Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Minimum caliber for Coastal Brown Bear...

M 203.....

223 on top.... 40mm Grenade launch on bottom....

use the bottom barrel first...

I'd love to add something worthwhile to this thread, but as long as guides charge the cost of a new pickup to hunt a single animal, I will need to keep reminding myself I'm a poor boy haha.

It would be a great experience just to talk with different guides and see what they would want me to bring to the hunt, whether it be a current rifle or a new one.

Definitely some real good info here from some extremely knowledgeable people!

They were nice. I never have been. You shoot poorly and need more practice.

In the field while in down time I'm showing sling use, use of field rests. Making clients dry fire at things. Even animals.

but if they shoot bad I don't mince words. Why lie.

They charge what has to be charged. Not because they are rich etc... FWIW. In all my years guiding has been the hardest work ever. Most fun. Pays a bit less than my best jobs. Ive enjoyed it off and over the years for sure.

As to what to bring, I'd bet most folks have something that will work. Especially since the notion you have to have 270 or 06 etc to kill a simple whitetail deer..

"They were nice. I never have been. You shoot poorly and need more practice.

In the field while in down time I'm showing sling use, use of field rests. Making clients dry fire at things. Even animals.

but if they shoot bad I don't mince words. Why lie."

Probably because early, guided safaris in Africa took several months, not just a week or two--often even the case into the 1950s. Professional hunters literally had to live with their clients for a while, instead waving good-bye in a relatively short time.

Some clients also started shooting better as the safari went on, though not because they got used to "the different light in Africa." The author of one of the most popular and famous safari books ever published, Robert Ruark, had never killed a big game animal beforehand, though he'd done a lot of bird hunting. He evidently became pretty good during the safari, which as I recall was at least a couple months long.

Really?
I had no idea. I figured they were similar

Back in the very early nineties I built a 340 Wby on a 700 action, with express sights set for the 250-gr Nos Part’s at 100 yds. for brown bear. Brown Prec Classic stock with a Pachmyar pad; 3-position safety and a big claw extractor.

I never went on the bear hunt but it became my very good elk rifle for twenty-some years. As an aside, a friend and I went on a caribou and black bear hunt on the upper Kuskokwim in the. 90’s. The second to the last day of the hunt, having seen brownies every day, our outfitter who had extra bear tags offered my friend and I each a tag for 3.5k! We dithered and declined due to our much younger families and needs at the time.

We often think of that I occasion and shake our heads at the decision some keener foresight would have made a big difference on.

It was a great rifle and still, though I tolerate recoil less, seems like it wouldn’t be a bad choice. But to my mind, though many smaller cartridges would suffice, the classic 375 H&H with a 270-gr TSX or a good 300 grain seems a perfect match.

Phil, have you ever noticed any difference in tenacity or toughness between a large coastal brown bear and a mtn. grizzly, assuming both are of equal maturity and relative size? My one (mid sized) Talkeetna grizzly didn't take much to kill.

If I can ever draw that darn Raspberry tag.....

Buehler ... Buehler ... Buehler ..... or anyone wishing to put their $0.02 in.

Let's say I was going to hunt coastal brown bears in Alaska. I would take a 30-06 that I've shot for many years (700 BDL 22" barrel) and am quite familiar with it. I'm looking at different 200 grainers to develop a load with either RL-26, H4831SC, or Hunter to try and get at least 2650 MV......if I can get 2700 MV so much the better.

Of the following 200 grain bullet choices, which would be your top two picks? Also, would you absolutely avoid the two shown below from Speer and Hornady, since they are not "premium" bullets that may or may not hold up?

200gr Hunting Bullets
Norma Oryx
Swift A-Frame
Nosler Accubond
Nosler Partition
Hornady ELD-X
Speer Hot Core
Federal Terminal Ascent

One of these years I hope to check this off my bucket list. :-)

You might also consider the 180-gr Barnes TTSX.

How the hell has this thread gone on for 16 pages? Wasn’t it answered quite a while ago?

Make sure you use a birch wooden spoon to brew the beer you drink while you’re handliading those bullets, otherwise none of them will work.




In case my sarcasm wasn’t apparent enough…. They’re all fine. Don’t overthink it.

I’d likely pick the Swift 200gr or Nosler 200 from your list. If you can find them, North Fork bullets are also excellent.

Change your settings! I have seven pages. 😁

Nor do I recall anyone saying that smaller cartridges are better than bigger cartridges. My statement was to the "impression someone might get". And, of course, we know about the native girl (Stent) who killed a record book grizzly with her single shot .22 Long cartridge. And I know my oldest son killed dozens of warthog in Africa with his single-shot .22 LR with brain shots for protein. He even literally "flattened" a wild cow with his single-shot .22 LR, that was a real problem in the village, with a 40g between the eyes. And so on. So I'm aware that anything, except a 30-ft shark or huge whale, on land can be killed with minimal cartridges firing an appropriate bullet into "the right" spot. As we all know, I hope, killing is one thing and stopping is another. My statement was limited to black bruins being "flattened" (DRT) without a CNS hit in using appropriate bullets in .458", whereas I've killed several using medium calibers that went some distance after the shot that were not hit in spine or brain. They were dead but not DRT. Where I hunt that can make a difference.

All that to make a single point, really: most anyone can learn to shoot a big-bore rifle with accuracy, without denying that most land mammal can be "killed" with about any rifle cartridge, and... I've written that a person with a .308 Win rifle "needs" nothing more for all N.A. hunting - or its equivalent. But killing is one thing, stopping is another!

And I'll stand by my original post.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

And one more thing: I have great respect for Phil, and have said so on many occasions - including in my manuals and blogs.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

I would use what I already own , either my Kimber in .325 WSM or the BLR in .358 Winchester . Either one with the right load I would feel comfortable with as I shoot both very well . I have never hunted Alaska or big bears either one but I would think the two absolute most important things to concentrate on for success on such a hunt would be , know where to hit the bear and make sure your first bullet goes there and Don't Piss Off Your Guide .

Gut shoot that bastard and let the games begin 😂

The same topics come up periodically because there are always new posters.

He doesn't have to read these if he doesn't want too.