Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Appropriate calibres for Grizzlies and/or Coastal Brown Bears

As the world turns…

I’ve heard folks both on this board and in person claim that any shot over 100 yards is unethical, some preach that all bowhunting should be illegal since a wounding shot is more likely (whatever that means) and yet others preach that all rifle hunting should be illegal because it’s too easy.

Hunters really are our own worst enemy.

"What's he at?"

"uhh...looks like he's at 785 yards. He'd have to make it to that tree behind him in order to get to 800..."

"Fughk!


Well, let's go home."

lol

I thought the point of his "800-yard minimum" was that it was as close as he could get to the bears from his chosen shooting position. Which is itself an arbitrary choice...

you're how old ? and still can't shoot worth a shyte .... shame, shame


WTH is the difference of "one well placed round" if the impact velocity/energy are exactly the same either at 100 or 1000 yards ?

the difference is , you're a lousy shot and a lousy hunter ... you need someone you paid ... to take you hunting and to get you close, so you can't miss, then you still do and your paid shooter kills it for you

Then you take a bunch of photos with an animal you paid someone to shoot for you

What a Great white hunter ! lmao

Pathetic

An Alaskan gun shop owner told me once that he knew a few guys who took a Barrett Light 50 to hunt brown bears near Cold Bay. He said that shots were taken from half a mile away and better.

I don't know if such talk is true or not. People weave tall tales, and others stretch even those. I tend to wonder why somebody would do or even claim stuff like that, but after a long lifetime in this world, and even though I really struggle to understand people, I simply can't discount acts which stretch my limits of understanding.

I've got to agree with Inman's post above.

Well, let's assume that our sniper is going to use a Barrett. Let's assume that he has a load for it that has a muzzle velocity of 3,000 FPS (not unreasonable). That's still at least a full second for the bullet to reach the bear at 1000 yards (the bullet will obviously slow down after it leaves the muzzle, but I am not the man to do the math for the exact time of flight). A lot can happen in one second. One of my Marines shot a Taliban fighter with a Barrett at roughly 1 kilometer. When he pulled the trigger, the enemy fighter was crouching and pointing an AK at a friendly patrol. By the time the bullet arrived, the man had stood up and half turned to get to a new position. Instead of hitting him in the chest, it hit him right above the knee caps. His fellow Taliban ran away and left him behind. My Marines walked up to conduct BDA and found the poor bastard bleeding out with one leg completely amputated and the other hanging on by some skin. They put a couple of tourniquets on him and called in a helicopter to evacuate him. Three weeks later, we let him go back in his village, along with a wheelchair donated by some NGO. A great advertisement for "no better friend, no worse enemy." But translate that to a hunting situation and you have a wounded bear running off into the brush.

1/2 mile is only 880 yards, with the right bullet, a 300 RUM, 338 Edge or 338 Lapua will do the job cleanly beyond that, don't need a 50 , and the Barrett isn't capable of the same accuracy

The above two posts illustrate my point perfectly. I still don't understand, but I really don't care. If they so choose, they can use @ 40mm mortar AFAIC.

Just took a Kodiak brown bear last week with a .378 Weatherby and a 300gr Partition scooting along at 3008fps. I'd second the observation that it is a crushing round. At 125yds (or less) the first round went right through the on-side shoulder and zipped right out of the other side, mid-chest. Looked like a punch press went through him. Interestingly, the second shot went through the base of his neck on the left while he was biting the wound on the right chest. It was able to pass completely through the neck to exit on the right neck and lodge into the angle of the jaw on the right. Perfect mushroom performance and a bear that went lights-out immediately...despite a double lung shot from the first round. I don't suppose the entire scenario lasted eight seconds.

Awesome. My good buddy has killed 3 big ones on Kodiak, he built a 460 for his Kodiak rifle and uses a custom 378 for hunting smaller interior bears. Both are deathly effective if the driver can handle them as he has shown in 20 or more rugs. Can you post us a picture?

i may have a very accurate 338 Lapua rifle that can shoot a long ways out , but i would rather just go with MR. Phil Shoemaker and get a much closer shot . anyway this was a great read thanks to all for these posts just maybe i will do this big bear hunt yet in my life time ? Pete53

Going brown bear hunting with Phil Shoemaker would be a very good choice. I have referred four friends to Phil over the past decade and all four came home with quality bears.

Is this a choice before you go out, or what's in hand at the "close encounter of the turd kind" moment?

Here you go.

Excellent! Gives some perspective when he makes that MKV look like a BB gun.

In all my many trips to Kodiak hunting deer and even once hunting fall bears, I never saw a bear down there. 🤷🏼‍♂️

You probably don’t remember but I’m pretty sure I bought some bullets from you years ago when I lived in anchorage. My uncle was the manager of Hackberry Flat WMA.

Seems there’s two primary arguments going here. One, whether the rifle and cartridge in question are capable of killing a Kodiak at half to a whole mile and two, whether the bear might move just enough between the time the trigger is pulled and the bullet arrives to create a deadly rodeo. Maybe the bear stays still but the wind velocity/direction changes. Still a potential calamity maybe involving another human being days later unaware of the sudden misalignment of the stars. Not being a paid sniper or professional long range shooter I can’t imagine what logic there is in attempting such a shot on such an animal.

Next up “Elephants vs Howitzer at 10 miles!!” Stay tuned.

The problem with all these bear threads is they end up the same: Too many dudes with little or no experience blabbering about what's best and ignoring or disregarding guys who have actual experience, and having the same dumb crap said over and over. I've said this before, but for those of us who actually live with and interact with these bears it's much like a grown man getting counseled about what sex is like from a 14 year old boy.

I killed my bear at 20 yards this month, my buddy killed his on the other side of the island at 640 yards with one shot- 300 PRC. it's all about shot placement.

For those of you unaware, dennis's rifle is known throughout these Alaskan lands as the Smakaho Express Ninety Three Thousand.

🤦