Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska 300 Win Mag Big Bear Bullet

I'm loading up some right now for velocity testing. I need 2900-3000 fps, but the best I could get with the IMR 4350 that I've got loads of was @ 2800 fps. I finally got a few pounds of Ramshot Magnum and Accurate Magpro as well as a few hundred 200 grain A-Frames, so the testing restarts. The 300 WinMag Tikka has become my favorite rifle. I've been shooting 200 grain Accubonds at caribou over the past 15 years, but since caribou hunting has gone the way of buffalo hunting in the late 1800's, it's back to moose. The Accubond would do fine on moose, but I want to try the A-Frame just for the novelty of it.

I’ve loaded Federal Terminal Ascent bullets in my 300 Win Mag using RL26 and they’re running 2980 fps over the chrony. Very accurate and I’ve ran them through eight one gallon water jugs. Held onto 175 grains and expanded to .708”. Given the design of a bonded lead front core, a solid copper rear shank and a .608 G1 BC .304 G7 BC. Makes a dandy hunting bullet for just about anything in the 300. I also have a 35 Whelen with plain old 250 grain Speer Hot Cors at 2600. Both thump bears well. Not big brownies but a couple few black bears have met their demise from both. I’d be real interested in that Winchester semi auto in 9.3x62mm for a bear gun.

My 300 Win likes both the 200 and the 220 grain partitions. The best groups mine shoots is with the 220’s. H1000, H4831sc and RE 26 all work with those bullets - H1000 is the best.

Have mentioned this before, but how much difference in groups makes a realistic difference in killing a "big bear," even at ranges beyond 100 yards?

I know custom riflesmith D'Arcy Echols very well, and years ago during one of our many conversations (both FTF and phone) he mentioned a customer who'd just ordered a .458 Lott for an upcoming elephant hunt. The customer "demanded" that both softs and solids group 3 shots into 1/2" at 100 yards--into the same group.

D'Arcy phoned me that day, and instead of starting with hello, he said: "Just how f------ small are elephants these days?"

For what it’s worth, the absolutely largest bodied bear any of my clients has taken was estimated to weigh between 1600-1800 pounds and was killed with a single 180 gr Partition from a 300 WM.
The shot was appx 60 yards and the bear ran 40-50 before dying .

The worlds record bear, skull size, was taken in 1952 with a 30-06

That's interesting on top of it all because the 180 is not a 300 win mag bullet. The 200 is. I"ve seen small whitetails stop the 180 partition from a 300 wtby.

Bottom line the bear is dead and I've yet to see the partition fail to kill a moose or bear but some have scary penetration.

Thanks for sharing!

fwiw my 458 win is not that accurate. But its plenty bear accurate so far out to almost 300 yards. They are not small targets. I am not happy with the groups. OTOH I know well the groups are plenty small for the non prairie dog targets.

From bench shooting, a ragged hole of three from a .458 Win is not uncommon. Those from hot handloads. My first .458 was a Ruger M77 with the tang safety. I never fired a factory round through it but the first handload was a mild load of the 500gr Hor RNSP at ~2000 fps into a ragged hole at 100 yds. 68 grs of H4895. That became my hunting load. My next .458 came years later: a CZ550, then in 2018 I traded for a Ruger No.1H Tropical. It's my favorite rifle and will go bear hunting May 1st with a first time ever factory load in any .458 - The Federal Premium 400gr TBBC making an average 2282 fps for five. I've made at least a dozen handloads for it, and any would work but decided to shoot a proven factory load before I'm done.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

> nice to know some truth , and as i get older the 30-06 recoil is plenty for me , thanks for posting this,Pete53

If you're still wondering about this: I can't say that I 'stopped' this interior boar but I suspect he was the one who bluffed charged a few days earlier, so he was fairly aggressive. I used plain jane 180 Core-Lokts out of a .300 Win Mag. They worked fine to break his onside shoulder at about 200 yards, and lodge up against the skin on the other side. I don't know the retained weight but it looks like any other retained C&C bullet...~50-60% retention.

Maybe they wouldn't have held together as well if the shot was 10 feet? I dunno.
I'd take Phil's advice and pretty much nobody else's, including mine.

“If” it’s primary purpose is to stop a bear, I assume that we’re talking fairly close range where there will be sufficient velocity to achieve maximum expansion…. my choice would be the 200 grain Barnes TSX with the 180 TSX as a close second!

If for general purpose use….the 175 grain LRX, which would also penetrate very well on a very wet, large, bear with ill intentions in mind!

Jim, I’m certain that you could’ve figured that would be my response! 😉 memtb

https://www.boone-crockett.org/bc-worlds-record-alaska-brown-bear#:~:text=The%20world's%20record%20Alaska%20brown%20bear%20(Ursos%20arctos%20middendorffi)%20scored,Lake%20in%20late%20May%201952.&text=The%20immense%20bear%20was%20shot%20by%20Roy%20R.

No mention of the bullet fired except that it was 180 grain, nor is it stated how many rounds were fired into the bear, and I can find no details of the shoot8 g itself. What bullet options were available in 1952? It was specifically stated that Mr. Lindsley was some sort of refuge employee, he'd never killed a bear before, and that the harvest was part of a scientific expedition, not a sport hunt. They most certainly didn't have the expansive custom bullet choices we have today.

You were doing quite well up to then 😁

220 grain Partition SMP....

83 grains of H 1000...

i have trip coming up and i will be using a 300 Win. mag. with my handloads , yes i like Nosler Partitions but lately good Nosler bullets are hard to get , find, whatever but Barnes and Hammers work well and are available to buy easier . Hammer bullets i can buy direct , Hammer bullets seem to be always in stock , these bullets are at my house in less than a week , that is really nice for me because i live in the country so i don`t have to drive anyplace and the price is not that bad but they are accurate as are Barnes bullets. > no i have never shot a big brown bear the price is kinda getting too high for 1 shot ,for the same price i can go to Africa and shoot 10 plains game animals including air fare and everything is included ,they even wash your clothes every day . i will be black bear hunting again this fall with just a simple old 35 Whelen Ruger #1 ,i have never killed a bear with a rifle before in the past i killed bears with a bow and arrow using Zwickey broadheads . i wish all bear hunters a safe successful hunt ,Pete53

I've read that Hammer bullets are probably easier to get to shoot than Barnes. Now, I'm sure I'll get blasted for saying that.

My experience with them leads me to believe that statement. And, I like their terminal performance better.

But, I do use and like Barnes, just like Hammer better. They not cheap, but as noted, they are available when you need them.

IMO.

DF

No “blasts” from me. I’d certainly try them if I didn’t have a bunch of Barnes’ and a load already developed!

For someone just starting the mono experience…..a great place to start. And would likely search no farther! memtb

Check out the YouTube interview, Adam Weatherby with the Hammer founders. Very informative.

Wby now loading some of their factory ammo with Hammer bullets. That should tell ya something. Bet it’s not cheap.

DF

I have no personal experience stopping an enraged brown or grizzly bear. The largest bb I killed (about 9’ ) was with a 300 win mag shooting 200 grain noslers. Two shots to the boiler room , likely only one needed given a few seconds more, but holes can be sowed up , keep shooting if they’re still moving as my old friend master guide Ed Stevenson told me.
Master guide Ed Stevenson was involved in more bear kill than anyone I knew, he moved to Alaska in 1960 and started guiding for bear, moose , caribou, sheep and goats in 1961
Ed was a tough young cowboy and experience hunter from Wyoming , he arrived with no more than a young bride, a300 weatherby mag. and big dreams . He started guiding in the tallkeetnas and prince william sound. He soon came to the conclusion his weatherby was not a sufficient bear stopper, as he put it to me , when a big bear got it dander up. He started brain storming with old timers about what he needed for a sure fire stopper, on one of his confidantes was Bill Fuller of copper landing Bill was a big proponent of large caliber lever actions, many of them wildcats of his own development ie the 450 Alaskan on converted Winchester 71 and 86. He also experimented with rebarreled model 95’s such as the 375 scoville and a 40!cal on the 06 case. Through the years Ed tried them all, with good success . In the final analysis he settled on the strong reliable model 1895 marlin in 45/70 shooting either 400 grain north fork or other bonded core bullets. I have no idea how many bear Ed had to stop, but the most spectacular and harrowing was a case were
in his client killing a 10’ bear as it attempted to maul Ed while immersed in the gravina river. The day before Ed put the gentleman on another 10’ bear and the man killed the bear without incident, they had stalked this boar(spring hunt) and another boar they had caught glimpses of as well . The two boars were competing for the affection of sow in heat and had a couple good bouts as Ed and the client heard hell of commotion a couple of times.
When Ed was talking his client out to the beach to catch the boat out, he packing a over 100 lb hide and skull iwalking along side of the river in a pretty dense patch of alder, the other boat, evidently laid up in the brush licking his wounds came busting out an took himself and Ed into the river. While the bear continued to chew Ed’s legs, all the time Edtrying to get out of the pack and not drown the client stepped down the trail a few feet to get a good angled shot on the beast without hitting Ed He hammered the boat in the spine first shot and another for insurance the client the jumped in the river and managed to drag Ed to other side before he ran out of air.
It put Ed on the hospital for a few days , but other than his legs tore up pretty good no vital organs were injured. Ed told me the story many years later nd ended it with the remark “you know Don,it took quite a fewvweeks to get that out of my head” typical of an sourdough like him, an event that for a normal person would be a live altering event.
Ed’s go now and with him passed so many wonderful stories in of Alaska adventures. RIP my friend.