Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game .338-06 Brown bear bullet

When they live in the old growth they are smaller than the open areas like southern Kodiak Island. One year we shot 14 bucks and 9 of them were over 200 hanging with tracheas cut out and lower legs removed. They were all mature deer.

A typical yearling buck will weigh 110-140 gutted from the open areas. I had the luxury of extremely accurate scales on fishing boats when weighing a large number of them after dragging them off the mountain.

If I were being guided by someone like Phil Shoemaker I wouldn't worry about it BUT my thoughts would be ---- the closer the range the bigger bullet I'd want - that is, if the choice was between 180gr and 225gr I'd take the bigger bullet everytime.

The first brown bear I was while hunting on my own is Alaska was during a heavy rain in SE Alaska and he looked a VW with fur as he came out of brush at about 200 yards and walked along the beach away from me and my partner. We never got much closer before he turned and waded up a stream. I was carrying a .338 but I decided without that I wouldn't take a going-away shot especially with his fur being soaked with water.

Up until point I thought the .338 was the perfect rifle for Alaska but when I got to town I started looking for a .375 H&H which I used for the remainder of assigment in Alaska taking several moose, more caribou, a couple of very large black bear and a 9+ foot Brownie on the same beach on which refused the 1st saw.

And you know the .375 kicked a lot less than the .338 and it was quite a bit quieter.

The only reason I would choose the .338 or the .375 would be if I was into long-range shooting.

Your mileage may vary.

I'd use the 210-225gr. I've used both with the AI version and have settled on the 210gr Scirocco for our giant elk and moose. It holds together like nothing I've used. Have used the 225gr IB and AB with good results too. Energy with both weights is indistinguishable with this caliber. The ballistics are
better with the Scirocco but that probably won't matter at the distances you're dealing with.

I used to say "the more things I shoot the less I know." I'm going to change that to "the more things I shoot, the less 90% of the hunters on the internet know".

Holy crap!

I can't think of aTSX/TTSX that I've shot into an Elk or Moose that went on through. I think I've shot 9 into bulls. Including 338's. These are just mine. Family would increase that number significantly. I have also seen TSX's, partitions, and Accubonds whistle through 300 plus pound mule deer. I've seen a bunch of deer catch all of the above as well.

I've never shot a bear but have shot elk!
I was gonna suggest checking out the 185gr Hornady GMX until I saw that Phil suggests 210+ gr bullet.
He Knows and that's a recommendation I would'nt ignore.

Art how much do they weigh? Dressed or on the hoof?

I have seen quite a few but not during the fall.From pictures they do look like blocky animals.

Edited:I just saw the rest of the thread and it seems an exceptionally large buck will dress in the 200 pound range? That's pretty large for any deer, but not in the class of very large whitetails and mule deer from various other parts of Canada and the lower 48. Whatever...

Point being I've killed a lot of bucks (both whitetail and mule deer) of that size and bigger that couldn't contain a 130-270( two this year),140 and 160-7mm Nosler Partitions.Also 165 and 180 30 caliber from 30/06 and 300 magnums. Here and there I have recovered a few of the 270's and none of the 7mm's or 30 calibers.Even elk could not stop mostly all of the 7mm's and 30's.

I've also watched 338-210's,225's and 250's whistle through elk. So I am surprised that these black tails stop 338-250's. I understand anything can happening on occasion,but can't imagine it on a regular basis.

I was thumbing through the most recent Handloaders Digest and and thought of this thread when I bumped into a picture of Boddington with a pretty large Kamchatka brown bear killed with a 340 Weatherby and 250 Nosler Partition.

By way of preface... I have shot a dozen Booners and one of those in the top 25 all-time B&C. So I have spent more than a little time looking at them.

In really good years; mild winters, early springs, neither too much or too little rain, and a break between bad storms and the back end of the rut the big bucks will easily have 1.5 to 2 inches of fat on the rump.

Normally they are gutted on the mountain and dragged out whole. At the boat the legs are shortened and the neck is opened to remove the trachea and esophagus. In that condition good bucks will be 200 to 220 or so. IIRC the heaviest was just over 240.

That's pretty big...and bigger than I thought.

When I get back from SHOT remind me and I will post some photos.

Me too. This bullet has a long and proven record out of my .338 WMs, so I don't se why similar results can't be achieved from the .338-06.

I had great results with 185gr TTSX on big and small critters but up close like I said I'd up the weight not that the 185gr wouldn't work
I recovered 3 185 gr TTSX one from each Eland, Wildebeest and Zebra
all shots were between 300 and 359 yds

Will do. Thanks!

I'm VERY interested. I've never heard of any B T weighing that much.

Awaiting your return.

Jerry

I haven't hunted brown bear yet, but if I were to do so and use my 338-06, [a rebored pre-64 model 70] it would be loaded with either the 250 gr Swift A Frames at 2500, or the 210 gr Partitions at 2800, I would sincerely hope that would get it done in any situation that may occur.

The most consistent bullet I've seen that goes in and out of big animals is the 130 partition shot from the 270

I am a hoarder because I have two boxes of 338 275s and 4 boxes of 338 230gr fail safes for 'big hunt'. But there is plenty of great bullets now.

Back... it will take a bit for me to get to digging up some photos, but will get on it in short order.

here is an easy shot from PB of the way we would handle boatloads of deer.

Art that's a pile of venison!

They all look like fatties to me! Nice deer!

Yep - those look noticeably bigger than any other BT that I've seen posted.

NICE-

Do you have any more pics you can post? From personal experience I've taken a whole lot more deer/bucks than I have pics that I could post.

I'm very interested.

Thanks


Jerry