Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Caliber for Black Bear

Ask the guide make sense, unless you get one like my pal had..
The guide insisted he have a rifle that shot at least a 300 grain bullet... But in camp there was a fellow who was permitted to hunt with bow!!!!

No accounting for some people. Including Guides. Check references. I know of one Guide who didn't even clean his rifle for three seasons. When it failed to fire he blamed Browning for it. Makes me wonder if he'd blame Ford if he never serviced his truck after it stopped driving.

To the OP, stick with he '06 and call it a day. You seem to be comfortable with that rifle, which really matters more than the caliber your shooting� and I'm pretty sure you won't find a bear on earth that will last long with a well placed 180g bullet through the boiler room. Go hunt with confidence� practice shooting off of sticks, prone, off your pack, kneeling, off-hand, etc� just don't practice off sand bags unless you plan on carrying them along with a shooting bench in your pack during the hunt. When you can place all of your shots onto a paper plate at 100 yds from all of those field positions, you're probably ready.

I hunted in Maine last year at an absolutely outstanding place. 3 certified guides on there every day. Their position was they would rather have someone show up with a well worn 30-30 that they shoot every year and take game, than someone with a super duper wiz bang magnum. Said a 30-30 or .308 will take any bear there.

Sure, and there is nothing wrong with that. But the Alaskan guides I know who hunt themselves, even if they don't mind clients hunting with whatever, don't hunt black bear or anything themselves with a 30-30 or .308. They use more potent rounds because they are proficient with them. Believe it or not, it's not impossible that a non-guide also could have become the same. It depends on the person. A lot of options are available depending on the person and circumstances. Not wrong to hunt with a 30-30 OR something bigger, if you have done your work and can shot with whatever you bring.

Or something smaller. I promise the result will be the same, given the same placement.

You'd think having the same conversation over and over and over and over would get boring, but.... it does.

Okay, but I wonder why I can't find a single Alaskan guide now (not 120 years ago) who uses a 30-30 or smaller when hunting on their own. If it doesn't matter, why aren't they using 30-30s (or smaller) when hunting on their own? Curious.

Couldn't say. I don't hunt with any guides, and can't say what they'd use for black bear.

I shot a 400+ lb black bear this spring with a .30-06 and a 180 grain Nosler Partition. He didn't make it a single step. Last year's bear with the same rifle and load made it 8 yards. Load a good bullet, aim true and you won't have problems.

Okay, but your response to me was to my response to the comment that "3 certified guides on there every day. Their position was they would rather have someone show up with a well worn 30-30 that they shoot every year and take game, than someone with a super duper wiz bang magnum." So, I thought guides' decision-making was at issue.

I know a guide who hunts black bear and caribou with a 6.5/06. He missed his moose this year with the 30/30 barrel of his savage 24 combo gun but saved the day by making a good shot with the 20ga slug in the bottom barrel. He uses that 30/30 combo gun for hunting spring blackies in PWS too.

Black bears are not hard to kill, I've seen them killed with a 243 by a 12 year old girl. Also saw my wife shoot a dandy a couple years ago with a 270. Black bears ain't bulletproof and don't have the will to live that whitetail deer do IME. I always have a rifle in my truck and I think the only rifle I would hesitate to run up a hillside after a blackbear with is my 17rem, 222 mag with 55gr bullets you betcha.

That has been my experience as well. Given proper shot placement on both, black bears go down easier.

+100

You just need a Sims barrel vibration dampener to complete that ensemble.

Nice moose.

Sometimes I suspect there are people that can't wait to misconstrue what someone else said so they can argue.
Some people can shoot 338s, 375s and bigger rifles as well as they can a 270 or 308. Some people cannot. I don't think those two facts are in dispute.
According to guides, some professional hunters, Army research, most people cannot tolerate more recoil than abut the 30/06 level. I have seen this confirmed in years of working the bench at sight in days at the range, working in a gun store, and at hunting camp seeing an average of at least 5 hunters a year from out of state show up to hunt.
MarineHawk did not just buy his first large rifle , shoot a half box of shells through them using a lead sled and Past Recoil Pad, and take it hunting, I don't believe. If he did, I will stand corrected. When MarineHawk got on that plane (or bus or mule, whatever) he was SURE he could shoot the rifles he brung.
For someone that currently does not own or shoot a 338 or 375 or similar rifle, to go purchase one to take on a black bear hunt in lieu of a 30/06 makes no sense at all. The 30/06 is much more than adequate for any black bear anywhere.
I don't think I have ever said that NOONE should use larger cartridges. My point has always been that a person should not go to a more powerful cartridge that he can't shoot as well as a 270, 308 class cartridge. Now if there is any faulty logic in that feel free to point it out to me, I would like to be corrected.

I agree.

Only around my area this is bit different. "...most people cannot tolerate more recoil than about the 30/06 level. I have seen this confirmed in years of working the bench at sight in days at the range, working in a gun store, and at hunting camp seeing an average of at least 5 hunters a year from out of state show up to hunt."

At both place I've lived in the past 40yrs I've had a 100yd range. For most of those yrs shooters would show up with their .30-06 bolts,pumps,and semiautos. Next would be the .308's. Starting I'd guess about 15yrs ago I started noticing more and more .270's and similar or smaller cartridges. Very rarely do I see a .30-06 or anything of more power any more. Of course I'm talking only about my range experiences. Smarter hunters or wussies? LOL

No, zero it 1/1.5" high at 100 yards with 200 gr Partitions.

I just want to know what the "minimum caliber for black bear" is???

Troublemaker!

Saw a friend kill one with a .22 LR...so ......


.22LR gets my vote