Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 30-06 bullet in bear country

I have carried three different 30-06 rifles at different times around the areas full of grizzly bears. An M1 Garand, a Browning M95 and a Mauser scout rifle.
In every case I have loaded the rifle with 220 grain bullets. I am not hunting the bears, so I don't care at all about long distance. No bear is dangerous unless it's close. They can't hurt you at all until they are in touching distance.

The Mauser and the M95 share ammo. It gives me about 2500 FPS from the 95 and about 2435 in the shorter Mauser. The M1 has it's owe ammo, loaded with 3031 powder so the port pressure is correct. It works perfectly and the bullet chronographs at about 2350 FPS at the muzzle, but the recoil is very easy and you can fire an M1 very fast for not just the 1st shot but the following shots too. I have come to favor it over most other rifles because of it's quickness, not just for repeated shots but for the 1st one too.

I have killed elk with both these loads from the M1 and from the 95, and the effect of the 220 grain bullets is decisive. The penetrate very well and break big bone easily. If a bear is "coming at you" all the vitals are on the side of the target closest to you, so most deer rifles will kill a grizzly, but the good fast stops are usually a function of breaking bones. One thing I saw in Africa was how sometimes on big cats and on buffalo the back end fell first and drug down the beast when shot from the front. I learned the bullets was going clear through and breaking the spine or pelvis and hindering or dropping the rear of the animal first, which buys you some time or even stops the charge. So I would assume it would be the same on a bear. Maybe Phil could chime inhere and tell us if that's what he's seen too?

Anyway, the 220 grain 30 cal bullets from a 30-06 do a LOT of damage and go deep even when loaded down a bit in the M1. So I load them and I like them for use in the forested and bushy areas. They are just fine out to about 250 yards from my M95 and my Mauser, and with the M1 you can simply dial up the rear sight in about 1 second, so they are good to any distance you are capable of shooting with an iron sighted rifle.