Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska If you were to have just one caliber ?

35 Whelen has done the job for 40 years, no reason to change now.

Yes, I read the entire thread. Very entertaining.

Now I want to collect my Special Olympics "participation trophy."

In 1985 when I pitched up at Elmendorf AFB, I had in tow a .340 WbyMag Fibermark.
It was the first factory rifle with a fiberglass stock, an early McMillan with black wrinkle paint covering it.
That was special !
So I put away my wood-stocked .30-06, .375 H&H, .458 WinMag and .460 WbyMag rifles.
I did find a Brown Precision stock for an (ugh) 7mm RemMag for sheep hunting.
By 1986 I was dragging the .340 WbyMag to Kodiak in August-September for deer,
and for use as a noise-maker to scare off the Kodiak bear that pressed his nose on my tent on a moonless night.
In November of that same year that I first became a RHAK,
I did a solo, fly-in caribou hunt on the AK Peninsula, landing at Danny's Dune (where Danny crashed a Piper Cherokee)
near Shotsky Creek, for a five-day, four-night stay.
My biggest 'bou I shot at 350 yards with the .340 WbyMag, it went down at the shot, but was still trying to get up until I shot him a second time.
Two other smaller bou's were DRT at closer ranges with one shot each.
I didn't bother to fill my fourth tag, as survival issues set in after that.

A featherweight .375 H&H (6.75 lbs dry weight) made a dandy black bear rifle for Prince William Sound.
No. 3 Douglas stainless on a Pre-'64 M70 action in a Brown Pounder stock, a recipe for success.

My second trip to Kodiak was with a Whitworth Mk X re-chambered to .375 Weatherby Magnum, and sunk into a Brown Precision stock, ugly as I could make it.
It cut deer in half with greater authority, made it easier to haul them out of the ravines or off the hillsides
when the deer was cut in two amidships.
Angled shooting tended to result in spine hits.
I had a bear tag for Jap Bay that year but King Kong of Kodiak eluded me,
though I actually made a run at him from a mile away, until he vanished into the alders at 300 yards.
Was it my BO or was it the noise of my heavy breathing or bad breath ?
What a disappointment.

I used a .458 WinMag for cow moose on a Fort Rich drawing permit.
After I did that the General decided to make it bow hunting only for next year.

I love the .458 WinMag best of all, for Alaska or anywhere.
Prefer the 404-gr Shock Hammer at 2500 fps MV.
That is a better sheep rifle than Mr. Chadwick's .404 Jeffery, taker of the Chadwick Ram, greatest North American trophy ever.
I have a 23" barreled M70 Classic that weighs about 7.5 pounds bare/empty/dry.
The perfect Alaskan Sheep Rifle.



That would be my "one caliber" rifle but I would have at least a half dozen rifles so chambered in various formats
walnut and blue, synthetic and stainless, bolt-action and single-shot.
Bare/dry/unloaded rifle weights of 7 to 9 pounds,
barrel lengths from 17" to 25" are OK with me.
The 17"-barreled .458 WinMag can do +5000 ft-lbs KE with 400-grainer quite easily,
even works in a sub-3.4" magazine box length.

It would begin with a "3"

15 shots total in three consecutive groups:

300 Weatherby Remington , 700 Classic, 200 grain Nosler Partition, 215, 78.2 grains RE 26, 0.66 MOA
300 Weatherby Remington , 700 Classic, 200 grain Nosler Partition, 215, 78.2 grains RE 26, 0.71 MOA
300 Weatherby Remington , 700 Classic, 200 grain Nosler Partition, 215, 78.2 grains RE 26, 0.71 MOA

So far, no recovered bullets, so I'm not sure how they performed. (in other words, good penetration)

But my impression is that it will do. Not sure what I'd come across in the Western Hemisphere that would make me believe I need more.

If that doesn’t do it with a well placed shot I wouldn’t want to be within 100 miles of that critter irregardless of “caliber”. 😉

So here is what I ended up with, a Sako 375 H+H.
Thank you for the input.

Ok,,,,, you did Good, I had a SAKO L61R .30-06 Finn-Bear back in the day..... Very Good Rifles.....

It should read 9.49 pounds.

+1.

worth the reading again that fall hunting season is coming again. i sold my 375 ruger and getting a second 9.3x62 to help the 9.3x74r ...

500 Jeffery. It's all I shoot these days. Kills everything from jackrabbits to dinosaurs.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/BD0shRU.jpg?1[/img]

Need to remove everything after the “jpg”.

338 is hard to beat, the caliber....in '06 to WM brass will do plenty. A 225 Partition will do about all that needs doing, and a 200 BT/AB is on tap for smaller animals at good ranges, a tad flatter.

That said, a 9.3 would not disappoint on shots to say 200-250 yds. You sacrifice some range going to these heavier larger bullets, in the common rounds like x62. IIRC, the 250 is in the AB, and a 286 will handle most anything fairly hit, but more dope is required.

Thanks I was wondering why my images weren't posting right.

Lucky for me, my grand kids live here in Alaska.

.35 Whelen with 225s or 250s; or .30-06 w/ 200s or 220s. Maybe a 9.3x62.

For a good soft-recoiling option, go with a .378 Roy.

338 ?

ya, it good for 1MMHH (1 mile moose head hunting) if it's done right !

I used the 470 Nitro Express case as an inspiration, improved the body and maxed the case length for ease of extraction of a fired round in a Remington 700 long action

duplicating the velocity of the 338 Chey Tac in a Rem 700 hunting rifle is most appealing to me

275 gr Badlands Superbulldozer 2 hunting bullets with a G1 bc at .880 (.451 G7) at 3300 fps makes for an extreme long range killing machine

Y'know what's super cool about my 338 Headhunter wildcat ?

Nobody else in the universe has one, dis my baby !

life's too short to hunt with generic, boring guns, cartridges & bullets at rock throwing distances !

I like that.

As Major Plaster describes it, The Magnificent 300 Winchester Magnum. I harvested everything in Alaska that I was interested in taking with a 30-06 decades ago, but graduated when reading Plaster on modern military and police sniping. I still love my pre-64 Winchester 30-06, and stilllove my customized Browning Stainless Stalker Alaska Special 338 WinMag, but in the open Alaskan country above 3000' where Itend to spend my time these days, The customized Tikka T-3 in 300 WinMag with 3x10 Shepherd is my carry rifle. I shoot 200 grain Accubonds pushed by 67.3 grains of IMR 4350. Apparently, those are pretty popular bullets. Haven't seen them in 3 years. Nosler tells me to watch for them soon. I'm seeing 180 grainers of late.........

Caliber: .308
Cartridge: 308 Winchester or 300 WSM

Ok,,,,,, One more time, FWIW, here is what I've been Packing,,,, for awhile now.....
Lj in Alaska....