Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Deer hunting in Brown Bear country with a 338-06

"Got a 9.3x62mm - specifically for hunting in bear country. 270 gr. Speer for the hunt, and 286 gr. Swift A-Frame for the bear."

Garandanimal,

OK....

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, a good friend took a .300 Weatherby to Kodiak to hunt deer and brown bear--and brought handloads with 150-grain Partitions for deer (he was hunting where a 300+ yard shot was very possible), and 200-grain Partitions for the bear. He shot a deer at relatively close range--and a few seconds later a BIG brown bear charged out of the brush to claim the deer.

He had another 150 in the chamber, which did not penetrate through the shoulder into the chest at such close range--not surprising since the muzzle velocity was around 3500 fps. The shot did discourage the bear enough to turn into the brush, but he and his guide had an interesting time finishing it off.

My experience with the 270 Speer is that its a decent deer bullet--at moderate velocity--but not as durable as a 150-grain Partition at 3500 fps.

While I have used up to 5 different bullets to shoot different animals in Africa with the same rifle, I was hunting plains game, not Cape buffalo. When hunting where a MUCH bigger animal might show up suddenly, it seems more sensible to use a bullet that will do the job on either kind of game. Which is exactly why I used the 250-grain Nosler Partition the one time I hunted Kodiak for deer. I already knew it would kill deer--and penetrate sufficiently on 1500-pound animals.