Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Alaskan Big Game Rifle?

I've long believed that a shotgun was a very good tool for training bears in the biblical sense..... "Raise up a youngster in the way that he will go," (and all that). Since younger bears tend to be the ones that get into more trouble - for a variety of reasons- and most people can't be around 100% of the time to prevent this kind of thing. Yeah, they might be harder to hunt later, but it keeps them from repeating these messes, or worse, keeps them alive, and avoids having to do guide chores for free for ADF&G, along with the paperwork. But give me a rifle if I have to make holes which will be lethal quickly.

They do make a mess! I've seen a lot of cabins destroyed like that over the years. Here it seems like its usually the older bears that do it. Killed a real old boar two years ago right in the yard. Rifles are great and work, but dont knock the shotgun / buckshot combo until you have tried it, because it flat works. The first time I used it was on a sow grizzly that had been wounded by a 45/70. She was laying behind a big dead spruce that had fallen over waiting for me. She came boiling out of there like a freight train, and all I had time to do was point and shoot. The buckshot took the top of her head off. The damage was so bad the hunters taxidermist had a tough time fixing it.

The reason so few have used the combo is because it is a foolish idea. I have seen what buckshot does on a wide range of critters at a wide range of distances. In a defensive or mop-up situation it has absolutely nothing on slugs and slugs have a lot over buckshot.

Just because someone once killed a brown bear with birdshot at spitting distance does not make it a good answer for general use. A 22lr was used to kill a previous World record grizzly at more than spitting distance, but it would not be my first choice, nor a vaguely reasonable choice for a back-up rifle.

I bet the client was real impressed by that...

. Few have used buckshot because they spend their lives trolling the internet, putting 34 thousand plus posts up trying to impress others with their vast experience. I dont need or want your advice because I have first hand experience with a shotgun. I've tested buck on real live grizzlies and regardless of your mindless ramblings I know that it works. In an average year I spend 7-9 months in the bush and have for 40 plus years now, I know what works for me. Although it isn't my first choice for most situations, in some it cant be beat. Heimo Korth arguably one of the most experienced woodsmen your state has ever produced loves the 12 for defensive situations so Im in good company. Use whatever you want but your comment that it is a foolish idea just shows your inexperience. Nobody ever said buck was the best for "general use" whatever that is....but when the distance is measured in feet its hard to beat.

Someone needs to keep a cleaner camp....

Lots of double-speak... you admit it isn't the best then try to defend it. Make up your mind.

I doubt you have the opportunity to deal with even a fraction of the bears I have dealt with due to simple brown bear density. But do feel free to continue your hallucinations. Almost as many brown bears are killed every year on Kodiak as are killed in all the YT.

Oh yeah, and the YT is what, 50 times the size of Kodiak? And Kodiak is not the only place we get to hunt brown bears.

Heimo also uses a 22/250 on everything , including grizzlies and moose !

I kind of hate to re-rail this fine thread, but must admit that I've killed caribou, on the lower end of the big game spectrum with 6, 6.5, and 7mm medium cases, as well as moose, toward the larger side of things. I've also killed caribou with calibers like the 45 Colt and 375 H&H at 'yonder' distances. And, of course, they've all been used on big bears by someone, somewhere with success at one time or another. But none of them, and certainly no shotgun, is ideal, or even well-suited, to all of these things under the great variety of conditions one will encounter in Alaska.

I'll just leave it at "Big Game Rifle for Alaska: 30-06 +/-"

Yes he does and quite effectively too from what I hear. I've never been lucky enough to meet him, but a good friend knows him well. By all accounts he is old school and understands that well placed shots kill stuff.

Hope you have a good season Phil, were gearing up to head for the lodge tomorrow. Going to be hunting some country in the southeast corner of the territory for Ceaser Lake Outfitters that has never been hunted, at least not in the last 80 years or so. It should be fun.

Nothing says well-placed quite like buckshot...

I wonder why its called buckshot and not grizzshot?

Probably just a corruption of the original name "Luckshot."

You can virtually duplicate the "effectiveness " of buckshot by fanning a 32 caliber cap and ball revolver !

Or a 9 mil

Yep.
Paul (458Lott - where are ya son? ) has posted previously a pretty nice analysis of 12 (Maybe 15?) 33 cal - 54 grain boolits and the relative speed/energy of same.

Reader's Digest abridged version: Unimpressive!

Yep, but ya gotta know what you doing, know bear anatomy, be cool under fire, have the right penetrating loads, etc, etc.

Now, that just may whittle down the number who could pull that off.

Like they say on TV, don’t try this at home.

DF

>>> NO Heimo used a 12 gauge pump shotgun with slugs ,when he went back to his moose kill spot to retrieve his moose meat ,Heimo packed the shotgun in case a bear was near the moose kill site. Heimo even said: best thing to use with a bear on a kill site was a 12 gauge shotgun with slugs, Heimo said this on the last Alaskan show. my old marine friend killed plenty bear, this Marine who lived in Alaska also liked the shotgun with slugs too at close range and charge`n him, believe me he`s had worse things happen to this marine coming at him in the tunnels and swamps of Viet Nam, they don`t come any tougher with a gun and a knife as these old Vets !

If using a shotgun at close range, slugs all the way is recommended by Stefan Herrero and some of the AK F&G biologists.