Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Another Bear Stopping Thread

More than a few posts have come from people that have actually seen a bear, shot a bear, and a done a lot more...

My bear guide on Kodiak backed me up with a.


.270 win.

I had zero worries.

He guided to plenty of 10 footers before mine

You were very young…..he was very dumb! 😂 Or maybe he was a track star! 😉 memtb

I believe a smart guy somewhere close has made comments about the 30-06. I watched my son kill a brown bear with a 25-06 with 80gr bullets. He made 2 lethal shots and the bear had no choice but to die.

I did in fact get more from it. The last time I was in the presence of a live bear was nearly 50 years ago. My dad was stationed in Alaska twice when I was a kid and we spent a lot of time fishing. He carried a Super Blackhawk and I kept his Ruger carbine strapped on my back from the time I got out of the truck till I got back in it. Not real convenient but it gave me the false sense of security only a kid could get from the small number of rounds it held. Fortunately I never saw a bear on our side of the river. If I was going where bears could be a problem now I would be wearing a .45 Colt or my Flat top Ruger with heavy loads and have close at hand either my Marlin Cowboy 45-70 with cast 405 grain or my Winchester model 71 with Woodleigh or Barnes 250 grain . With the current state of my health this is not likely to ever happen.

never been by a brown bear , been way to close to a grizzly and came around a corner in the woods and a huge male black bear was 10 feet from me not a good situation . shot black bears with my bow and arrow but never a gun. i have been around grizzly bears and black bears in camp , at home and hunting don`t care for bears much . if i ever went on a guided big bear hunt which i won`t be i would do as the guide tells me. i would have no trouble ever using just a pain Jane 30-06 but i do want either my Winchester, Browning,Weatherby or Ruger rifle i have trust issues with other brand rifles.

what brand and model rifle did you use ?

No doubt about the 270’s ability to kill a big bear…..but, not the ideal “stopping cartridge”! Simply put…..there are others far better for “stopping”! memtb

Maybe the .270 wasn’t to shoot the bear. 😳

😂 I guess that using the 270 on the client means the guide doesn’t need to be a track star! 😉 memtb

Hahahaha!!!

Everyone involved knew that.
The bear never twitched after my first shot.

Everyone involved knew that.
The bear never twitched after my first shot.
That's not my bear.

I absolutely pole axed my bear with the first shot with a .300 wby mag.
With 20p gr Nosler Partitions.
When I approached I dumpled the rest of the magazine into him for insurance.
Thread is cheap...🤣

If that's the case....

> i had the same thought. 22 short in his knee and run like heck !

I’m glad that the “stopping” power of the 270 wasn’t tested! memtb

A fellow with a .270 is far from unarmed. Load it with Partitions or TTSX's and I'd choose it over most shotgun loads and any handgun. Best tool? Probably not, but not exactly a popgun either.

About 30 years ago there was a bear stopping article in one of the gun mags. In it they compared the .44 Mag with 240g hardcast to larger rifle cartridges with expanding bullets. I can't remember what the rifles were, but I think one was the 30-06 with 180g bullets of what kind I don't recall. It could have been Sierra Game Kings for all I remember. The 44 easily out penetrated the rifles. Now we can say if the rifle had similar solid bullets they would out-penetrate the .44, but it is a rare person who is loading solids in a rifle for bear hunting/defense.

Having not ever shot a bear but thinking stopping one would be more difficult then just shooting it behind the shoulder, the .44 in this case with better penetration might be better. But then again how deep do you need. Also, we have heard over the years of bullets not penetrating from rifles. Again not knowing what bullet was used. Basically, is it the bullet or the cartridge?

About the same time a guide in MT killed a charging Grizzley with a 7mm Rem Mag. that had already mangled his client Bullet unknown.

Just a Hunter, if you look all the way back to my opening post……you may find the inclosed data interesting! memtb

Thanks. Good info