Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Deer hunting in Brown Bear country with a 338-06

I've hunted on an island off of Alaska off and on for a few years now. Being in thick Brown Bear county I've had to bring a "bear gun" to a "deer hunt". I've used my 300 Wby with 180 TSXs with success, but more frequently use my 338-06. Its a LH Rem 700 with a Douglas SS barrel, HS Precision stock. It shoots pretty good with most bullets.
My question is, what bullet would you use?
The criteria that's most important to me is:
1) Being able to stop a brown bear if need be.
2) Not blowing up a bunch of deer meat in the process. This is a meat hunt for the most part while enjoying the beauty of Alaska.
Here's what I have loaded up in the past for the 338-06. Shots are 100 yards or less. I try to shoot lungs/heart area if at all possible. No head shots.

A) 180 Nosler Accubond. Shoots light out at 100 yards. Most accurate combo I've come across yet with the 338-06. I've never shot anything with this bullet, but would use it for deer hunting in other areas.

B) 185 TSXs at 2950 fps. Shoots MOA or better. I've shot a few deer with it and it works great on deer. Might be a bit light on brown bears.

C) 225 Nosler Accubonds. 2720 fps avg. Very accurate. .75 inch or better @ 100 yds. I have shot pigs and deer with it, but it does do a bit of meat damage. One pig I shot had a baseball sized hole on the off side.

D) 250 grain Hornady RN Interlocks. I get 2550 fps and 1 MOA. I've never shot anything with with these bullets, but they are accurate.

E) 250 Sierra Game King. Also 1 MOA. 2500 fps, but again, I've never shot anything with them.

I've tried both 210 Partitions and 210 TTSXs, but strangely haven't got them to group well with my gun with a good combo of accuracy and velocity. But if I could get 2750 fps or better out of either I would probably lean toward one of these 210s.

Curious, what would you use?
Yaddio

Either will be a good choice but I'd try the 225 grain Swift A-Frame.

Disclaimer- I’ve never hunted brown bear. That being said it could be worth a shot to try the 225 TSX or the 250 Partition. Being heavier thus slower would limit meat damage and would ensure penetration should you need it. Speed wouldn’t matter too terribly much since you’d be taking shorter shots. Just my two cents.

I have found that mono metals cause less meat damage than C&C or bonded bullets out of my 338-06's.

I am a big fan of the 210gr T/TSX's but my rifles shoot them very well.

In your case, a 180-185gr mono would serve you well. My rifles just do not shoot those lighter weights as well as the 200gr class. If you are not comfortable with those try the 225gr mono's like stated above.

Yaddio
My opinion based on hunting a lot of large animals, but never a bear.
You cant shoot from the shoulder a large enough rifle to "stop" a bear. Aint happening. All you can do is stop the heart and lungs, then wait. How long ? A second or two or several minutes.
Forget about accuracy. Let me say this again in case I miss spelled it. Forget about accuracy. You mentioned 100 yards. I have never gutted a bear, but I'd guess a bears heart is at least four inches across and the lungs bigger. You need a load that will shoot inside four inches. Benchrest accuracy aint required here. What is required, is the ability to keep making hits until the bear dies. And make those shots fast and in the kill zone.
If it were me, based on taking a lot of buffalo, bison, eland, etc, and testing a lot of bullets in the Bullet Test Tube, I would use a 250 grain Partition or Barnes XXX. You shout be able to easily get 2500 fps, and that's enough.
And anybody who says a 30-06 aint entirely adequate for big bears, is unwittingly commenting on their marksmanship.
Charlie

Yaddio,

The most interesting part about your post to me is where you say "shots are 100 yards or less," yet toward the end you say "I've tried both 210 Partitions and 210 TTSXs, but strangely haven't got them to group well with my gun with a good combo of accuracy and velocity." Am wondering how well you think a bullet has to group to kill deer at 100 yards.

Good point. I'll clarify. I'm usually satisfied with a rifle that I can get to shoot an inch or under at 100 yards. I realize that a less accurate rifle would suffice in this hunting area, but I can't bring myself to load 50 or 100 bullets that group at 2.5 MOA. For instance I got fantastic velocity with 210 TTSXs, (mid 2800s), and 760, but the groups were 2.5 inches. This would probably work fine in the area I'll be hunting in AK, but for open ground hunting at longer range for other areas and critters I lose confidence in a rifle that shoots 2.5 MOA.

Of those mentioned, I'd go with the 185 TSX or 250 Horny RN.

MD made a good point about accuracy under 100 yds. I've prolly shot 200 blacktail deer in the rainforest of SE Alaska. Average range probably about 40 yds. At-the-range accuracy doesn't mean doodly squat. How's your offhand shooting?

jI shoot the 250 NPT and NPT Gold in my .338 Winny and 200 TTSX and 250 NPT in my .35 Whelen.

Off-hand shooting can always be better. I do practice. While walking down trails in SE Alaska rainforests I occasionally stumble across a deer on the trail and shoot off-hand. The shots are never as accurate as shooting off of sticks, but so far so good.

[/quote]Either will be a good choice but I'd try the 225 grain Swift A-Frame.[/quote]

If I could find them that's probably what I would use. I have found H4350 and 225 grain bullets in a 338-06 to get good velocity and accuracy.

Carlis Hathcock made a lot of extremely long shots with his 2MOA rifle in Vietnam. Infact he is quite famous for those shots

Yaddio,
Did you play with COAL for the TTSXs? If not I might try that if you still have some bullets to play with.

There are few absolutes in reloading but I don't think I have ever had a TTSX not group better than 2.5MOA, but I have found they do like some jump.

I do have some 210 TTSXs left. Plenty of brass to play with too. I will play around with seating depth and see what I get.

BTW, with a max load of RL 15 and the 210 Partitions I only got 2650 fps. Accuracy was OK. But, I couldn't see loading these up when I was getting 2720 fps avg with the 225 Accubonds.

Carlis Hathcock made a lot of extremely long shots with his 2MOA rifle in Vietnam. Infact he is quite famous for those shots [/quote]

I read that book years ago. Great read. Maybe I'm just a perfectionist when it comes to accuracy. What do they call it? Looneyism?

Have you tried Hammer bullets https://hammerbullets.com/ I have found them to be accurate in my 375 Ruger and 3 30-06's and have harvested a couple of black bears. I think you would get two holes even on a brown bear unless you were shooting end to end. I like two holes when trying to kill an animal.t

One thing you may want to think about is you shooting stature should yuo be shooting at a charging bear from close range. It is easy to shoot south of the vital area of a charging bear when you are shooting from a standing position, a kneeling position will provide you with a geometry that is not changing as fast as when you are standing.

Just me two cents,
wade

Yaddio,

I have seated monolithic bullets up to .1 inch deeper than "close to the lands" before finding the sweet spot.

Thanks MD, I'll keep trying with seating depth. I might run out of bullets, but I'll keep trying, LOL. BTW, I ordered GG3 the other day. Looking forward to reading it.

I have never tried them. I have a bunch of bullets on my shelf now to try first. Thanks for the tip on stature. Hopefully none of us will ever be in that position.

Id take an 2moa rifle anywhere in the world and hunt it no issue. If i were hunting deer on the archipeligo where theres the highest population of brown bears i would be using a 250gr Nosler Partition in any 338. I know of this area and its thick, dark, and lotsa bears.

Easy, 160 TTSX.

At close ranges it will open the widest and create the largest wound channel of the monos (killing bear quicker), and still likely exit.

Edit: the 160 has been very accurate out of my smaller 338. I wish I would have tried them in my 338-06. Should easily be near 3100 fps. My second choice would be a heavier cup and core, or softer front bullet. Again, maximizing damage to kill as quickly as possible would be my goal. My last choice in this scenario would be any heavy for caliber mono.