I've hunted in brown bear country with a 243 more than any other rifle. Just have to keep your wits about you.
My brother and I had a very near miss with a Grizzly this spring. He was packing a 243. I happened to have a 375 Ruger. After we had a minute to reflect, he looked at his rifle and said “well that was a dumb choice”. I replied “just make sure you hit him right”. He replied “missing is what worries me”.
I walked up to a sleeping brown bear, got maybe 20ft from it as I came to the top of a hill. Luckily the wind was in my face so the bear never woke up. I backed out of there real quiet like and swung way around where it was. I was puckered for sure!
