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

Sure, I am easy to find, usually... cell phones made it that way.

More phallic fantasies from UAE. LOL! Is English maybe a third language?

Good reading. Maybe a good way to phrase the question is "what caliber would you carry if you are an Alaskan resident hunting alone?"
The .25-06 sounded great until I read the report of the .416 shot bear chewing on the guide.

I lived 7 years in Alaska and my rifle of choice was the 338 win mag and of course my big bore revolvers. Today with the better bullet such as the Barnes TSX or TTSX I would use my 30-06 exclusively as my rifle of choice.

Realize the 25-06 with 80gr TTSXs was not a stunt for several reasons... The bear was determined from the very beginning to be of modest proportion. The bullet had performed very well on a bull moose of far greater mass and the shot selection was going to be "choice" or there would be no shot.

As it was the initial shot and the follow-up were absolutely lethal. The bullets made two holes each within 2" of each other and did significant heart damage. Had they been higher the bear may have taken longer to die by a minute or so, but it would still have died.

At 150 yards and in the wide open the bear would have to survive a hail of bullets all the way in if it charged.

I have every reason to believe a 223 would have done the same with good bullets and the same placement.

And the caliber of the bullet is not magic if it gets delivered to the wrong address.

When finding oneself at the bottom of a hole it is usually a good idea to stop digging.

You have admitted to no experience, no likelihood of ever going brown bear hunting, and no real desire to go. Yet you want to go after someone that obviously makes a living doing it.

I would guess the guide he works for caters to Teutonic hunters and his bilingual skills are much appreciated there.

dubai

Someone with Joe Want's e-mail needs to send him this link he will have a field day with this that's for sure. Over on AOD when questions like this were asked ol Joe Want would show up and offer up his advice unfortunately Ol Joe Want and AOD have parted ways so no more Joe

AOD has a history of only objecting to those that actually have a clue... They have left so many unbelievable losers there it is beyond pathetic. I doubt Joe would find as much room to swing here...

You aint joking that place has gone to [bleep] that's for sure. I go over to see if anything new has pooped up nope same old [bleep] LOL.

Is the bear pointing at Safariman after he shot him with his "uber" mag?

LMAO

I never said what I hunted with was an "optimum." If you don't like the opinion that the .375 Wby is "optimum," please find someone who actually has said that to attack. I never said it. It's what I bought before my last hunt and used. The 375 Ruger possibly is just as good or better for the most part. I never said anything bad about the .375 Ruger. I don't own one. I'm going to the same place as before, not Kodiak, about 120 mi. north of Dillingham.

Hello

the story told "a grizzly bear pointing in the police line-up a hunter who shot him in the bum" but of course yes..... he did it with an ULTRA SUPER RUM UBER MEGA caliber afficionados

Hello Marine, I have nothing against you. I was just trying to demonstrate than all of us were acting like teenagers... Maybe my 3rd degree was too much...

anyway... to be honest before the 375 Ruger was designed, I was looking at the 375 Why like the best/optimum 375. Hopefully for you you're not a fan of the 378 Why cause I would have dig you in a hole.... Your 1st bear is a great bear.... it's what I think... so relax....UNIT 17/19 drainage. Wish you a safe and a very good hunt. post pictures.

Thanks UAE. I haven't shot a .378 Wby, though I have nothing against it, and it's just a bit faster than my .375, as the .375 Wby is a little faster than the H&H. It's all good. I got pretty lucky last time, as the weather got strangely warm for the last eight days of my 10-day hunt after my lucky kill. The animals were all mostly sleeping it off after that during the daytime. Hopefully, I will see a good bear or moose this time, but life is what it is, and I will enjoy just the chance to hunt in such a remote environment for such great game. That's what makes it so great: the possibility of failure. The last time, when I was flying out of the Dillingham airport, I was one of two hunters out of about 40, who had gotten a bear during that season. I had dreamed of hunting brown bear since I was a small child. I realized then, more than ever, how lucky I was. I am slightly more interested in moose this time, but I mostly want to have the chance to hunt in AK, which isn't easy for me. I got to see the Northern Lights while drinking bourbon and smoking a cigar at a driftwood campfire just a few yards from my bear pelt last time. I am looking forward to whatever happens this time.

I wish you and all on here happy hunting as well.

I'm watching this Brown Bear hunting show on the History channel right now. I'm not sure if I should be watching this since I have no Brown Bear hunting experience and have shown no inclination that I want to go. Sitka deer, Is it alright if I watch this?

...says the guy who doesn't even know how to steer a moose!

Looks like they're all wearing sleeves, so, I'd have to say, no.

Wow what a thread! I couldn't stop reading!

Why are some folks infatuated with the smallest tool available to do a job? Why even concern ourselves with "minimums"? I mean who cares?

We have among us,collectively, over 100 years experience with center fire cartridges and bullets to draw on today;more choices than ever before (many overlapping in performance so that it would take a swami to distinguish them)and so many far better bullets, that making a choice to kill a brown bear or anything else should be easy.

I remember when Skane was going on his first brown bear hunt...we talked and I am sure he talked to others as well. He had a 35 Whelen...I thought that was fine and told him as much,because people had been killing brown bear with 35 Whelens for decades(along with smaller and larger cartridges). A reasonable middle ground seemed like a good place to be.

He asked about bullets and we talked about 225 Northforks,so that's what he used.As I recall his bear went absolutely no where,because he used a reasonable cartridge,a very good bullet,and because he knows how to shoot.

Concerning ourselves with minimums is just a waste of grey matter with so many good choices available today....JMHO.