I might have to go bold and seriously consider the Hudzik .50! I like a challenge and I want one shot efficacy.