I live, work and hunt in brown bear country. I also love my 35 whelen. I really do. But it is absolutely not a fight ending cartridge. Un unaware bears at a reasonable, it’ll flatten em. But if you are closer, shoot, and like a good rifleman, automatically start working the bolt, lots of times they will see you. Mostly they already have you pinpointed. It can then be a fight.
Those guys are tough, with big bodies, big hearts and slow heart rates. Tons of oxygen still in the brain to wreck your day and give you The New Look. Even good hits don’t always mean a dead on the spot bear. This matters when you hunt by yourself, like I do. After experiencing this, I went out and bought a pair of 375 rugers. I shoot 300 grainers. I hunt a lot of thick black spruce swamps, or very thick old growth in the southeast, or work on afognak. Again, by myself. Power is the name of the game. Knock the piss out of them. Hurt them.
it can be a hard thing to hit a basketball bouncing up and down a couple of feet, quickly making its way to you faster than you can say that last sentence. Especially when that “basketball wants to rip you apart and start tearing bits out of your ass and hips and legs. 375s aren’t magic , but they sure are hard to beat. Lots of natives use 223’s, but they cripple a hell of a lot of game. You do you. As for myself, I’m stacking the deck in my favor. In fact, I’m looking for a 416.
