Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer- Know of any .270 brown/grizzly kills?

Phil Shoemaker wrote back to me. I was told he had stopped brown bear charges with a 30-06. His favorite load for brown bears is a 200gr Nosler Partition. Yep! That should penetrate with a sectional density of 301.

I'd be surprised if JOC hadn't killed a griz with one of his 270s.

If I remember correctly, the bears were killed incidentally to hunting a moose and a sheep. One of the bears came rolling down a steep hill and came close to rolling over him when he shot it with his .270. I can't remember what weight bullet he used. Probably a 130gr as he really preferred the 130gr.

He had

His opinion hasn’t wavered in years. I corresponded with him when I first got on this forum about what he recommended for bear. He pretty much told me to run a 200 grain partition in an 06 with as much RL22 I could fit in the case. I no longer have an 06 but that advice still stands today in my load notes as a dandy bear load. No browns or grizz but some solid black bears

Great thread. I've enjoyed reading this.

Question for all you Grizz guys. How big are interior bears. Big boar and big sow. I’ve read plenty about them and seen a couple visiting out west but never dealt with them up close. I’ve been around some big black bears,400-550 lbs. I’d have no problem taking a big black bear with a stout 270 load not sure how much more an interior Grizz would take to dispatch.

Here are a couple of interior Grizzlies I’ve caught on my trail cameras. Some are no joke.

brinky,

The biggest grizzly the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks has ever weighed whole, on certified scales with witnesses, weighed 1102 pounds.

Where was that bear trapped?

What's the average?

True. An early book titled "The Grizzly Bear" documents an bear brought into a butcher shop scales in Spokane WA weighing over 1100 if I re call correctly.

Awesome pics. Man they’re cool animals!

I think we're closing in on a new corollary to Godwin's law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

My first “adult” center fire was a .270 Win - still my favorite (I am snobbishly excluding a 30-30).

Love reading these stories proclaiming the glory of the .270.

Last night I finished reading James Gary Shelton’s “Bear Attacks - The Deadly Truth”. One story, in particular, changed my perspective for hunting in bear country with any of my .270 / 7mm Rem Mag / .308 Win.

Chapter 4 - Carcass Defence Behavior documents a grizzly attack. Two British Columbia logging workers came within proximity of a male grizzly with an animal carcass. Not close enough to see the grizzly nor the carcass.

The men were working when they first saw the bear approaching them when at an approximate distance of 40 feet. The bear disappeared back into the brush. The men next saw the bear at 20 feet when it lunged at them.

At a distance of 7 feet, they fired two rounds of buckshot (shot size not specified) into the bear’s face. The bear stopped but did not go down. The third cartridge loaded in their gun was a slug (12-gauge - slug size, style, and brand not specified). This shot struck the bear just below one eye. The bear was knocked over backward, but not killed.

“The bear went wild; it was spinning around on its side, roaring and bellowing at the top of its lungs.”

The man without the gun dug around in their back pack and found more slugs (filtering through birdshot and buckshot) and the gunman reloaded with slugs. The fourth shot hit the bear in the chest, just behind the right front leg.

“The bear collapsed on its side and lay still for a moment, then jumped up and ran to their right, stumbling and bellowing as it went out of sight. They could see that the grizzly still had ample power, and it sounded like the bear was coming around behind them in the timber. Then, all of a sudden, it was very quiet.”

The men hiked their way back to their helicopter drop site where they radioed to be picked up. 40 minutes later, the helicopter arrived.

They flew back to the attack site and could see the bear lying in a pool of blood, trying to crawl up a steep slope.

They later returned with a Marlin 44 to insure the bear was dead. At a distance of 80 feet, they shot into the bear 6 times to insure it was dead.

Later, a Conservarion Officer investigated. He reported that the bear traveled 250 yards before dying.

——-

This grizzly took a 12-gauge slug in the face, took another slug in the chest, traveled 250 yards and was still alive more than 40 minutes later.

I don’t think I would use any of my 270 / 7mm / 308 in bear country.

Absolutely!

For those of you that like Alaska hunting stories look up Alaska` Wolfman by Jim Rearden. It covers the life of Frank Glaser from 1915 t0 1955.

He hunted with many guns and killed much game. I think it is a Good read.

When I was a little kid I was able to read a lot of Russell Annabelle. The stories of Alaska were very exciting and full of adventure with his old hunting partner. I came to wonder if he had mastered the art of slightly embellishing the facts(BS). I do like Alaskan adventure stories especially from Russel Annabelle from many, many, MANY moons ago.

Yep, a great read--and well-researched and written, like all of Jim Rearden's writing.

His name was Annabel, and yes he often embellished facts. He was kind of like the Alaskan version of Peter Hathaway Capstick. But both could tell a story well enough to sell a lot of stories....