Whats the longest shot you would take on a brown bear

I've only shot two, and were with guys that shot 3 others. Two were with .338's, two with .300 WM (200 gr partitions) and one with a 45-70 (500 gr). None really went anywhere after the shot.

I remember back when I went on my first goat hunt…..a while ago, people told me I need minimum.300 WM to kill one. I've used my .270 with good success.

I was wondering though……does anyone use a frangible bullet like a Berger for brown bear? I've always used partitions
 
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I've only shot two, and were with guys that shot 3 others. Two were with .338's, two with .300 WM (200 gr partitions) and one with a 45-70 (500 gr). None really went anywhere after the shot.

I remember back when I went on my first goat hunt…..a while ago, people told me I need minimum.300 WM to kill one. I've used my .270 with good success.

I was wondering though……does anyone use a frangible bullet like a Berger for brown bear? I've always used partitions

If I were a Brown Bear Guide, I'd want all of my clients to use "highly frangible" bullets. It would add excitement to the hunt, and I would get to shoot a lot of very irate bears! 😉 memtb
 
A friend of mine has been a master guide in AK for years and has personally and has had hunters take them well beyond 700 yards with a 50bmg.
I hunted brown bears with him once. Used a 375!h&h with 300gr swift A-frame. 8 ft bear, quartering toward me at 150 yards. 1 shot in the seam of the neck/shoulder. Bear didn't take 1 step, was dead before it hit the ground I think. Bullet exited opposite hip.
 
Snuck up on mine snoozing on a moose kill in the wide open. Told the guide it was going to be like sneaking up on the world's biggest coyote. Action commenced at about 100 yards.

1st shot quartering at me, he jumped up so fast I thought I missed.

2nd shot, quartering away, broke the off shoulder, down he went, & popped back up.

3rd shot was same as the 2nd, and down for the count.

Came in from behind him and gave the 4th shot for good measure.

Old boar squared 9' 3".

Stainless Remington 700 in 358 STA shooting a stout load with 250 Partitions.



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Perfect mushroomed bullet dug from just under the hide of the off shoulder from either the 2nd or 3rd shot after breaking the shoulder, w/ 70% weight retention.

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Brown Bear and Cape buffalo will remain just a dream for me, after I realized what the cost, especially for a Brown bear hunt were. I do use a 375 H&H and I would probably be between 100-200 yards.
 
I was talking to a friend whos planing to go on a hunt . Hes taking a 338RUM he thinks he might take a long shot at one. But i said he should keep it close. Hes said i worry to much which might be true but elk are alot nice then a ****ed off bear. Just wanted to get your thoughts on it
Once upon a time many years ago I was in a gun shop during the middle of Deer Season. I was looking at a Win Model 70 in 30-06 as an addition to my Remington Model 600 in .243. While I was there a guy came in wanting to trade his Win Model 70 in 30-06 (strange things happen) for a 458 Win Mag. His story was that the 30-06 was inadequate to drop a Wisconsin Whitetail? The story was that he shot a big buck 4 times and it never showed any signs of the 30-06 being enough rifle to knock it down. Well to make a long story short, he bought the 458 mag, a box of ammo, had a Leupold scope installed and bore sighted then headed out the door to knock down the next whitetail he came across. I don't know if he ever sighted in the scope on the 458 and didn't care because I ended up buying this trade in. I shot the factory barrel out of it and had a custom stainless match barrel installed. When I got out of competitive shooting the first time I sold that rifle, with some 4500 rounds through the barrel and still shooting 1/2 moa or less groups to another competitive shooter and, Oh by the way it still knocks down a whitetail with one shot and holds the 10 - X ring at 600 yards.
Keeping with the thoughts about shooting long distance at a bear hunt? If you are not confident enough in your abilities to place a bullet where it needs to go up close and personal under pressure, you don't deserve to be hunting the quarry you are going to be shooting at. It's kind of the difference between murder and self defense.
 
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Using a .454 Cassel with 240 grain flat point and 300 grain XTP compared to 7STW with 160 and 175 Partitions into dry wood shavings, all at full throttle, gave these results:

300 XTP @ 1,630 fps - 36" Changed from 46" to 36". Sorry for the typo in the first one.
160 Partition @ 3 360 fps - 46"
175 Partition @ 3,150 fps - 48"
240 Freedom Arms @ 2,014 fps - 52"
 
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Using a .454 Cassel with 240 grain flat point and 300 grain XTP compared to 7STW with 160 and 175 Partitions into dry wood shavings, all at full throttle, gave these results:

300 XTP @ 1,630 fps - 46"
160 Partition @ 3 360 fps - 46"
175 Partition @ 3,150 fps - 48"
240 Freedom Arms @ 2,014 fps - 52"

Bump that .454 to a bullet of around 360 grains…..probably add another 12" or more penetration!

Part of the reason I like my 460 S&W with 400 grain cast at full throttle! 😉

Below is a link to a test, comparing some high horsepower handguns against proven African big bore rifles in a penetration test? The handguns held their own pretty good! 😉

I know that many shooters/hunters that want to put a lot of bullets in the air from a semi-auto …..I'll much prefer one or two rounds from a big-bore handgun that offers this type of performance! memtb

 
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Bump that .454 to a bullet of around 360 grains…..probably add another 12" or more penetration!

Part of the reason I like my 460 S&W with 400 grain cast at full throttle! 😉

Below is a link to a test, comparing some high horsepower handguns against proven African big bore rifles in a penetration test? The handguns held their own pretty good! 😉

I know that many shooters/hunters that want to put a lot of bullets in the air from a semi-auto …..I'll much prefer one or two rounds from a big-bore handgun that offers this type of performance! memtb

I find this information fascinating for many reasons. First of all using newspaper to check penetration, I've been using it since I was a kid to see how far different ammunition would penetrate. Back then newspaper was easy to find, not so much these days in quantities required to provide at least a 60 inch penetration package. I also used dry newspapers for my unofficial tests so have no idea what the difference would be between dry and wet newspaper. Back then the results were interesting in how much difference the penetration was between the various types of .22 LR ammo, which is what I mostly used back then. With the .22 LR ammo from different manufacturers using mostly 40 gr bullets in both solid and hollow point configuration would penetrate between 4 inches and 12 inches into the paper stacked up in a cardboard box. Needless to say the hollow points did not penetrate as far, but that was to be expected. What was interesting is that it was a couple of brands of lead or copper plated round nose (all that was available at that time) did not penetrate as far into the newspaper as the hollow points did. Based on these experiments is how I determined on which brands I was going to spend my hard earned paper route money on. A few years later I bought my first high power rifle. It was a Marlin 336 chambered in 35 Remington. I tried my dry newspaper box on the .35 and the 200 gr round nose soft point blew through 24 inches of newspaper and left a shredded trail of newsprint spewed out the back side with an exit hole that took out most of the back of the box. That was the last time I used boxed newspaper as a test medium.

What I would have like to see in future experiments shown above, dealing with pistol vs rifle penetration is what a .357 magnum would do with modern heavy ammo like Buffalo Bore 158 and 180 grain or other equivalent ammo might do. Have a S&W Model 19 .357 magnum and some 158 Buffalo Bore ammo. If I can find enough newspaper to check it out I might give it a try. As they say, Inquiring minds want to know. :rolleyes:
 
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