Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Minimum caliber for Coastal Brown Bear...

I've enjoyed this thread! Thanks all.

In grizzly camp, Brooks Range, the two guides had recently returned from Kodiak, guiding for the big bears. One had a battered Rem 700 in 375 H&H, with 260 gr Nosler Accubonds. The other a Sako, 338 Win mag with 225 gr Barnes TSX.

One of the hunters had a Browning bolt action, 7mm Rem Mag, 140 gr TSX, and I had my 30-06 Rem 700 with 200 gr Nosler Partitions.

Odd to me, no Mausers or Winchester 70's, or Rugers. Just an observation.

Before heading to Alaska for the grizzly hunt the guide and I had a great phone conversation about rifles. Learning that I'd already taken black bear, elk, mule deer & pronghorn with my 30-06, he was very comfortable with me using that rifle, as long as I used premium bullets, and specifically recommended the 200 grain Nosler. I've hunted mostly with Rem 700's since the mid 1970's, and have also shot some rifle competition, so can work the bolt pretty quickly.

The fellow with the 7mm made a terrific shot from prone at about 80 yards and his 6.5' bear sprinted a few yards and collapsed. Done. I watched that from a hill above camp, through my binos.

Seven days into the nine-day hunt, I was a little surprised when my 8' grizz popped out from behind a small tree at about 40 or 50 yards. I have to admit that it wasn't my best shooting. I remember my guide telling me "don't shoot it in the head." He was thinking potential record book grizzly, though it fell a little short of that. I was thinking that I very much wanted to put a Nosler in that bear's grape!

Didn't matter, 'cause I missed the first shot. Good grief. Bear altered course, still closing, but diagonally. I shot and broke the right front shoulder/upper leg. Bear down. Bear rolled. Bear got up. About that fast. Guide and I were both shooting now. Things were happening fast. It wasn't a charge, but things were happening fast. We were moving, bear was moving, bullets were flying. Several good shots, a couple of marginal ones, and my miss - and the bear was down.

It all happened really fast - yet I well remember the details like a slow-motion movie. I do own a couple of 375's and a 45/70 Marlin, but haven't hunted nearly as much with them as I have the 30-06, so I was glad that the 30-06 made the drive from Washington to Alaska with me, and was in my hands then, though I'm sure the bigger rifles would have worked fine, and might well have provided an advantage. Laughing here - I got some gentle ribbing that I hunted grizzly in Alaska with a push feed 30-06 Rem 700 in a walnut stock.

That bear hunt was a real big deal to me, and I picked up on a bit of info re bears & bear hunting. Even had a good chat with Phil well before the hunt.

So, not a big coastal bear, but perhaps of interest to folks reading the thread, or researching their choice of firearms and ammo.







Regards, Guy