who hunts the big bears in the u.s. and canada?

greencobra

greencobra

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grizzly, polar and the like. what gun do you choose to carry. i'm hearing 375 h&h is probably the best choice for these tough critters, do you? if not, how downsized would you go? or would you up the game with something larger? i'm not planning a bear hunt, the subject has just crawled into my head and i thought it interesting. wondering what you folks thought, especially from those with experience. of course you people like me who just think and dream of this stuff, your thoughts and opinions are very much welcome as well. and women...i saw a vid of a slight, young-ish woman handling shooting and taking the recoil of that 375 like a champ. (no, it wasn't april) if i didn't see it i would have cried bullshit. any women on nes do grizzly hunts in the rockies? lets hear about the hunt.
 
I've never shot a bear of any kind, but when dealing with Griz (or larger), I'd opt for the "bigger is better" caliber option.
375 HH would never be the wrong choice.
I hear people using 30-06, and also hear people say that would be the minimum. 35 Whelen would be my personal minimum.

Then I hear stories of the Inuit using 22 Hornet on Polar Bears.

Who knows.
 
Native women get it done with a .22.



Grizzly with a .22 Caliber

index.cfm


Bella Twin was a calm, quiet, clear-headed Cree woman with a trap line. May 10, 1957, she killed a massive grizzly bear with her Cooey Ace #1 .22. That was near Slave Lake, Alberta, and the bear Twin killed turned out to be a world record that stood for a good long time. That was seven years before my dad held me for the first time, a five-foot-nothing woman who lived on the land squeezed the trigger on her single-shot rabbit gun and put a .22 rimfire round through the eye of a grizzly bear at close distance. The bear dropped dead, but because Twin knew what she was up against––put seven more rounds into the bear skull––seven insurance shots.


Smart lady.

index.cfm


There has been a lot of speculation over the intervening years about what exactly happened that day there on the trapline. I’ll add one more speculation. In 1953, the likelihood of a trapper using Long Rifle .22 rimfire ammunition while trapping, was, well, let’s say, unlikely. I’ll bet a crisp fifty-dollar bill that they were .22-shorts. A trapper neither needed nor wanted the extra velocity of the Long Rife rimfire rounds for two reasons: undamaged pelts bring a premium dollar, and .22 Long Rife rounds were more expensive––just speculating here. She would have wanted neither the additional velocity nor the additional cost.

Grizzly with a .22 Caliber.
 
peterk123 said:
My son in law last fall took down the 7th largest black bear in Montana's history with a 30-06. It was 7.5 feet from head to tail. It was a big bear.
Click to expand...
They wouldn't sell all these fancy magnum, short magnum, and other fag calibers if you told every one you can kill everything with a 30-06.

And load it down or up accordingly....if you want less recoil for deer hunting or hotter loads pushing 300 mag for bear or moose.
 
300 mag with 200 grain hornady elmax will drop bison.

Went clean thru mine...pretty sure itll put down any bear on the continent
 
greencobra said:
grizzly, polar and the like. what gun do you choose to carry. i'm hearing 375 h&h is probably the best choice for these tough critters, do you? if not, how downsized would you go? or would you up the game with something larger? i'm not planning a bear hunt, the subject has just crawled into my head and i thought it interesting. wondering what you folks thought, especially from those with experience. of course you people like me who just think and dream of this stuff, your thoughts and opinions are very much welcome as well. and women...i saw a vid of a slight, young-ish woman handling shooting and taking the recoil of that 375 like a champ. (no, it wasn't april) if i didn't see it i would have cried bullshit. any women on nes do grizzly hunts in the rockies? lets hear about the hunt.
Click to expand...

Recoil is not a big deal if you know how to properly hold a rifle and are not a p*ssy.

I literally had to force myself to stop shooting @richc 50 BMG because I didn't want to use all his ammo, and I am not a huge dude.

I plink with a 458 Win Mag and I am about to build a 458 Lott handgun.

375 is nothing.

Your first concern should be distance. A safari caliber is nice, but they are not great long range shooters, the drop in many of those calibers s*cks a**. I would imagine that hunting a Polar bear is a long range game due to the terrain and danger. Not sure about Grizzlies.

# 1 - think distance you will be hunting.
# 2 - is that caliber allowed in that State?
# 3 - penetration - if you don't reload, some of the rounds for 375 are meant for African game, which means penetrating very thick skin. Could that cause less expansion on a bear? (I don't know much about 375, but you should consider this).

Once you know the ranges, laws and type of ammo available, I would go ahead and choose the appropriate caliber.

Anything 30-06 or bigger will do.
 
jkelly1229 said:
300 mag with 200 grain hornady elmax will drop bison.

Went clean thru mine...pretty sure itll put down any bear on the continent
Click to expand...
It will. 300 Win Mag will kill anything.

Probably a good choice for this since it is fairly common caliber with several rifle and ammo choices.
 
Broc said:
Recoil is not a big deal if you know how to properly hold a rifle and are not a p*ssy.

I literally had to force myself to stop shooting @richc 50 BMG because I didn't want to use all his ammo, and I am not a huge dude.

I plink with a 458 Win Mag and I am about to build a 458 Lott handgun.

375 is nothing.

Your first concern should be distance. A safari caliber is nice, but they are not great long range shooters, the drop in many of those calibers s*cks a**. I would imagine that hunting a Polar bear is a long range game due to the terrain and danger. Not sure about Grizzlies.

# 1 - think distance you will be hunting.
# 2 - is that caliber allowed in that State?
# 3 - penetration - if you don't reload, some of the rounds for 375 are meant for African game, which means penetrating very thick skin. Could that cause less expansion on a bear? (I don't know much about 375, but you should consider this).

Once you know the ranges, laws and type of ammo available, I would go ahead and choose the appropriate caliber.

Anything 30-06 or bigger will do.
Click to expand...
Do you have a 458 garand?
 
greencobra said:
what gun do you choose to carry
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you hunt in pairs, a shotgun with slugs. same hunt discipline as with other big game - never fire simultaneously, so you both need to reload at a same time.
bear skull is very thick, and difficult to hit when it runs.
any flesh wound from a rifle caliber will eventually kill the bear, but only after it will get to you and rip your intestines out.
it was like a classic army story about stupid people who would go hunt bears with AKs from the armory, only to be found later under a dead bear.

i was never on a bear hunt but talked to those who did it, brown bears. they are really smart and rare animals, frankly, it would be better to hunt people than bears, in my personal opinion. only exception there are killer predators who taste human or start stocking humans and cattle, that is where the line gets drawn, but, it was always unusual for bears, and typically almost always due to some human induced incident, for bear to come back with vengeance.
 
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Cage Diving with Great Whites, and Hunting Grizzlies or Polar Bears - all are on my NOPE list.

YMMV.
 
06 up 375 with controlled expansion bullets and put the bullets in the vitals . Your guide isn't going to let you fling lead at a bear over 100 yards so no need for that type of rifle . If you have a AR that you can build a 458 SOCOM or 50 Beowulf they should handle big bears or a 45/70 lever gun would be cool
 
Mark from MA said:
They wouldn't sell all these fancy magnum, short magnum, and other fag calibers if you told every one you can kill everything with a 30-06.

And load it down or up accordingly....if you want less recoil for deer hunting or hotter loads pushing 300 mag for bear or moose.
Click to expand...
Every prepared home needs a bolt gun in 30-06. Not 300 win mag......not .308.....not 7mm mag.....and definitely nit 6.5 creed more.

😁
 
A few 9 mm to the face usually shut them the f*** up real quick. It’s not the most humane practice but f*** em
 
There is a quote with no post. I swear to God I want to captive bolt gun. Either CO2 powered or made by Dewalt think about it a 64 V captive bolt gun that could solve all of life’s troubles.
 
whacko said:
Every prepared home needs a bolt gun in 30-06. Not 300 win mag......not .308.....not 7mm mag.....and definitely nit 6.5 creed more.

😁
Click to expand...
Never heard of "creed more". Is that a new one?

You are not getting enough "creed"?

Creed the movie, the band, the perfume ...?
 
whacko said:
Every prepared home needs a bolt gun in 30-06. Not 300 win mag......not .308.....not 7mm mag.....and definitely nit 6.5 creed more.

😁
Click to expand...
Why... if the world really really really ends i would much prefer the versatility of a medium size rifle cartridge in an ar platform

A 300 win ar is gunna be better to me then a 300 win bolt if things get squirrely

Now in order to get one id have to kill someone that already bought it because nemo's are expensive af but that's another story
 
jkelly1229 said:
Why... if the world really really really ends i would much prefer the versatility of a medium size rifle cartridge in an ar platform

A 300 win ar is gunna be better to me then a 300 win bolt if things get squirrely

Now in order to get one id have to kill someone that already bought it because nemo's are expensive af but that's another story
Click to expand...
I didn't say the 30 06 had to be the ONLY rifle. I said every home needs one.
 

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