My first “adult” center fire was a .270 Win - still my favorite (I am snobbishly excluding a 30-30).
Love reading these stories proclaiming the glory of the .270.
Last night I finished reading James Gary Shelton’s “Bear Attacks - The Deadly Truth”. One story, in particular, changed my perspective for hunting in bear country with any of my .270 / 7mm Rem Mag / .308 Win.
Chapter 4 - Carcass Defence Behavior documents a grizzly attack. Two British Columbia logging workers came within proximity of a male grizzly with an animal carcass. Not close enough to see the grizzly nor the carcass.
The men were working when they first saw the bear approaching them when at an approximate distance of 40 feet. The bear disappeared back into the brush. The men next saw the bear at 20 feet when it lunged at them.
At a distance of 7 feet, they fired two rounds of buckshot (shot size not specified) into the bear’s face. The bear stopped but did not go down. The third cartridge loaded in their gun was a slug (12-gauge - slug size, style, and brand not specified). This shot struck the bear just below one eye. The bear was knocked over backward, but not killed.
“The bear went wild; it was spinning around on its side, roaring and bellowing at the top of its lungs.”
The man without the gun dug around in their back pack and found more slugs (filtering through birdshot and buckshot) and the gunman reloaded with slugs. The fourth shot hit the bear in the chest, just behind the right front leg.
“The bear collapsed on its side and lay still for a moment, then jumped up and ran to their right, stumbling and bellowing as it went out of sight. They could see that the grizzly still had ample power, and it sounded like the bear was coming around behind them in the timber. Then, all of a sudden, it was very quiet.”
The men hiked their way back to their helicopter drop site where they radioed to be picked up. 40 minutes later, the helicopter arrived.
They flew back to the attack site and could see the bear lying in a pool of blood, trying to crawl up a steep slope.
They later returned with a Marlin 44 to insure the bear was dead. At a distance of 80 feet, they shot into the bear 6 times to insure it was dead.
Later, a Conservarion Officer investigated. He reported that the bear traveled 250 yards before dying.
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This grizzly took a 12-gauge slug in the face, took another slug in the chest, traveled 250 yards and was still alive more than 40 minutes later.
I don’t think I would use any of my 270 / 7mm / 308 in bear country.
