Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Brown Bear with a 7 Rem Mag questions

Give me that and a 62 or 70 Gr.TTSX, and I would take a wager.


Seriously.




The wager would have to be large, and it would scare the crap out of me, but I'd take the chance....


I'm not crazy, as sheldon Cooper says, my mother had me tested...

I know a trapper who has lived in the Brooks Range for the past 30 years and uses a 22-250 for everything and has killed a number of grizzlies with it.

A few years back natives in Ft Yukon used 223's to kill a marauding polar bear that wandered near the village.

And hundreds of Alaskans pack handguns of all sorts for protection from bears, yet none of they have the power, nor ability to be shot accurately, as a 7mm rifle.

As I have been saying all along on this thread, it really doesn't matter what caliber floats your boat, bullet placement is the key. It makes little difference whether a bear is gut shot with a 243, 7mm or a 460 Wby.

I can't tell you how many villagers from up at Barrow or Wainwright I've had ask me at the shop if we have any 222s. Just for fun and out of curiosity I often ask why they want a 222. The answer is nearly always the same, "good for seals and polar bear".

Talked to a young guy from Barrow one year who had just killed a rather large polar bear. When I inquired as to what he shot it with he grinned and said "my mini 14". When we remarked that the 223 seemed a bit on the small side he seemed puzzled and said he didn't know why we felt that way, mini 14s hold a lot of bullets and his brother was there with his mini 14 too.
Just some stories I get a chuckle out of when I think about them.

When I hunted musk ox in Canada quite a while back, my guide was an older Inuit (as they call themselves in Canada) whose favorite polar bear rifle was a .22 Rimfire Magnum. And no, he didn't use sled dogs to surround bears and then head-shoot 'em. Instead he stalked close enough to put a bullet broadside in the heart. After a while the bears just "went to sleep." He'd taken a number that way, and preferred the .22 Mag-a-num (as he called it) because it didn't tear nearly as big a hole in the valuable hide as his .30-30.

Phil,
What kind of bullets do you load in your 35 Whelen?
whelennut

I have always been partial to the 250 gr Partitions but am planning on trying the 225 gr Accubonds

Oh Jeez!

Phil, Now you gone and done it! Don't you know that Accubonds are the worst game bullet made??? They just bounce off and when they do they could put your eye out.

The Accubond .277 bullets are the only PETA approved bullets.

I know, but my son, Mule Deer and I have had great luck with them.

It's fairly simple to ferret-out those who have the most experience with actual game killing, and those wedded to their own biases based on very little experience with killing game, but a lot of toilet-side reading.

The former aren't especially hung up on cartridge/bullet combos, the latter ALWAYS are...

The more you kill the less you rely on power and the more you rely on placement, I think. Commonly, the folks gunning the most powerful armament don't have many kills under their belt. Of course that is an oversimplification but confidence comes with experience.

I know from experience moose don't like the 35 cal 225 gr Accubond so I'm pretty sure a bear won't either lol. Been trying the 200 gr Accubond and TTSX lately from the Whelen and don't think either of them will bounce off.

And I have come to notice the amount of crap mounted on their rifle is inversely proportional to the amount of experience they have.

A reliance on gadgetry instead of trigger time and experience..

Great thread and id like to say thanks to all the truly knowledgable folks that have posted.

Ive never hunted Brown Bear or Griz...with that being said...

My Grandfather lived in Alaska for 20 years, mostly on Kodiak. My Mom and Uncle were both born there prior to its statehood. My Grandfather always felt that the 30-06 was absolutely enough for bear hunting. In all honesty he told me on many occasions that anything from the "Swedish Mauser" on up works fine.

At the time (i was young) I didn't know anything about the Swede and 6.5 anything was not really in mainstream fashion. Its interesting though that his opinions formed in the 30s and 40s still hold true today even though our bullets are so much better.

Based on the performance I've seen in Black Bear, Elk and Moose and perhaps most importantly from the respected options voiced here...I think a 6.5 with heavy bullets probably makes a sensible minimum for bear HUNTING. If i had the chance to go and was limited to a 6.5 I would not hesitate.

One observation I've made a few times here and there that always drives a certain number of people batschidt comes from a conversation with the African PH I know best. He was one of the most experienced African hunters I've ever hunted with, having made his living at it since age 17 when he hired on with the then-Rhodesian game department. Among other things, he was a Selous Scout and a game culler for one of the biggest ranches in Rhodesia.

By the time I hunted with him, he only used three big game rifles, a 7x57, .375 H&H and .458 Lott, all top-notch but very simple 98 Mauser-actioned rifles. For backup on most plains game hunts he carried the 7x57, since he'd killed thousands of animals with one, including a number of eland. For elephant and some very tight-cover buffalo hunting he carried the Lott.

But for most dangerous game hunting he carried the .375, and joked he was often out-gunned by his clients. But he finished off a lot off buffalo they failed to kill with their larger rifles.

The statement he made that drives some people really nuts, though, came from when I asked what bullet he preferred in the .375. He said he didn't prefer any, instead using whatever ammo his clients left behind, because "all of today's bullets are good."

Since he never had to shoot anything over 50 yards, and most of the time the range was half that, any slight variation in point of impact didn't matter. A well-known rifle and plenty of experience did the job, every time. He's now enjoying a well-deserved retirement, after having killed far more buffalo than many of us can imagine, at least half with a .30-06 and 180-grain Partitions during his culling years.

As I age I have come to realize that most people use fishing tackle that is too long and too heavy, and rifles/scopes that are too big.
The increase in the quality of bullets over the past few decades absolutely has something to do with this.( not the fishing rod part, we don't all shoot fish like Big Stick...)

Having followed the entire thread, often shaking my head, rolling my eyes, and laughing, I'm going to say that the last couple pages have been far and away the best, and they even answer the question in an appropriate roundabout way.

Since John has decided to share his story about his PH friend who held views contrary to many on this thread, I have another about the Zambian PH my son worked for. He is a second generation PH, now retired, who grew up with his father's early 416 Rigby and a BRNO 30-06. Between them the Rigby had accounted for over 1000 BULL elephants and the checkering was worn completely smooth.


Although he was intimently familiar with the Rigby, for lions he claimed he prefered the 30-06 as lions are so blazingly fast he felt the fraction of a second speed advantage that the 30-06 gave him far outweighed the extra power of the 416 ! As bullet placement was paramount no matter which rifle you use.

That's a great story JB, and that quote says it all.

A .22 mag might be cutting things a bit thin, but I'd be happy to hunt big bears with a 7 mag and some good bullets.

Good point, if you are not an AK resident, someone will be backing you up.

Otherwise alone -I would prefer nothing short of a 375 H&H in open country-A 450 Alaskan on an early Model 71 in the thick stuff. If they reach the timber, you may have a fight on your hands.


Any other time, a 348 Ackley Improved (ballistics-- a 35 Whelen) in a M-71. With 270 gr Hawk or 250 AK Works-Juneau. But then, I am a moss back with 1886's...

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Somewhere between Minchumina and Wien Lake
Hey Phil-remember Duane OSE? Oliver Cameron died awhile back-lower 48-