Back in 2023 I got one of the best birthday surprises of my life. WTA called, letting me know they had a cancellation hunt pop up. It was a September moose hunt in British Columbia. My 34^th year on this earth would be starting off with a bang and a childhood dream was suddenly very real.

I grabbed my Christensen Arms .300 Win Mag, a caliber I’ve relied on for years, and started looking for the right ammo. A Canadian bull moose is a beast, 1,200 pounds of muscle, bone and hide—I needed a bullet that could handle it. I bought a trial box of different loads to test in my rifle, and the Barnes VOR-TX LR .300 Win Mag, 190-grain LRX shot the best. I haven’t looked back since.

The .300 Win Mag is my go-to for most big game. It’s got punch and reach, and with the VOR-TX LR, it was a moose killer. That 190-grain LRX is all copper, with a polymer tip and boat-tail design. Barnes lists it at 2,960 fps from the muzzle, carrying over 3,600 foot-pounds of energy. It expands big, holds its weight, and cuts a nasty wound channel through tough hide and bone. I figured shots in BC could push past 300 yards, but I’d be ready up close too. Mine was 100 yards and that bullet proved itself.

The hunt was incredible. We flew into a remote camp by bush plane, then boated upriver. Wolf tracks and grizzly sign were everywhere, including bear scat (and the tree it had shredded) right in between our wall tents. The early days were slow. We watched a few smaller bulls but we were in the early stages of the rut and the warm weather kept things slow. Then the wind shifted and, for a day, the air was thick from smoke from forest fires. That shift ushered in a night of rain and a cold front. The rut was about to kick off. From our glassing knob we spotted the bull, with its 50-inch paddles shining bright. We called as we made our way in his direction, pushing through swamp and willows. Smaller bulls chased cows around us as we moved in, until finally we saw the big bulls’ antlers ambling through the thick vegetation toward us. He stepped out at 100 yards, eyeing up a smaller bull that came in to challenge him.

I didn’t know how much time I’d have. I steadied the rifle and put the first shot square in his chest. The LRX hit hard, knocking him down. A bull that big doesn’t stay down easy though. He got up, and I put two more rounds in him. All three punched clean through, massive exits, and he was done. No tracking necessary—good thing, too, since we felt every step hauling him out of that swampy mess). Quick and ethical, the way it should be.

That’s why I keep coming back to the Barnes VOR-TX LR. It just works. At 100 yards, it didn’t need to flex its long-range muscle, but I had the confidence that it could. Through hide, muscle and bone, it delivered. I picked it because it grouped tightest out of my .300 Win Mag in testing and it ended up turning a dream into meat for the table.

We quartered the bull in the field, packed him out, and eventually got him loaded a chest freezer in my truck. The 49-hour drive home to Michigan was long, but worth it with the hundreds of pounds of meat I had sitting behind me. The skull’s on my shelf now, a reminder of a solid hunt and ammo that works. If you’re running a magnum after big game, try Barnes VOR-TX LR .300 Win Mag. It gets the job done. Watch the full film here.