Alaska Grizzly Bullet Choice

[quandary]

Round for Grizzly and Caribou hunt on Alaska north slope. 300 Win Mag is a given. 200gr Federal Terminal Ascent or 200gr Swift A-Frame. Both bullets have great attributes. 6 of 1, half dozen of the other? The Terminal Ascents will be the factory loads the A-Frames will be home loaded developed before trip next August. Terminal Ascents shoot great in my rifle and have better ballistic design. A-Frames are tried and true. If the A-Frame loads are not consistently accurate the rifle will make the decision for me.

 

[waspocrew]

A frame, Partition, Accubond, etc would all work very well.

Currently looking into an AK grizz hunt in 2025 myself. Curious to hear what you go with and how it works out!

 

[Muddyboots]

Heavy monos will give deep penetration as well.

 

[quandary]

After seeing Accubond performance on big Black Bear I am not a fan. I want to stick to a Terminal Ascent, A-Frame, Partition. 200gr or 220gr Partitions are as hard to find as large rifle magnum primers.

 

[adk hunter]

I think I may have a box of 30 cal partitions 200 grain if that would help?

 

[338 dude]

Round for Grizzly and Caribou hunt on Alaska north slope. 300 Win Mag is a given. 200gr Federal Terminal Ascent or 200gr Swift A-Frame. Both bullets have great attributes. 6 of 1, half dozen of the other? The Terminal Ascents will be the factory loads the A-Frames will be home loaded developed before trip next August. Terminal Ascents shoot great in my rifle and have better ballistic design. A-Frames are tried and true. If the A-Frame loads are not consistently accurate the rifle will make the decision for me.

Nosler partition

 

[quandary]

No love for the Terminal Ascent or mostly lack of familiarity? TA has better ballistics and the entire back half is solid core copper. Very tough bullet. Partition and A-Frame are close with better ballistics in Partition (perhaps do to polymer tip?) but A-Frame is a bit stouter, thicker "bridge" structure.

 

[wvbearhunter]

The correct answer is 45-70

 

[dennisinaz]

I used 225 TTSX on mine. I ended up killing my caribou with my pocket knife

 

[quandary]

I used 225 TTSX on mine. I ended up killing my caribou with my pocket knife

You must be running a 338. As mentioned above I will be using a 300WM. I have never used a solid copper bullet. Perhaps I should give it a try.

 

[FEENIX]

No love for the Terminal Ascent or mostly lack of familiarity? TA has better ballistics and the entire back half is solid core copper. Very tough bullet. Partition and A-Frame are close with better ballistics in Partition (perhaps do to polymer tip?) but A-Frame is a bit stouter, thicker "bridge" structure.

SwampLord experimented with it quite, unfortunately he was banned here.

He is also from AK, and You can still get a hold of him via FB: https://www.facebook.com/375Mercenary.

 

[Reemty J]

Why was he banned?

 

[BillLarson]

#1 it has to be a kill shot....
How many record book bear,elk and moose have been killed with a 9.95$ box of Rem.cor-loc bullet....????...
Not advocating cheap bullets but making a point....
I`ve seen a guy with a 257 wby.mag.get excited and shoot a moose 11 times....with custom gun,custom loads and custom bullets.....

 

[Pdvdh]

The Federal Terminal Ascent is a solid copper base bullet; a later generation Jack Carter Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullet. It has higher BC values than the original Jack Carter line of TBBC bullets. I've never shot the Federal Terminal Ascent bullets. IF their terminal performance is similar to the TBBC bullet, it would be my preferred choice.

The TBBC has been my favorite bullet for closer range shots on Alaskan brown bear and moose since 2001. It's what I load and carry in the magazine for bear and camp defense bullets hunting Alaskan animals. It's provided an ideal blend of expansion, weight retention, penetration, and has delivered tremendous knockdown effect. Even wounded, adrenaline-charged brown bear have been stopped cold by TBBC bullets.

Performance on moose has been similarly good.

Because of their lower BC values, the best application of TBBC, Swift A-Frame, and Nosler Partition bullets is closer range use (IMO) . Say within ~200 yards. My experiences with these bullets has been yardages between 50 and 225yds. Specific bullet experience is based on use of 225gr TBBC and 275gr Swift A-Frame 338 caliber bullets. And 160gr TBBC 284 caliber bullets. I do have some 30cal 200gr TBBC bullets, which I exclusively load and carry in my magazines as bear/camp defense bullets in 300 Win Mag and 30 Sherman Mag cartridges. I've never shot a large game animal with them. Not yet...

I have more limited experience with Swift A-Frame bullets on AK brown bear and caribou. Observed very good terminal performance and knockdown energy.

Nosler Partition bullets will shed more weight and give up some depth of penetration on large animals, compared to the TBBC and Swift A-Frame bullets.

If the Federal Terminal Ascent bullets perform similarly to TBBC bullets, my preferred ranking of the bullets you're considering would be Federal Terminal Acent, Swift A-Frame, Nosler Partition.

Having stated this, North Slope grizzly bears and caribou will not be exceptionally large-bodied animals. You wouldn't be handicapped using Nosler Partitions on North Slope grizzly bears.