Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7mm or 300 win mag

I've had a couple pretty close grizz encounters, but neither was when I had a gun, and neither time was the bear remotely interested in me or my group. I saw more ass-end than anything, once we were winded. Certainly makes for good story fodder though.

I can't imagine feeling undergunned with a 7mag and 175 partitions in that situation, but I can't know until I've been there. That combo had almost mystical abilities among the guys I was around when I was little. Seems like it would work in fact on both sheep at range and bears at pants-soiling distance. I'd prefer a rifle that shot like a 10/22 and hit like a 375, but I think the 7 would be the best of compromises.

Well, I wish no man to become a chew toy for a griz so each makes his choice and takes his chances and perhaps pays some consequences. But one thing that has pointed me toward the smaller guns as pertains to this thread is Phil's (458Win) experience with actually using the 30/06, for example, to polish off brownies. I realize few have his experience (and perhaps ability).

How many people hunting in grizzly country each year have a legitimate need to fire in self-defense?

Carrying a grizzly rifle when not hunting grizzlies is a ridiculous calculus.

I agree

I agree, to a large extent. I tried to make that point on the Bergers for Grizz thread. I do know that there are places where the bears are aggressive, and that gunfire is like a dinner bell. At that point, if you're gutting or packing something, you have a choice to make.

And that happens about how many times a year for all the hunters out there?

Has anyone on the entire 'Fire shot a grizzly in self-defense (not counting bear guide followups)?

I think 7STW did up in BC.

I haven't, but I have certainly been in situations where I could have. Luckily, the bears in those cases made the right decisions, and so did I.

It is always better to have something and not need it, as it is to not have something and really need it.

Nothing wrong with being prepared, just in case. Most encounters can be avoided, and with experience, a fella knows where or where not he should be, and at what times.

I'll add, there are areas I've hunted in October with a .338, that I would hunt in November with a .243, depending on the weather.

R.

Well, yeah, but I grew up and live in grizzly country, and have hunted in grizzly country in many other places. Have had my share of encounters, but unless I'm hunting game that might require more than a minimal "deer" cartridge, and there are high odds of encountering a grizzly, I don't feel compelled to carry a big rifle. As some people have noted over the years, there isn't much you can't fix with $500 or a .30-06.

There are always plenty of variables, and I let the area, experience, and time of year dictate the rifle of choice.

Everyone has to make choices that best work for them, at the time.

R.

And a 200 gr Nosler Partition!

Probably! Though I wouldn't be terribly nervous with 180's, either.

Not that I have experience among grizzlies, but I have lots of it among blacks and always with the attitude of "What if?"

Not too many years ago, there was the report of two hunters not returning to camp, where they left their wives, after a day in the mountains (somewhere in the Rockies -- I forget where)hunting elk. A search and rescue helicopter was sent the next day and they saw two bodies in the snow. They couldn't immediately land because of weather conditions, but when they finally made a rather precarious landing they found evidence that the two had been killed by a grizzly. They both had rifles that were fully capable since their target was elk. And, if I recall correctly, there was also a dead elk nearby that had been partially dressed out.

And, that's not the only report I've read of elk hunters being mauled or killed.

Just a few years ago, a report by CBC told of a resident Quebec hunter being killed by a bl. bear while he was hunting (It didn't say what he was hunting). His two sons, who were also hunting in the same general area, heard his screams but didn't make it in time to save his life (I referred to that in my latest blogs in October).

For the past four season's, I've been hunting over bait on private property for bl. bear. There is a very large one with a particularly bad disposition that killed one of four horses on that property. He hits my bait, but never during legal hunting hours. He also comes in behind my stand. I don't see him but I can hear him and smell him. I hunt with a "stopping rifle" on those few hundred acres bordering a huge wilderness area.

Sure, a 100gr bullet in the brain would take him out, but when bears can come within 15 feet of your stand or blind without seeing them or hearing them...? And elk hunters who are boning out an elk in the snow...? I'd take the equivalent of at least a .338 mag!

But then... my name isn't Phil Shoemaker or John Barsness!

I'm just...

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

The two guys being killed over an elk carcass sounds like an incident in British Columbia a few years ago.

One of the things I definitely would make sure to do, regardless of the rifle or cartridge, is when hunting in any country where grizzlies are common is hunt with a partner--and one of us would stand guard while the other field-processed any game. The evidence at the site of the BC grizzly killing was that both hunters were bent over the carcass when the bear decided to take it.

A bowhunter was killed here in Montana by a mama grizzly and her two 1-1/2-year-old "cubs" while he was field-dressing an elk he'd killed. They partially ate him.

Yes, I had thought of B.C. as well, but I wasn't sure.

And I do mostly have a partner when hunting, but we may be a mile apart... and I do 90% of the baiting... alone.

Good input... thanks John.

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

I've found it extremely difficult to shoot those 200 gr Nosler Paritions through a 7mm Mag.

They work pretty well out of a .300 Winchester Magnum.

Yup, actually it was a brown bear. Killed it in self-defense on Kodiak Island - told about that in the Berger thread. Have also had a couple run-ins of sorts with two different grizzlies. One tore my 4-wheeler seat off after we shoo'd him off when we ran into him on a river near just before parking our machines for a walk-in sheep hunt - came back to find the picture below. The other was an adolescent bear (3 yr old?) that had torn up some other guys camp so we chased him a ways and when he stopped we put a couple rounds in the dirt in front of him and ran him up the mountain in the hopes of preventing more of that sort of bad behavior.



Bob

Yes.

Have had to kill a black bear, which literally dropped at my feet. Certainly not looking for a fight with a grizzly!

Ted

Yes, 1988 near the Kelly river out fly in do it yourself hunt took bush plane out of kotzebue, Ak. The 7 foot artic grizz on the left came in as I was working the moose kill on the left

My 338 win mag was out of reach< I had killed the moose earlier with the 475 Linebaugh and it was in a shouolder holster within easy reach



I would not hesitate to use a 30-06 with 165 or 189 TTSX or TSX bullets