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

I have no doubt a 270 and many others work. That said, I will take my 375 H&H M70 that my previous guide, Brad Dennison, was happy to see and happier to see how I shot it. The same rifle for bear next year.

How long do you wish for your buddies to remain your friends? I went back in the" Ask the Gunwriters forum" quite a few pages till I found the thread by Moosemike " Can a person ruin a cartridge for you?" I bumped it up so you won't have a problem finding it, you need to read it all start to finish . In a way it's a good thread that reveals alot about how people can beat a subject to death with their.enthusiasm for it. Might not kill the beaters enthusiasm but sure wears itself out on one's friends. Works the other way also as some people get damn tiring by continually expressing their hatred of certain cartridges. By bashing someone elses choice or being over enthusiastic about yours is not endearing to those you associate with. Anyway the thread is a good read. And no I don't hate any cartridge (6,5C, 270 , etc) or try to wax on and on about them either. Just my 2 cents worth.

Yep, that photo in the latest Sports Afield is the ".22 mag-a-num" guy, David Ameganik.

Hope all is well in B.C. We're still having semi-summer here, though it is getting a little below freezing most nights....

Good hunting,
John

Enjoyed reading this! A few comments about the Inuits choice of firearms based on four bow hunts with them from 2018 to 2021:

For his own polar bear (and seal) hunts, my assistant polar bear guide out of Resolute Bay, Nunavut used a Remington 700 .222 with 50 gr softpoints. Said he bought it 15 years earlier when he was in high school. He'd typically order in 500 rounds of ammo every year for it, but was contemplating starting to reload based on uncertain availability of ammo (this was in February 2018).

I asked him about his shot placement and hunting techniques of polar bears...."stay about 70 yards away, take a perfectly frontal shot into the soft spot of the chest". And he said he'd typically shoot them 2 or 3 times "to put them to sleep".

As a sidelight, he was my backup when I arrowed my bear. We got in to 30 yards broadside while the 9 sled/bear dogs held the the bear at bay. The big boar let out a ferocious roar when the arrow hit, then lunged forward one step before melting down into the snow. He was carrying an ancient .303 British Lee Enfield with 180 gr Winchester Silvertips. I was happy I made a perfect shot putting the bear was down in a few seconds as the backup rifle had been showered with sea water a few days earlier when he fired a shot straight down at a seal in a breathing hole through the ice and missed. He'd scraped the frozen sea water off the the action and out of the end of the barrel with a seal gaff hook (think hay hook) so he could eject the empty case. The rifle stayed outside the tent the entire hunt so wouldn't get condensation and freeze up in the -30* to -40* conditions.

Down around Baker Lake, Nunavut, 100 miles inland from the west side of Hudson Bay my archery caribou guide used carried a left hand Ruger M77 chambered in .204 Ruger using 34 gr hollow points. This was his wolf and caribou rifle...and also his grizzly gun.

The week before I got there in late October 2018 he'd shot a barren ground grizzly. I asked him how it had gone down: "first shot the bear was moving away at 70 yds. He got pretty excited when I hit in the butt. It took a couple more shots to calm him down". The hide was draped over the deck railing at his house...I'd guess it was a 5.5' or 6' bear as the barren ground bears are relatively small.

The guide also had a Ruger M77 in .308 Winchester that he he was carrying in 2019, not the .204. Says that the outfitter he worked for had encouraged him to use it versus his .204 when he was backing up muskox and caribou hunters, with the potential of a grizzly or polar bear run-in, depending on how far out from Hudson Bay he was hunting.

Well, l guess it is thumbs down for punishing my buddies. I actually have only two friends left from my youth . They have all passed. One friend, a Virginian, I met while I sold insurance passed and it broke my heart was Tom Colley. We had this good natured quarrel concerning the .270 and 25-06. Tom was born in 1937 and was utterly convinced his 25-06 was THE gun to own. It seems the white tails, hogs, elk, etc were a good point against me. BUT, we both admitted that shot placement was the big secret as my .270 was also just as good.The other friend lives in Roan Mountain, TN where we went to high school. We graduated in 1970. He too loves the the 25-06. His dad bought him a 25-06 and it was the talk of Roan Mountain, TN. New on the market, the 25-06 was hard to find anywhere. However, there were some small country hardware stores in Abingdon,Virginia next door to Tennessee. It was a long trip where we had crooked two lane roads My dad and his dad took us to one where we knew the owner and he reserved the only one he had and my buddy had his 25-06. We didn't have many deer in Tennessee fifty three years ago. The one hundred grain bullet smoked the deer as did the .270 loaned to me since age ten by my uncle, a disabled lumberjack. We hunted next door in Virginia and North Carolina.The other friend from my youth quit hunting when he became a university professor in math. In time the favorite rifle in Roan Mountain became the .243 Win-6mm Rem.

Great thread and stories fellas. Great reading!

Yeah Phil's getting up in years and had to go back to shooting them, instead of just strangle'n em like he did in the old days.

My parents grew up during the Great Depression & those hard times were never forgotten !! They were building their first home & had to borrow $500 from a wealthy neighbor (Banks would not loan money to worthy customers during that time) to finish building their home. They worried theirselves nearly to death until they paid it back. My Mother, a school teacher never forgot those hard times & made me feel guilty to ask for Lunch Money. She said they didn't even buy underwear until out of debt !!! Needless to say my Dad was thrifty buying ammo !!!!

Hi oldwoody2

My family was also the way your your family was. My father would never borrow money unless it was an emergency. All of the folks that lived in the Tennessee mountain communities of Ripshin Mountain and Roan Mountain were scared for life because of the poverty they endured during the Great Depression. My family did without things we should have had...my opinion. I was a East Tennessee mountain boy that was a lumberjack from age 14-18. I was forced to enlist in the U.S. Army just so I could get some rest from the hard work. I also was able to see a lot of the world and get a college education on the GI Bill.

Hi oldwoody2

My family was also the way your your family was. My father would never borrow money unless it was an emergency. All of the folks that lived in the Tennessee mountain communities of Ripshin Mountain and Roan Mountain were scared for life because of the poverty they endured during the Great Depression. My family did without things we should have had...my opinion. I was a East Tennessee mountain boy that was a lumberjack from age 14-18. I was forced to enlist in the U.S. Army just so I could get some rest from the hard work. I also was able to see a lot of the world and get a college education on the GI Bill. I was fortunate a uncle loaned me a battered old pre 64 M70 .270 with two old boxes of 130gr Winchester Ammo. I still had one and a half boxes of ammo when I went to Ft. Campbell, Ky for basic training. Dad sold the rifle for doctor bills for my mom and paid my uncle back for the rifle.

Yes! Yes! These great stories are the best I've read in a long, long time. I just knew there were people out there who had and were using the .270 to kill big brown bears. Just wonderful to read about all of these .270 stories.

I'm going on my 3rd grizzly baited hunt with Jake Jefferson in June. My 1st grizzly was a nice sow killed with1 shot from a 375 Ruger with 270 Hornady factory interlocks. The 2nd grizzly was also a sow 1 shot kill with a 30/06 with 220 grain Nolser partitions handloads. Both went about 20 yards. Jake has killed grizzly with a 270 when he was young. I know his wife & 2 sons have killed 8 1/2 ' ers with a 308 Winchester. All of these bears were taken @ 100 yards. 1 shot kills. Shot placement is critical. For my hunt this June I'm taking back the 30/06----I'm thinking either 180 Hornady round nose interlocks----which is my do everything load here in the lower 48. Or maybe 220 grain factory loads either Federal or Remington. Bob

I hope you really enjoy your hunt and your 30-06 drops your bear with one shot.

Boy, not me. I'm hoping for a 'Revenant' type story coming outta this. Think GOOD tale....

Man, that's just mean

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I really appreciate your reply. This Thanksgiving post and the replying have really brought a lot of joy during the Christmas holidays. I much enjoyed everyone's stories. Merry Christmas!

I feel your caliber choice is very good and will exercise great authority with the bear.

Yes! I remember this story from many years ago as told by Jack O'Connor when I was a young boy. My high school principal complained bitterly that someone was stealing the current copy of Outdoor Life every month. It was JUST BORROWED as I always returned it after week or two. This is where I first read this story. That was many moons ago in Roan MTN., TN.