Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Second rifle choice

I'm partial toward the .338 Winchester, but if you ever intend to hunt Africa go for one of the flavors of 375.

I have so much trouble finding the correct bullets for my 340 that I have simply taken to wrapping .338 bullets with Scotch brand invisible tape to 'bump' them up. (Plain 'clear" doesn't work since they come in at .343") It's a lot of trouble, especially when I plan to spent an afternoon sniping bunnies in the willow thickets. What really sucks is the clean up afterwards - the bunnies that is; Hoppe's #9 cuts Scotch tape fouling real easy.

As for the thread at hand however, I would only worry about the specifics of the rifle other than the caliber unless the 30-06 you already have is a solid stable 'Alaska-proof' design. (I enjoy blued metal and walnut, but there are times I really prefer something that needs no more care than a paddle.)

I had both 338 WM and 375 H&H, neither were heavy rifles. About the same weight. I used the 338 more cause it was stainless the 375 was a blue sako, so I was more careful with it. But as far as sitting down and shooting 40 rounds or so I prefer shooting the 375.

Zackly what I woulda said.

338-06 is always a good choice.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to look into the 35 Whelen a little more. It seems to be fairly popular caliber in AK and more than capable of taking a brown bear. I won't be hunting browns for a few years but I would feel more comfortable with something a little heavier than the 06 when I'm in the thick stuff and there's a chance of a close range encounter with one.

If I ever get home for some real time hopefully I can find someone local with some big boy guns I can fire at the range for recoil comparison. I grew up hunting whitetails with 3" mag 12 ga slugs but I don't exactly enjoy them when sighting the gun in.

The .35 Whelen is quite a nice cartridge, but not necessarily very popular in Alaska, maybe because ammo is readily available only for the most popular (.30-06, .300WM, .338WM, .375H&H, 7mm Magnum, .270, .45-70, and so on). But all of this makes no difference if you reload to the .35 Whelen, or any other cartridge for that matter.

As others have mentioned, there is nothing wrong with the .30-06 and ammo loaded with 180-grain bullets.

Read this thread:
http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/140874-Tiniest-bear-I-ever-shot

Cool story. I will definitely be spending some time on the Kenai when I come up. I have some friends with a farm near Homer. I may stay there for a bit and do some halibut fishing and black bear hunting.

I have no doubt the 30-06 is capable of taking any game animal I'll be chasing. The main issue is I don't like having just one of anything. I really like having a variety of toys..and tools...and girlfriends. I'm not sure which one costs me more money at this point. I suppose there are worse problems to have.

Today's a well deserved day off in Newcastle, Australia for me. I think I'll go find a bar with a kangaroo burger or emu steak and some cute local company.

If you never slow down, you never grow old. Work hard, play hard. Life is meant to be lived, not gone through.

They're not involved in a "reality" show, are they?

Ha! You're close, very close. I know Mairiis "Mossy" Kilcher. Her brother Otto and his family are on "The Last Frontier". Mossy has a place called Seaside Farm out on East End Rd. I stayed there for a few days a couple of years ago and did their little mini cattle drive from the farm to the old homestead. Apparently they were filming the series the week before I got there, glad I missed that. Mossy is a little "eccentric" but she has a good heart and it's hard to beat the view of Kachemak Bay from the farm.

I work in entertainment industry which includes a lot of television stuff when I'm in Los Angeles. Nothing in TV is real. I also really wish they would stop making shows about Alaska. It's been my dream to live there for a long time and I don't need a bunch of morons going up there and ruining it for me.

338-06 and 210 ttsx is my go to gun so far....as an all arounder more or less.

I will take larger when after browns.... if that ever happens.

I'm getting to the point that TV is almost a total waste these days... can't much stand it.

Don't sweat the folks seeing reality AK tv, when they go up and find out that it wasn't reality... they'll leave again.

The idea that Kilchers are "out tehre" is nuts... roads all over that place but no one ever shows that part...

I would go with a 44 mag, 444 or 45-70.

416 Rem Mag is my next step up.....

well actually I have a couple 300 mags and will have a 338 win mag, but in reality they are kinda in no mans land in some ways, though I could live forever with a 338 win mag if I didn't have the 338-06... and not even contemplate a 416

I dare say the rifle you use most won't be dependent on what the chamber will hold and more about other factors…….like weight, balance, fit, reliability, ease of use, maintenance needs or lack of them, etc. The perfect rifle could be chambered in 7mm-08 or 338-06 or lots of things in between and be an all-around tool. But I'd like to see/know what my "all-arounder" was before I nailed down a second rifle choice.

Would a guy be well served with simply a 7-08 and a 375 of some flavor? Should a guy really feel like he needs a heavy?

(I'd prob want a fur gun too - 223 or something but all could be done with those 2?)

. . . or a slug gun.

This is where I'd go if I already had an accurate and reliable 30-06 for all around hunting.

My reasoning is based on the fact that no matter where I go hunting in Alaska, there'll be the chance/need to take a bear. And a 30-06 will work well. Going smaller than that can be okay but that's starting to walk a fine line. 308/280 with vetted premium loads, okay. So something less and notably different than 30-06 would only be chosen if going to the range for fun. Then looking bigger than 30-06, and we have to go quite a bit bigger to make the step worthwhile. Either 338 win mag or 375, but the recoil and/or the weight is a big increase and there's nothing up here that those can do that the 30-06 can't as long as you do your part including skillfully moving within 200 yards of your target. But then there's the role of a handy rifle that can stop a bear when you're not necessarily hunting. If I'm spending a lot of time in the field, a handy defensive long gun that can take a lot of exposure to weather and dirt is what I take.

I like .25-.28 calibers and 40-50 grains of powder for 'small/light' big game like caribou, etc, a .30-.35 caliber and 55-75 grains of powder for heavier big game. If I was going to have a single 'big game' rifle, it would be a 30-06. In any case, I'd probably also keep a .223 crank-handle available simply because a lot of 'being out' isn't necessarily hunting, although a caribou might make a target of opportunity on the high side down through wolves, lynx, fox, ptarmigan, etc.

In Alaska all depends on where you hunt. For example, a .45-70 is handy in you hunt in forested areas where the shots are close, but not necessarily the best for hunting some of the wide open areas of the interior where the shots can be long.

The thing about a .30-06, .300WM, .338WM, or even a .375H&H is that you can take short of long shots as needed. Someone I know uses a .45-70 with iron sights to hunt moose, and is real good at it. But he hunts in areas where 50-yard shots are just about the norm. There are big bears in the areas he hunts, so his rifle choice is a good one.

Yup.

Everything's a situation.

So maybe this is a better question. How many different big game rifles and what calibers have each of you guys carried while hunting big game in Alaska over the last five seasons? Let's include wolves in that category for the sake of this conversation.