I have a tripped book for Brown Bear next September with Alaska Private Guide Service in UNIT 17. I was originally planning on taking my Nosler M48 in 325 WSM. The guide stated that anything over 300 WM would be good, so I thought my 325 would be more than enough. Problem is, I just recently chronographed my loads and everything is about 200 fps slower than what I had originally thought. I chronographed it about 3 years ago and was getting 2900 FPS with my 220 gr. Sierras. I tried it this year and am getting mid 2600's to a little over 2700.
Thought it was my chronograph and sent it in for recalibration (thing always showed different speeds depending on how close to sensor you are). Borrowed a buddies in the mean time and found that his was around the same speed. Now with the powder shortage there is not exactly a whole lot of different powders to try. I tried getting Woodleigh 250's going and all I could muster was about 2550 FPS with N160 and RL 19 seemed slower yet.
So I debating on weather or not to order a few different types of powder and try to get another 100 or so FPS, just tinker with what I got to find the best accuracy (usually sub MOA with tinkering), or spring for a bigger gun. I just got a Leica 2.5-10 with #1 retice and love it, but really don't feel like blowing another 1000 dollars when I have already spent so much on everything.
I also hate relying on a gun that is considered "minimum". I am going in after Moose season so will be hunting rivers, up on the tundra if the Bears have moved off of the river, and there is a good chance of shooting one off of a kill site if they had some successful Moose hunters that did not get a chance to shoot a bear off their own kill site.
