Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 30 Cal Bullets

Even though SE AK is nearly a state away, he is still a resident and does not need any stinking guides!

My 2015 bear from the next unit over got shot with a 270gr TTSX that went full length and exited. It was also shot with four 300gr accubombs broadside and none made it through the bear. All in .375...

OlBlue shot a modest bear from just over the ridge in Terror Bay with a 300gr NPT. Bullet went full length in one butt cheek and exactly out of an earhole! And it did exactly no damage to the hide or skull!

220 RN CL

I carried a .30-06 boltaction, a 3x20 M8 Leupold loaded with 180 grains TTSX for quite a few hunts in the Talkeetnas. Only bear I saw, was when I was shooting at a rock at about 250 yards for giggles after the plane had taken the client. Bear came up out of the ravine curiously investigating the rock I had shot at.

Never got a chance to test the theory, but that day I got the impression that .30 cal. 180 gr. TTSX can be used to lure in bears into a killzone. ;-)

Maybe you can give it a try.

Take a pistol to kill yourself if things go wrong.

Picked up some 180 GMX 2nds to try. Will hammer a black bear or two this spring with them.

Wonder what the guys in the ol days used?

Of the the bullets listed by the OP, I’d go with either the 180 Barnes or the 200 Partition, whichever was more accurate and/or feeds better in his rifle.

No bear expert, but common sense tells me the heaviest Nosler Partition that shoots well out of your rifle.

Man, that will be am awesome hunt. Tons of good choices here....put me down for the 200 gr. Partition. If you go with the TSX make it a TTSX. That otta open it up a bit faster and wreck some shiz right from the get go. Live it up, half the fun is the time leading up to the hunt.

A frames

200g A-Frame or Federal's Terminal Ascent, Trophy Bonded or Edge TLR. I'd be happy with any of them.

I'd try the 200gn bullets you have and add the Barnes LRX to the list.
You won't need a half MOA load for a bear hunt but it will help your confidence when the shot comes so that is why you take whatever shoots best. All the bullets will generate their own reputation.

More or less in order of my preference if I was to hunt big nears with a .300WM (Which lack of interest makes unlikely.)

Federal Premium
200g Edge TLR
200g Terminal Ascent

Swift
200g A-Frame

Barnes
180g TTXX
200g LRX

Nosler
200g AccuBond
190g or 210g AccuBond LR
200g or 220g Partition

200 gr Swift A-Frame. Pure penetration, pure expansion, as tough as they come. According to guides most browns are shot inside 150 yards or less.

My vote would be for the 200 partition followed by 180TSX/TTSX. MY DAD USED 200 partitions on alllll sorts of stuff out of a 300 Weatherby. He later switched to 180TSX. Everything he ever hit properly with either never went far. Coyotes to eland.

I have experience with shooting 180 grain trophy copper bullets with my 30-06, very similar to the Barnes ttsx. Judging from the Roosevelt elk I’ve harvested, it is reliable on big and tough game. Usually full penetration and a decent wound channel, also tough shoulder bones have been easily broken. Never hunted big brown bears though.

180 TTSX
175 LRX

Accuracy is king