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

I have exactly one Alaska hunt under my belt so my personal experience might as well be zero...however, I have been in the alders with a 20" .35 Whelen and it certainly didn't feel too short. I would not have complained if it was 18" while we were following a piss poor blood trail of a wounded bear.

My Whelen is a cut down Ruger 77 rebore with the standard sporter .30-06 contour. It is a handy setup that is light enough for a sheep hunt and snorty enough for a big brown (I would think). With todays powder options it can get a 225-250 class bullet moving fast enough to do some serious work near and far. Mine is setup with a scope but I also have front irons installed and an NECG ghost ring that lives in my hunting pack that works with the integral receiver mounts. If you have time to remove the scope, you have time to install the irons and it seems to hold zero just fine.



I think the medium bores offer a lot because their favorable expansion ratios minimize velocity loss with shorter tubes. Anything over 22" would be disqualified for me as a "one and done" AK rifle (not that I wouldn't happily carry my 24" .300 WM on an open ground caribou hunt).

I have a pile of niche rifles for future AK hunts but if I am honest I could sell them all and be pretty well setup with just the Whelen.