Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Most popular caliber carried in AK.

Not only that, but everyone knows the 7/08 is superior to the 308...thought this was already decided.

In Alaska it is always best to be prepared for the biggest critter you may happen upon.

Sure a lot of people may have and still carry a .243 for all of their big game hunting, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to only have that in my hands when I run into a Brown Bear while hunting.

I know for a fact in a lot of remote villages most people hunt with a Ruger Mini-14 or AR-15, .223's. They use this for everything from rabbits to bears. Why, because ammo is cheap!

To a lot of people living in those areas, a rifle is a means to gather food, to feed their family or others who can not hunt. There are no Safeway stores around the corner, and they may not have a means to earn money.

They are not concerned about humane one shot kills, only the cheapest way to put meat on the table. Many places in Alaska it is legal to hunt caribou with a .22 lr. They wait for them to swim across a river, drive up to them in a boat and shoot them in the head with a .22 lr. Very cheap & effective meat harvesting.

Not saying I agree or disagree with this, just sharing the facts.

Personally I don't big game hunt with anything less then a .30-06, and when I am small game hunting I carry my .454 pistol as back up for bear or moose.

I completely agree with Alaskan Hunter and the facts he presents.

Since most of Alaska lives in Fbks. and Anchorage, I'd say the range survey would be a pretty good indication of "most popular" for the statewide population and fits precisely with my personal SWAG for the top 3. Having solid figures is hardly "anecdotal", tho not "hard" science either. "Lay science" is a good term, I think.

Out in the villages in western and northern Alaska I'd stipulate from my observations that the .22CFs and .243 would be in the majority. (Now that is anecdotal.) Some few out here think the .22Mag rimfire is the ideal caribou gun (head shots, especially from a boat). The .22 Hornet and Swift are highly thought of by owners, but again, these are few.

I quit sweating bears (within reason)years ago when selecting a firearm (several choices ranging from .243 to .338WM) to hunt my intended game and the area/conditions involved. I've hunted moose successfully with a .243 in Interior, used a .260 (no moose were hurt on this hunt, but I didn't feel under-gunned) on the Kenai in 2011 - both in griz/brown bear country, but would pack my .338 for deer on Kodiak if I ever get there...

Caliber isn't as important as bullet construction and most plain-janes matched to purpose will do fine. You can do some trading off here - the premium bullets are arguably "better" - but placement is vital with anything.

Heck - if you are good enough at what you are planning, you don't even need bullets, so the rifle itself becomes a mere prop to the hunting situation.

I'll give you the short version of a yarn I posted some years ago. Much of the humor is in left-out details, and Gaylen tells it so much better than I do, anyway.

My friend Gaylen started his teaching career about 5 decades ago as the head/sole teacher in a small interior village. He was the only white man in town, and the locals mostly packed open-sight .30-30's. When the caribou migration showed up and started crossing the river ice in Oct/Nov that first year, the chief showed up at the one-room school and pulled all the kids out. At first Gaylen thought he'd screwed up and was in big trouble, but the chief explained the caribou were coming through and the kids were needed to help in the hunt.

Gaylen tried to negotiate keeping at least the smaller kids in school so as not to lose a day out of the calendar, but the chief explained "Big kid - big piece of meat, little kid - little piece of meat." Next, Gaylen suggested he go along, point out some anatomy, etc. on a dead caribou to the kids and count it as a "field trip", and so not "lose" that day of school.

"Good idea, Teacher." They got the kids all bundled up, and as the chief left with the last of the little ones, he turned back and suggested, "Why don't you bring that big gun (scoped .300WM)of yours, Teacher - maybe you shoot caribou too".

The whole village was out there, except for a few sick, elderly, babies/moms, or very pregnant, lined up in the willows along the edge of the river. Men in front with their .30-30s, women and children back in, out of the wind.

The chief, standing next to Gaylen, offered him the first shot, but cautioned him to let the first couple dozen "pathfinders" go through. Gaylen shot the first caribou the chief pointed out, and continued to shoot 'bou as fast as the chief pointed them out, one after the other, reloading several times. Only when the chief told him "That's enough, Teacher" did he realize no one else had been shooting. A quick somewhat fearful survey of faces showed him big grins everywhere, however. And 17 caribou down on the ice.

Hmmmm. Having been a cop, Gaylen knew how to put an investigation together, and a few "innocent" questions over the next few days confirmed it. Except for Gaylen's "big gun", there wasn't a round of ammunition in town, and wouldn't be until trapping fur produced some revenue.

No one ever let on to the con, but years later Gaylen ran into the chief in Anchorage, and asked him about it. The chief broke into a big grin and said, "Yeah, that was pretty good, huh?"

"You didn't really need all those kids out there, did you?"

"Hell no. Kids big damn bother! But I knew if I left you even one kid, you wouldn't come hunt with us."

So there you have it: plan your hunt, stalk the game carefully, keep it unaware, and place your shots precisely. It will even work on animals.

"Heck - if you are good enough at what you are planning, you don't even need bullets, so the rifle itself becomes a mere prop to the hunting situation."


LAS:

What? Care to explain that statement?

Maverick

To clarify, local rural folks tend, often, to be very skilled at one shot kills, and many times disdain meat wrecking lung or body shots; head or neck only IOW. And there are very limited places in Alaska where a 22 rimfire is allowed to hunt caribou - and they must be in the water perhaps... I think. (IOW, a rimfire is illegal unless you've checked the specific regs.)

Correct. However, only swimming caribou in certain units along the Brooks Range can be killed with .22 rimfire cartridges. And, in terms of the motorized boat killing, it's also in those same units along the Brooks Range and, the motor must be shut off and all motor-driven progress must have ceased before shooting.

The villagers that conned Gaylen into shooting caribou for them not only did not need bullets, the empty rifles they carried were mere props to the well planned, well executed "hunt". I guess I didn't make it clear that all the village men had lined up in the edge of the willows with empty rifles for credibility purposes to the con.... sorry about that.

FYI: In units 23 and 26 caribou may be taken while swimming with ".22 rimfire cartridges", presumably either handgun or rifle (pg 19 of game regs). If a guy could throw the .22 ammunition hard enough, no gun would be needed at all...

Units 23 and 26 are specifically excluded from the "underway" restriction. (pg 18)

"You may not take game by : A motor-driven boat or motorized land vehicle unless the motor has been shut off and progress from the motor's power has ceased, EXCEPT: a motor driven boat may be used as follows: - in units 23 and 26 to take caribou.

I've heard stories from the locals about things getting dicy when several boats close in at high speed from different directions on a bunch of swimming caribou, with fire coming from all the boats at once. I think I'll stick to spot and stalk on land.

And what do you want to bet that most of those rifles are push feeds?

Thanks for the clarification concerning the "underway" exemption. I hadn't read those specific legal descriptions in a while. I'm sure that whomever might be considering a "boat hunt" in the Brooks Range might find that info valuable

30-06

Wrist. Rocket.

375 ruger for fishing and spring bear, .30-06 for everything else.

Out here where I live it'll be the .223 Remington.

I know a guy who has a nice Remmie 700 BDL in .243. My supervisor has a Mossberg he bought years ago in .25'06. A guy I know up in Kotlik has a stainless Ruger .300 Win mag. A couple of local guys have .223 WSSM and LOVE them.

But the majority are .223 Rem.

I carry a .375 Weatherby and a .500 A-Square if I am in an area known for bear. A FAL with 20 rounds of .308 when blueberry picking.

Have to put "popularity" into perspective...

10yrs ago guy at Mountainview Sports in Anchorage confided to me that "...nobody reloads anymore. Guys come in buy 1 or 2 boxes of premium ammo and that's it".

.30-06 is cheap, always available, offers heavy bullets; although don't see any 220gr rn factory loads anymore, and generic ammo at wallyworld is cheap. Did I mention ammo is cheap?

.375 H&H and .338win are similarly available and relatively cheap. .300win mag is probably sufficient, but anyone who's seen brown bear or mature moose up close will want something more. The rationalizers read Phil S's comments and stay with their .30-06s.

Never one for popularity, I favor a .338/300win wildcat and load 250gr bullets, but am working up loads for a 290gr rn cast from wheelweight alloy and have some 300gr boattail match bullets I intend to experiment with.

Also have a .35Gibbs barrel in the rack that I would like to work with soon as find a mold for 250gr or more.

Actually, quite a few .375 Rugers here and growing. I know of at least five people myself included who have upgraded, yes that's right, UPGRADED to the 375 Ruger. Yes I'll admit, Rugers 375 rifle has flaws, mainly the piece of junk stock but the round itself is definetly an improvement on the H&H and anyone who thinks otherwise is just an old dog and well, you know what they say about those.

My favorite's-
My heat seaking fur finder, Browning m-1000 eclipse, .204ruger
My Kodiak deer buster, Rem 700, .243
My black bear stand rifle, Marlin, 32 special
My Big antler chaser, Ruger m77, 270
My camp defender, Rem 870, 12g

Excellent thread and lots of good info.

WS

I'll give you $50.00 for your old H&H. It's probably not worth it being outdated and all... and not able to kill as well as it once did, but hey-I'm feeling generous

I'll raise Bear Hunter by $25.00 and offer you $75.00 for the old H&H.