There are thousands of collective years of experience here on the Fire. And opinions range from the minimalist to the big bore advocates (did I mention Gunner500?). If one did a bell curve of all opinions, the mean/median would probably be pretty close to optimal.
If I was going brown bear hunting (I never have) I would take my .375 H&H, SS Classic M-70 trimmed to 21" with Tupperware handle and Zeiss Victory 1.5-6. It's fast handling and not bad to shoot. That one may be somewhat to the right of the theoretical mean/median but, to me, seems about right.
Those hunts are too expensive to be experimenting with the least round that will work.
