Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Minimum 'caliber' for Kodiak Brown Bear?

On the other hand is the experience many Alaskan guides, like Phil Shoemaker, who've almost never have problems with brown bear hunters who would be "undergunned" in the opinion of a lot of people who've never even seen a brown bear, much less hunted one. Most problems are with people who are overgunned, because they've come to believe due to Campfire threads that more gun than required is somehow better.

A few years ago I posted about how John Kingsley-Heath's favorite leopard round was the .243 Winchester, whether for himself or clients. JKH had a very long career as both a sport hunter and PH, and he and his clients killed LOTS of leopards. The reason for his preference were clearly stated in his book HUNTING THE DANGEROUS GAME OF AFRICA, one of the finest on the subject, and they were the usual: It had plenty of power for even a 200-pound leopard at the typical 50 yards or less, and could be shot precisely by just about anybody. Oh, and .243 bullets didn't do as much damage to the hide as bullets from bigger bores, instead doing their damage inside, where it counts. But a bunch of people, some of them PH's who haven't guided people to 1/4 of the leopards JKH did, and have NEVER seen one shot with a .243 because they discourage the use of such a small cartridge, made loud noises about how one of the most experiences and respected PH's of all time was FOS.

I also run into the same syndrome here in Montana, where the farther you live from elk country the bigger the rifle you need. And the justification is always the same: The travelling elk hunters think being over-gunned is far preferable to being under-gunned on such an expensive hunt. Well, the opposite is generally true, since as Phil pointed out something that matches my experience: The three biggest factors in "killing power" in order of importance are shot placement, penetration and bullet size--and placement is by far the most important. Which is exactly why one of my elk-outfitter friends carries a .375 H&H, "To finish the bulls my clients gut-shoot with their brand-new .338's."

And it's also why Phil would rather seen somebody show up with a 7mm Remington Magnum or .30-06 (or even a .270 Winchester) they can shoot than a .338 or .375 they can't. And it's why he's never had to follow up wounded bears shot by anybody using such "inadequate" cartridges.