The outfit I hunted brown bears with recommended nothing smaller than a 375, with 416 being preferable. I used my 33 G&A and did just fine but they were skeptical about it, being as they had seen poor results with the 338. They also preferred soft bullets, namely Hornady round nosed type.
"Guide" and "Knowledgeable about guns" are far from synonymous...
I think he and his family are a bit more experienced in Alaskan hunting than most on this forum, been in business since 1974 and is a master guide. Also hunts world wide and was IPHA in 2005. He knows what works in his area and for his clients.
I had a good friend who guided bear hunters here in Alaska for over 3 decades who was big on his recommendation of the 375. What I also noticed was that he seemed to book a lot of clients who didn't shoot their rifles very well ...and a surprising number of tales of guns which had obviously never been sighted in with live ammo. ("I had it bore-sighted by an 'expert'.")
Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.
("I had it bore-sighted by an 'expert'.")
