The 8x57 is an excellent cartridge and capable enough for elk in these parts. Never used one on a big bear. I've tried IMR 4350 (of course
) and 200 gr. nosler partitions in my 8mm mauser and it was surprisingly accurate. I always thought it would be the cats meowe on elk, but never had the chance to use it on elk. I did however load up some 175 gr. sierra gamekings for my friend to use on a mule deer hunt and it was very lethal on a nice muley buck. DRT with no tracking at all. If it were me though and big bears were in the picture, I'd stick with a well constructed bullet like the nosler partition and load it up to where the rifle shoots the best without giving up much in the way of velocity (load up close to max if you can, always start off lower and work up of course). The Nosler manual lists the load I used:
200 gr. partition bullet
52 gr. IMR4350 (max book load and also compressed)
CCI 200 (what I used)
R-P brass
Velocity for this load out of a 24" barrel around 2700 fps.
