Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Need cartridge recommendation for a Grizzly/Brown Bear hunt.

Gerrygoat already touched on it, but apparently the farther anybody lives from brown bear country, the bigger the cartridge the recommend.

The same is pretty much true of elk.

Never shot a 340 Wby myself, but I do shoot a 338 Win Mag (my favorite caliber) as well as a 416 Rem. If you are talking 375 H&H it has a push rather a harsh recoil. Your 340 would do well but I would shy away from a brake.

Well I couldn't help but dig this up. Been mulling over a 'bear' rifle for a long while now, and have yet to make a decision myself. 280 with heavy tsx, 35 whelen, or 9.3x62, 338-06 seem to be my candidates.

However the reason I am posting is the following information. Taken directly from the Alaska Game Fish and Parks website in regards to caliber/cartridge choice for alaskan game. Enjoy!

"The bore size, bullet weight, and velocity are of secondary importance to precise bullet placement in the vital heart-lung area.


Select a quality bullet

If you presently own a rifle chambered for the .270 Winchester, 7mm-08, .308 Winchester or .30-06 and can place all of your shots in an 8-inch circle out to 200 yards from a sitting or kneeling position you can be a successful Alaska hunter. To be as effective as possible, these cartridges should be loaded with premium quality bullets that are designed to pass completely through a large game animal, if hit in the heart-lung area.



Big Magnums Not Needed

The rifle you bring hunting should be one with which you are comfortable. Because of the presence of brown and grizzly bears, many hunters have been convinced that a .300, .338, .375, or .416 magnum is needed for personal protection and to take large Alaska game. This is simply not true. The recoil and noise of these large cartridges is unpleasant at best and plainly painful to many shooters. It is very difficult to concentrate on shot placement when your brain and body remembers the unpleasant recoil and noise which occurs when you pull the trigger on one of the big magnums.

The two most common complaints of professional Alaska guides are hunters who are not in good physical condition and hunters who cannot accurately shoot their rifles. Because these hunters do not practice enough they cannot shoot accurately enough. They miss their best chance at taking their dream animal or worse yet, they wound and lose an animal. Most experienced guides prefer that a hunter come to camp with a .270 or .30-06 rifle they can shoot well rather than a shiny new magnum that has been fired just enough to get sighted-in. If you are going to hunt brown bear on the Alaska Peninsula or Kodiak Island, a .30-06 loaded with 200- or 220-grain Nosler� or similar premium bullet will do the job with good shot placement. Only consider using a .300, .338 or larger magnum if you can shoot it as well as you can the .30-06."


Food for thought

I got that off the Alaska site and shared it with a Grizzly guide while trying to show him my .30-06 was completely adequate. He told me that was drawn up from the imagination of a pencil pusher in Juneau who has no idea what digging up a wounded Grizzly out of the Devils club entails. He then told me that if I were to book I'd need at least a .338 Win mag to hunt with him. I didn't book but it's still on my to do list and no matter who I book with I'll bring at least .33 caliber I expect.