A couple of my friends are going Muskox hunting in Greenland (our closest neighbouring country), only 2 hours flight from Iceland. The question is what would be recommended minimum calibre or ideal caliber for Muskox ? They are quite big and heavy and can exceed 400 kg (880 lb) I’m told.

I don't think you are going to find a whole lot of people with actually experience shooting MuskOx, but judging by the size of the creature and their behavior of forming a protective circle I'd think any 30cal rifle 30-06 or 300WinMag, 35Whelen or 338WinMag would all do a good job.

The thing to really know is are there any polar bears where you will be hunting?

If there are I'd consider taking something that'd stop a big bear if only for self-defense.

So I'd lean towards a 338Mag.

Other may have different opinions and while we wait for someone with actual experience we can read those as well... that being said I'd LOVE to be able to afford a trip to a place where there simply are muskoxen even if my only weapon was a 35mm Pentax.

AD

give him a good bang with a .45/70!

I came across one sometime back with my .30-338 in my hands-certainly quite capable but it is not legal at that time for me to take the shot.

A friend of mine books and accompanies hunts in Greenland, so he has seen a lot of oxen shot, and he has shot maybe 10 himself. You can definitely kill them with calibers such as .30-06 and upwards, bigger calibers put them down with more authority, though.

My friend recommends and I shot the two of mine with a .375 H&H. It worked flawlessly.

- mike

I have killed a couple and seen another 6 killed. They are not actually very big. They just look like it with all that hair. All skinned out they look like they are 1/2 spike elk (front) and 1/2 mule deer buck (hind quarter). Inuit use 22 caliber rifles of various types like a 223 or 22-250 but they also consider the 270 winchester to be the ideal polar bear rifle. Any rifle you would use on caribou is a good choice. You can always use more gun if you want. Personally, the 22 rifles are simply disrespectful and I wouldnt use them.

3006 works just fine, be careful for to much penetration, cause when the bulls bunch up you very well might bag 2 instead of 1

I would use a 338 win mag with a 250 gr partition bullet.They can run wounded a ways with a good hit.I have a friend who shoot over a 100 a year for meat.He uses the 338 win mag so the meat is at its prime and is not tough.They are very good eating animals.It sucks if you cant bring back the meat.I ate about a 100 pounds of muskox burger last year and loved it.Its even better than moose.I cant wait till the day i get to hunt them.The eskinos hunt the polar bears with 223 you go right head with that one.A friend here in Alaska went on a walrus hunt with them.He said they shot about 20 animals and wounded them and only got one of them.Walrus are big animals and require guns up tro a 416 rem mag so they cant get to the water.Muskox fur is awesome.If you only get a head mount get a rug made.Its my favorite big Game animal.We have some in Alaska here but its hard to get drawn and very expensive to hunt.How much is the hunt in iceland?You can no to North West Territory and shoot one for $4000 or two for $6000 .I amprobally going with my friend who shoots them for meat and be a skinner .

4 day’s hunt 1 Muskox cost about 3700 USD all included, extra animal about 1000 USD I think.

quote:

Originally posted by tasunkawitko:
give him a good bang with a .45/70!

right-o.
i cant imagine having the chance to put down a musk-ox and NOT doing it w/ a 45-70. would seem a wasted trip. kinda like killing an american bison w/ a 7x57.

I think any centerfire would work because you can get very close and they just don't seem likely to run after being hit. My guide had a 22 Hornet for my backup, said that is all he ever uses for muskox. Of the ones I saw taken they pretty much just stood there after being hit. We took 3 very large bulls, all around 120 class, they seemed hard to put down with none falling from the first shot, but they also didn't move away after the shot. I think it is just the way they are made. They may be dead from the 1st shot but they manage to stay on their feet for at least a little while. We took the bulls one at at time over 3 days from a bachelor group of four. The ones that were not being shot just stood nearby. We could easily find the remaining ones the next morning. To me they are not hard to "hunt".

I took mine with a 300 Ultra, another guy used my gun after his 270 froze up, the 3rd was taken with a longbow and handmade wooden arrows.

Shot mine with a 35whelen and 225gr TSXs, it worked great!

Do you have someone I could contact.I want to try greenland in the nrear future for muskox thanks.

At what distance are Muskox shot at? I understand they bunch up and look at you, is this true?

Shots are typically very close at animals standing still.

Once skinned, they really don't look all that large - all hair.

Any 7mm or larger with quality bullets and a well placed shot will cleanly drop a musk ox.

Hi

If its a meat hunt then 7mm/.30 cal. If its a trophy hunt then take the 375 H+H.

Mark

dgr416 !

You can call Mr. Bjarni Olesen in Greenland Tel.: 00299-296882 (his the hunting guide) or send an e-mail at: gjtravel@gjtravel.is

Thats I always wanted to hunt Greenland.I KNOW THERE alot of caribou and muskox there.I woulder what iyts like there compaired to Alaska where i live.

If the animal is front on, at close range which part of the animals is shot at?

It would seem that anything that would work on NA elk/moose would be just fine for Muskox. I'd go with 30-06 on up as a good choice. A 30 or 338 caliber magnum ought to do the trick.