Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska If you were to have just one caliber ?

Back for resupply. Been too warm. Fking blackflies everywhere, low moose population.

Lotta gibberish in this here thread so pay attention:
375 h&h is a piss-poor do-all for Alaska.

Most are too long and heavy for hunting in the mountains. Winter caribou by dog team, too bulky. Too much recoil for extended shooting sessions, sharpening your skills for the longish, treeless alaska shots. Not ideal hoofing mountains.

A 9.3x62 would be much better "all-rounder". But very limited choices for lighter bullets for extended range practice. Still too heavy for the Mountains. In light guns, too much recoil. Still too much bullet for 30 mph winds/treeless alaska winter caribou.

.338 calibers:
About ideal one-gun. Scores of high bc 225 grainers that buck winds very well. Low enough recoil that you can get decent practice in light-weight guns.

Anchoring shots on moose, where the big bulls need to be on the dry bank, not seconds later in a muskeg swamp or in the river, to be blasted into a wood pile up, lots of good 250 grainers. I run the 275 grain a-frames, which are a great moose bullet for big bulls called to the river.

308/30-06. Very few available 220 grainers like the .338's. At 225 grains, the 338's are just getting warmed up.

For anchoring big bulls on the dry bank and bear protection in spring/summer:

I have a massive pile of 30 caliber 220 grain partitions, and those fkn things costed more than 300 grain 9.3 a-frames, or 250 grain a-frames, or 275 grain a-frames. Currently, there are none in stock, anywhere.

180 grainers: good for extended range practice with tolerable recoil, great for mountains, winter caribou, spring bear, calling in wolves etc.

For youth guns and mountain rifles, the 308 winchester edges out the 30-06.

With lever revolution powder, the 308 winchester gives an easy 2700 fps with 180 grainers, 2600 fps with 200 grainers, and 2480 fps from 220 grain partitions. All with minimal recoil from a 6 lb. mountain rifle.


Below 308 winchester/30-06: no fkn thank you. Not really an "all-rounder"


Lightweight 338 win mag, 338-06, 338 rcm or 338 rpm (that new weatherby), about the most ideal Alaskan calibers ever made.

What's usually kicking round my dog sled or canoe as general purpose stuff:

308 winchester/220 grain partition, 338 rcm 225 grain interbond/225 grain fusion, 338 rcm 275 grain a-frame, 9.3x62 300 grain a-frames

Well … sometimes (oftentimes?) you need to go through said alders to get up to where the sheep/goats/‘bou reside.
😉

After reading Walter Bell's "Small bores versus big bores", I think I would take good 308 and become proficient with it as he was with his rifles, the man killed 1011 elephants and countless lions and buffalo's and other game with 7mm Mauser. He also used 256 Gibbs with which he killed all sorts of game for over 100 natives to eat daily.