I've hunted on an island off of Alaska off and on for a few years now. Being in thick Brown Bear county I've had to bring a "bear gun" to a "deer hunt". I've used my 300 Wby with 180 TSXs with success, but more frequently use my 338-06. Its a LH Rem 700 with a Douglas SS barrel, HS Precision stock. It shoots pretty good with most bullets.
My question is, what bullet would you use?
The criteria that's most important to me is:
1) Being able to stop a brown bear if need be.
2) Not blowing up a bunch of deer meat in the process. This is a meat hunt for the most part while enjoying the beauty of Alaska.
Here's what I have loaded up in the past for the 338-06. Shots are 100 yards or less. I try to shoot lungs/heart area if at all possible. No head shots.
A) 180 Nosler Accubond. Shoots light out at 100 yards. Most accurate combo I've come across yet with the 338-06. I've never shot anything with this bullet, but would use it for deer hunting in other areas.
B) 185 TSXs at 2950 fps. Shoots MOA or better. I've shot a few deer with it and it works great on deer. Might be a bit light on brown bears.
C) 225 Nosler Accubonds. 2720 fps avg. Very accurate. .75 inch or better @ 100 yds. I have shot pigs and deer with it, but it does do a bit of meat damage. One pig I shot had a baseball sized hole on the off side.
D) 250 grain Hornady RN Interlocks. I get 2550 fps and 1 MOA. I've never shot anything with with these bullets, but they are accurate.
E) 250 Sierra Game King. Also 1 MOA. 2500 fps, but again, I've never shot anything with them.
I've tried both 210 Partitions and 210 TTSXs, but strangely haven't got them to group well with my gun with a good combo of accuracy and velocity. But if I could get 2750 fps or better out of either I would probably lean toward one of these 210s.
Curious, what would you use?
Yaddio
