Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Shotgun with slugs or 7600 with partitions for bear

Uhhhh....

Why would that surprise anyone?

Totally, stunningly shocking to me...everybody 'knows' the .460 W'bee can shoot and kill stuff on other planets. I read it in magazines. Them old sourdoughs in the goldrush of '98 packin' 1886's didn't know how undergunned they were.

I live and hunt in dense grizzly habitat and that’s literally what I carry. Not going to read 10 pages of bullshit.

Truthfully, if you're that worried about it, you should bring one gun and you carry it.

How do the work on the grizzlies?

That doesn’t make sense. Multiple wounds from a soft projectile vs fewer from a harder one traveling the same speed would ruin more meat.

I don’t know (yet) but I know how they perform on steel, and logs. I’d heard and read all the same stories everyone else has, but after loading up some 200 gr partitions and shooting enough random test media I am a believer. I’m not an expert, and am drunk enough I should probably stop posting. .

With USFS, trail crew Kenai Pen. we were issued Mod 70 (pre 64) in .375 H&H. Worked good on tent-frame chewing porcupines in the night.

ADF&G on the Alaska Pen. gave me a .338WM - I do not recall the make and model - probably Win.70. Worked good on a big bull caribou for camp meat. I was tempted on that sea lion 17 miles upriver, repeatedly slashing his way through a school of salmon just for fun. Last I saw of him he was headed back down-river ...

On the Good News River, F&G did not issue a firearm, but crew leader Harry Dodge (also a guide), had his .375 along.

I know F&G sometimes issues shotguns, also. Or used to. IIRC, a crew had to use one to dust off a brownie up on one of the Russian Lakes one year, way back.


The last time I faced off a grizzly I used 10X40 binoculars at 9 feet. Lacks penetration, but worked. They no longer stay in focus tho, unless I hold the focus knob.. Discovered that just recently on photo safari in Tanzania. Probably should buy new ones.

The time before that, it was a garden trowel in the back yard. She was a good bear ,just trying to get her little chits back in the woods where they belonged, and very carefully did not make eye contact with me. Stupid Lab was no help at all, barking his fool head off like that... the "lets play" was definately all on the cubs.

I don't worry about bear if I'm bird-hunting (usually with a 20)- per above post. Birdshot at 10 feet is going to do some serious damage. I've carried shotgun (12) with slugs (worked good on a moose one year), and various rifle calibers, from 243 up while hunting or walk-about without stressing over what-ifs. At 15 feet or less, buckshot is going to have a footprint not much larger than a slug, and I think I'd rather go with an once of lead, than 9 (or whatever) .38 caliber pindivdual pieces of lead. Probably not much difference at very close range tho. I've carried both.

Mostly my go-to is my dad's old '94 in 30-30 for common carry. If things are anticipated to get potentially hairy, perhaps approaching an over-night gut pile, say, it's the .338 WM. If I had a .375 that would be it.

As to the OP, either would work, but I think I'd favor the 7600. It is going to be the first shot that matters most anyway.

If I am being attacked by a grizzly, I hope I can destroy a GREAT amount of meat.

That statement makes no sense. One gun is set up for long cross canyon shots, dial turrets. Other gun is set for the ready to shoot carry. The man with 30+ years experience carrying a rifle and well versed in muzzle control leads the way and has a round in the chamber. The clumsy kid just getting started walks behind with the long range rig.
The logic isn’t hard to follow.

There's quite a few sub forums on the campfire with a fair amount of expertise in a lot of different disciplines.
This particular forum miiiiiiiiight not the best place for your inquiry.

You might drop a line to Phil Shoemaker to see what he might recommend.
I'll be awfully surprised if the ammo involves a wad.

Actually I think a lot of the responses here have been really helpful.

I should have said this already, thanks everyone for chiming in especially those who actually live in bear country.

MM

Bearanoia is way over-rated. Still, stuff happens, time to time.

I seem to recall someone using a full pistol clip of 9mm to stop a charging brownie.

I don't think he would recommend it tho.

I'd have thought the opposite also.

Brennekes are like a 12 ga X boolit.

Still rather have a rifle.

Just getting started and long across canyon shots make me a bit nervous.

What range are you calling long across canyons ranges?

Also don't forget a gun that is capable across a canyon will kill up close as well.

Having killed a shytload of deer with shotgun slugs I will say that Brenneke's do ruin a lot of meat. Considerably more than Fosters. They also penetrate way more. I've shot a whitetail buck straight on in the brisket with a Brenneke and recovered the slug from against the hip bone {which it broke} in the hind quarter.

Poor Beaver10.

Erry body pickin on him lately.

LOL

This place is full or meanies and bullies and I’m very sensitive.

Crawling into my safe space to hold my trophy for finishing last.

LOL

🦫

This is from another site posted by a combat veteran.

"I once had the privilege of asking a reasonably well known (back in 1985) African Big Game/Dangerous Game guide and occasional author for Guns and Ammo magazine that if he had to choose one firearm to be capable of stopping any land animal on earth while it was in a full blown charge and coming directly at him, (as opposed to charging a hunter/client that may be 10–20 yds away and presenting a completely different target) what weapon would he choose… his answer? A double barrel, side by side 12 gauge shotgun with 24 inch barrels and dual hammer that would allow both barrels to fire simultaneously, and chambered for the 3 1/2″ inch shells. He said 1 1/2 oz magnum slugs or up to eighteen 00 buckshot pellets would not matter one of each would even suffice, as both of those barrels fired simultaneously would stop any land animal on earth and possibly even the big whales in the ocean if one can hold steady until those barrels are about 4-6 feet from the brain of the animal needing to be stopped. And considering that each barrel is going to be firing with about 3400 ftlbs of energy (with slugs) at the muzzle and 00 buckshot probably similar levels for a combined 6800 ftlbs of energy at the muzzle, but with a low enough velocity to expend all that energy in probably 2.5 feet of penetration or less, and considering a 12 gauge slug under full expansion will be right around 1full inch in diameter and making a temporary wound channel through whatever it hits about 10-12 inches in diameter ,assumming buckshot would have a bit less penetration but would likely deform and spread after punching through the skull, and would likely produce the the same damage or close to it and now double that, then yeah I can see his point. And unlike a bullet from one of the “Elephant Gun" class of rifles that were made to penetrate skulls, or chest cavities, or deep in behind the shoulder heart/lung shots from a well aimed rifle fired at an appropriate distance, and therefore may penetrate deep into and out of a brain without ever providing maximum energy transfer, those two 3 1/2” magnum 12 gauge shotgun shells were designed to travel slower, penetrate less, and dump energy rapidly into the animal that is targeted. The fact that he indeed carried that weapon, loaded in such a manner, for at least 25 or 30 years as a Guide on hunts for everything from leopards, and lions, to elephants, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo, and died of complications related to being old in the early 2000s instead of being stuck between elephant toes,getting a prostate exam from a rhino, gored by a cape buffalo or being pooped out of a big cat on the Serengeti is enough for me to trust his judgment, and I'd bet that if you're willing to wait until that bears brain is 4-6 feet from the end of your barrel then a plain old pump action 12 gauge 2 3/4″ shell, magnum or not, buckshot, slug, or even heavy birdshot would do the trick. After all the world record Grizzly at one time was killed by a native American woman that shot it in the head with a .22 rifle loaded with .22 longs, not even long rifle cartridges but longs that woulda fired about a 28gr bullet at about 1100-1200 fps if they were high velocity (its reported and believed they were). While I'm not saying a grizzly/brown/Kodiak bear is a pushover, because they certainly are not, its not so much their resistance to bullets that makes them so dangerous most of the time, its the fact that often the encounter is a surprise that occurs at very close range that happens so quickly that getting one or two reasonably well aimed rifle shots off before he's rolling you around and chewin on you is difficult and also very critical for your continued existence. If you have 10 seconds of time and the ability to remain calm then like a man did a couple years ago, he killed a charging grizzly with a 9mm Glock. I believe he emptied the magazine or nearly did ( bet hes glad he isn't a 6 shot revolver is all a real shooter needs kinda guys) but if you only have 1-3 seconds to react, unless that 1-3 seconds started with a gun in your hand pointed as t that bears vitals your best outcome is probably gonna be a draw, you dead right there, bear dead nearby. And even if you have 15-20 seconds of a charging grizzly to produce your weapon, make ready to fire, aim, and commence firing, if you cant keep some control of your faculties, and use some fundamentals of marksmanship then unless your weapon is a belt fed machinegun or a MK 19 fullyautomatic 40mm grenade launcher you aint gonna do much until hes at point and shoot range anyway. Its as much about you as it is the bear or what gun your carrying until that time, and after that time its 50% you, 50% gun, bear ain't got [bleep] to say unless you let him."

This ^^^^^^^^^^^ Bears just aren't that hard to kill, they are think skinned and not heavy boned. I mostly carried a 44 mag the 30+ years I lived in Alaska, with a heavy bullet, but that was for close up. For sport the 30-06 with a good bullet is plenty adequate. The mystery behind big bears tend to psych people out.