I just got back from the Bellva area on a hunt. I ended up harvesting a 250 pound bear, took him at 486 yards with a 338 Kirby Allen magnum based off the 408 Cheytac case. 300 grain bullet was devastating on the bear.
Bear was taken at 4:45PM but we did not get him in the Polaris Ranger until 9:40PM. He was 250 yards down the side of the mountain. We had to use every strap and winch line to get even close to him. 4 of us repelled down the mountain and pulled the bear up a foot at a time until we could get the winch cable on him. You guys have extremely rough country and a spot a stalk takes a while to pull off. We saw 9 different bears but some were not feasible to harvest because of the retrieval needed.
Ended up giving some of the meat to a needy family and sent the skinned out bear to have a rug made.
My advise (fwiw) is to base the shot off of retrieval location as well as distance you are comfortable shooting. The wind in the valley plays a major role in the bullet trajectory.
