Brown bear bullet decisions

[Cold Trigger Finger]

Your not going to kill a big bear just with energy. . You want to smash and destroy the important stuff all the way thru the bear. With my bear rifles there is no place on a big bear that is not a heart shot if the heart is in my line of fire. . Regardless which direction the bear is pointed.

 

[c-ne-elk]

I have shot 2 brown bears and both were one shot kills. First was a 9'-6" at 28 yds shot with a 375 h&h, 285 g Grand Slam shot thru shoulder and went straight down.
Second bear was this past fall. 10'-2" bear shot at 100 yds with a 338 WM using a 250 g Partition. Shot thru shoulder and went straight down lights out, bullet was a complete pass thru.
My buddy shot his 10' bear 5 times with a 300 g partition out of a 375 h&h at 75 yds. Any one shot should have killed him so go figure.

 

[HARPERC]

Any one shot should have killed him so go figure.

Bears are tough to figure, powerful enough to kill moose, tough enough to survive a butt whipping from an equally powerful rival. Some days the magic works, some days it doesn't. Some roll over dead with very little drama, then there's that one. Go figure sums it up.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

That's why the carts I consider brown bear rounds start with a 4 or 5 . 400 H+H- 500 A-Square
But, that's me.

 

[Outlaw6.0]

The 500 A-Square always intrigued me. I had the pleasure of speaking with Art several years ago, good dude.


t

 

[Powerguy]

I appreciate all of the insight provided here. Have decided to go with the 275 Swift A Frame that should be moving at around 2750fps. The swift shoud provide for good penetration and controlled expansion which looks to be the critical factors in a solid bear bullet. Three months to go before hunt starts.

 

[Outlaw6.0]

I appreciate all of the insight provided here. Have decided to go with the 275 Swift A Frame that should be moving at around 2750fps. The swift shoud provide for good penetration and controlled expansion which looks to be the critical factors in a solid bear bullet. Three months to go before hunt starts.

I think you made a wise choice. I'm more of a Barnes fan but I admit that I'd have zero issues running the A-Frame. Now, get out & practice with that bad boy!

Don't forget to post up some pics of that bruin


t

 

[c-ne-elk]

I think you have made an excellent choice too. Many premium bullets that will get the job done if you do your part.

And as Outlaw said, time to practice, practice, practice. Both of the bears that I took the shots had to be offhand. The 100 yard shot this past fall was in a 30 to 40 MPH crosswind too. The tundra brush was too high to go prone or to use shooting sticks while sitting and there was not trees to use as a rest.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

The 500 A-Square always intrigued me. I had the pleasure of speaking with Art several years ago, good dude.


t

To the very best of my knowledge I bought the very first Hannible in 500 A-Square back in 86 .
21" barrel, just express sights at first and then I had A-Square put a 4× Leupold pistol scope on it.
Shooting it was a moving experience.
116 grains of IMR 4320 pushing a 600 grain bullet.
Factory ammo was 5$ a shot back then. All up it weighed 13.1 lbs fully loaded, scoped and slung.
After I got widow makered a couple times falling timber it would give me quite a gun headache if I shot it more than 3 rounds in a day. I should have sent it off and had a muzzle break put on it. I did finally take down the comb some and that made it much better to shoot. As far as my cheek was concerned anyway. I never fought a brown bear up close with it and I will always regret that.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

That 275 Swift is a perfect choice. If you can fond any 275 gr Speer HotCores that is a good blasting bullet so your not burning up your hunting bullets.
But for the most part and bullet will do. I've shot several hundred Hornady 200 gr flat nose 33 Winchester bullets in my 338 s just for blasting bullets. I got a bunch of them cheap and they went out the barrel just fine. Shot many hundreds of 225+250 gr bullets just blasting. But I got so I could hit pretty much anything I wanted to at any distance I needed to. And do it pretty fast. I reccomend you get a bunch of balloons and find someplace where you can just blast. Not at an official range. .
Blow them up to 3-6" tie them off and turn them loose. Let the breeze blow them around and shoot them offhand.
You want to be able to take any shot you get.

 

[Powerguy]

I have Been shooting fairly regularly and practicing with shooting 3 shots offhand within 10 seconds of the first shot at a paper plate at 50yds. Fairly consistent with first shot center of plate and other two shots still on the plate.

I will not be using my muzzle break on the hunt so shooting without it now. The groups of three shots helps me re- acquire the target after repetitive shots.