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

Knowledgeable guides aren't bashing any specific "caliber" (meaning cartridge) but the hunters who typically can't shoot a new-to-them, hard-kicking "caliber" accurately. Which is exactly what Phil was doing, and my outfitter acquaintance in the Bob Marshall.

They're also bashing the claims from many "magnum" fans that only a certain minimum, magic level of caliber/velocity/energy/bullet-weight is adequate (or sometimes "fully adequate") for certain big game animals. This is often what convinces some newbie elk or brown bear hunter who already owns and has hunted plenty with, say, a .30-06, that they MUST use a far more powerful cartridge, or the elk or bear won't die.

I know part of this due to having guided some myself here in Montana. Quite a few hunters on their first pronghorn or mule deer hunt decided they needed some sort of belted magnum, usually a 7mm or .30 caliber, to kill pronghorns and mule deer at "long range." Long range to many of my guidees was anything beyond 200-250 yards--as far as they'd shot anything back home.

So they bought a new magnum despite owning a very familiar .243 or .270 or .308 Winchester they'd already killed a pile of whitetails with. Often they wouldn't shoot the new MAGNUM enough before going on the hunt, because it kicked too much or the ammo was expensive. As a result they flinched enough to be unable to zero the rifle adequately.

This may seem impossible to many manly magnum fans, but have seen it many times, both while guiding and when hunting big game in various places around the world. One was a guy who brought a new 7mm Remington Magnum on a pronghorn hunt, leaving a .243 he'd killed plenty of whitetails with back home. Another was a European guy who'd hunted Stone sheep and caribou successfully with his 7x64 Mauser in British Columbia, killing both with one shot--but when he decided to hunt moose with the same outfitter a couple years later bought a .300 Winchester Magnum, because moose were so much bigger. He grouped three shots in about 18" at 100 yards during the pre-hunt sight-in in camp, and not only took several shots to kill a moose, but several to kill another caribou.

I don't ever remember wishing my hunter had more horsepower, I do remember wishing for more accuracy, many many times.

I just did a quick check of 10 Alaska brown bear guides. Their recommendations were:
1. 30-06
1..300wm or 375 H & H
2. 375 H & H
6. 338wm and up

I did look at it and felt what the guides recommended was also important. Chances are the information in a government agency was written by a paper pusher who has never been in the field. I am sure lots of game has been killed with the .30-30. Here guys used to hunt elk with it. Not because it is what was best, but what they had. One of my older friends told me he hunted deer a couple years with a .25-20 because that was all he had at the time. Later he used the .243 through the 7mm Wea. Several of my friends in S.D. shot bison with .22-250s. Hit them in the ear. It will do the job, but like the Indian woman who killed a grizzly with a.22 short. That is what she had. Doesn't make it the best. I realize you are in a different situation than the sport coming to Alaska for brown bear. It doesn't cost you 30-40,000 dollars for a big bear hunt. If I were going, I would probably take a .340 or .375. But I can shoot them and shoot them well. Doesn't mean everyone can. What works under one set of conditions doesn't mean it is ideal.

I'd say the 22 is the minimum

To say nothing of Judge Folta in Juneau who killed a pile of them with a .35 Remington.

It seems to me it would be whatever you and your guide agree on. I'd be OK with a 30-06 and 200 grain Nosler Partitions, although I have a .338 Win Mag and might choose that with 225 grain TTSX or 250 grain Nosler Partitions. It's mostly a matter of personal preference, which is why we see wildly divergent opinions.

I've never hunted brown bears, although I've seen them when hiking in Alaska, so my opinion is mostly based on what I've read, and experiences hunting other species. I have hunted dangerous game in Africa, so that gives me a little concept of might be involved mentally, but I don't claim any expertise on this subject.

I'm simply stating my personal preferences based on limited knowledge and experience.