philthygeezer;
Top of the morning to you sir, I trust this finds you well.
While we don't typically have big bears here in the Okanagan, our family has tented in the Kootenays and on the Island too where they can come in grizzly and larger black bear varieties.
Our "tent gun" has usually been a Mossberg pump that was once loaded with Federal Fosters but after some research I've switched to Challengers. Please note I've not shot anything other than targets and the target backer boards with the Challengers - but the Gualandi slug that Challenger uses has a pretty good reputation.
I don't know if you go on gunnutz or not, but a chap there - Boomer - lives in or near Churchill and he still puts his faith into a pump shotgun, though if memory serves he's running Brennekes.
On the other hand - I recall a conversation with a BC biologist some years back who stated that he had gone to a Model 70 in .30-06 running 200gr Partitions for his work gun after "bad experiences" with a pump shotgun. While he wouldn't get into specifics of how that change had happened, he was quite firm indeed about carrying a rifle.
Lastly if you choose a Remington pump rifle, in my experience the weak link is the detachable magazine which is susceptible to having the feed lips damaged if its dropped on a hard surface when loaded.
Anyway if you thoroughly test the magazines you use at work it should be fine - but do take the time to test them of course.
I can't recall who wrote the article anymore - may have been John Barnsess actually - but someone I trust wrote that there wasn't much difference in penetration between the 180gr, 200gr and 220gr Partitions fired from an '06.
As I've only shot a couple deer with the 200gr Partition - fired from a mild .308 Norma load - I can report they'll penetrate Okanagan whitetails pretty much length ways.
Anyway sir, hopefully that was useful information for you. May you never need your work gun whichever way you choose and all the best to you this summer.
Dwayne
