Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 30-06 bullet in bear country

I've only shot one bear, a cinnamon colored black, but I don't count as a hunt, the damn thing got to close to me bow hunting elk and mule deer, hit it in the left eye at 20 yards, 125gr Thunderhead buried in the base of skull and neck vertebrae, that said, if I had my '06's in bear country, they'd be loaded with 220gr Partitions at 2550 fps, range wouldn't be a concern, defense shots would be close.

Phil writes a book, I'll buy it.

Yup.

I'm more of a fisherman than a hunter. Gotta admit, my interest stems from an incident where I was fishing on the Alaska Peninsula, a few miles south of Phil's operation. Up pops a bear on the shore right behind me as I'm wading. Just stood up. I smelled him before seeing him and turned around to see what the smell was about. Got the heck outta there. Later thinking that nothing short of a crew served weapon would have reduced the pucker factor.

Will probably never kill a big bear, but if I was out there, I'd be listening to you and Phil.

Reports I've read show 220 NPT penetration equals or exceeds most bullets, even larger calibers.

DF

Memory serves me, I recall Jack O'Connor writing about shooting across a river
at a grizzly with an '06 and 180gr something and putting three straight through it.
That had too be a few yrs before monolithics.
Oldcuss

Ok thanks all. I think I will be happy with 200 gr. Partitions or trophy bonded. I’ll get both and see who shoots

Most of the bullets mentioned in previous posts should work fine. I have tried most but, like all of you, I have favorites due to past experiences. Mine is the 200 gr Partition, due to both its short and long range abilities.

Yes it is.

I have carried three different 30-06 rifles at different times around the areas full of grizzly bears. An M1 Garand, a Browning M95 and a Mauser scout rifle.
In every case I have loaded the rifle with 220 grain bullets. I am not hunting the bears, so I don't care at all about long distance. No bear is dangerous unless it's close. They can't hurt you at all until they are in touching distance.

The Mauser and the M95 share ammo. It gives me about 2500 FPS from the 95 and about 2435 in the shorter Mauser. The M1 has it's owe ammo, loaded with 3031 powder so the port pressure is correct. It works perfectly and the bullet chronographs at about 2350 FPS at the muzzle, but the recoil is very easy and you can fire an M1 very fast for not just the 1st shot but the following shots too. I have come to favor it over most other rifles because of it's quickness, not just for repeated shots but for the 1st one too.

I have killed elk with both these loads from the M1 and from the 95, and the effect of the 220 grain bullets is decisive. The penetrate very well and break big bone easily. If a bear is "coming at you" all the vitals are on the side of the target closest to you, so most deer rifles will kill a grizzly, but the good fast stops are usually a function of breaking bones. One thing I saw in Africa was how sometimes on big cats and on buffalo the back end fell first and drug down the beast when shot from the front. I learned the bullets was going clear through and breaking the spine or pelvis and hindering or dropping the rear of the animal first, which buys you some time or even stops the charge. So I would assume it would be the same on a bear. Maybe Phil could chime inhere and tell us if that's what he's seen too?

Anyway, the 220 grain 30 cal bullets from a 30-06 do a LOT of damage and go deep even when loaded down a bit in the M1. So I load them and I like them for use in the forested and bushy areas. They are just fine out to about 250 yards from my M95 and my Mauser, and with the M1 you can simply dial up the rear sight in about 1 second, so they are good to any distance you are capable of shooting with an iron sighted rifle.

The picture i wanted to add is of two recovered 30 cal bullets. The first is a 220g Hornady RN recovered from an elk at 35 yards shot out of a M1895 Win 30-40; it did not hit bone. It's 37 grains of jacket that includes the base and shank; no sign of any lead. The 2nd bullet is a 180g Speer RN recovered from a black bear shot at 10 yards from a 30-06 (MV 2600 fps). This bullet hit the RF shoulder and was recovered under the hide of the left hip. It weighs 145g and is a perfect mushroom.