Smaller Bore Match Bullets for Brown Bear or Moose (and other big critters)

[jhm2023]

It's always a good idea to do stress shoots and practice under duress. Even better if it's on video so you can see how goofy you look and correct things you didn't realize you were doing.

 

[Formidilosus]

Idk what to tell you, I’m consistently between 1.35 and 1.75 seconds between aimed shots

It's always a good idea to do stress shoots and practice under duress. Even better if it's on video so you can see how goofy you look and correct things you didn't realize you were doing.

I will start a thread for this.


Here it is-

Charging bear/timed shooting drill

Another thread started discussing how fast people can shoot and hit with a bolt action rifle- specifically close range/bear charging type of shooting. This is a thread to get members to do cold, on demand shooting to see what skill level people are. The drill: Requires an electronic shot...

rokslide.com

 

[mustelid_master]

Tagging in w/ interest.

I think the fallacy is saying your evidence is valid, but the evidence seen by every bear killed by someone with a bigger rifle is somehow not. Every dead bear is an experiment. Every dead bear killed by every caliber imaginable has been seen in Alaska - every one is evidence of what works and what doesn’t. Discounting something that doesn’t agree with you, just because it doesn’t agree with you is silly.

The 223 thread is very much an echo chamber - you guys are so wrapped up in your own world that nobody is interested in listening to anything that doesn’t fall in line with with the crowd. It’s impressive what you’ve been able to show with the 223, but the constant belittling of larger calibers only gets you so far.

A 40 gr .22 lr bullet has killed many bears, but it doesn’t make it a good choice.

Based on the accuracy of the people who have actually shot charging bears, the idea that all you need is one accurate shot, is more than a little optimistic - people don’t function well under stress, they just don’t.

No dog in the fight, however, I think it is worth mentioning that lots of bears being shot with larger calibers is evidence of what works, but is not evidence of what does not work.

 

[S-3 ranch]

Tagging in w/ interest.

No dog in the fight, however, I think it is worth mentioning that lots of bears being shot with larger calibers is evidence of what works, but is not evidence of what does not work.

Yeah I agree here is a little pudding
“”300g A-Frame. This bullet hit my brown bear at 13 yards, close enough so I could see the entrance hole spurt blood before the scope recoiled out of view. It entered at the right shoulder and ended up in the hide of the left thigh after penentrating the bear diagonally.“”

 

[Luke S]

Well I tried the bear charge drill and my second shot time with the A15 6.5 Grendal is noticeably faster then my bolt action 308. I need a shot timer for real numbers but it was clearly faster. Manipulating the bolt is the hang up (duh). I can improve on that but onlyto a point. I don't have my .375 with me currently so I didn't test it. I assume the recoil recovery will make it slower still.

Other lesson was that the safety on my 308 was slower coming off compared to the AR.

So a hunting shot at a resting bear can be any reasonable caliber. A charging bear is arguably easier to stop with a quick shooting AR or at least a bolt you can run faster the an old express rifle. I might skip past that 308 and use my 6.5 Grendal for most everything.

 

[bpctcb]

If it was my hunt with my kids I would run some 200 grain Partitions in a 308 and feel good about it.

BP

 

[ThunderJack49]

I’d trust the judgement of someone who’s full time career revolves around killing bears. Simply look to the bear guides, and fish and wildlife guys who take care of wounded or misbehaving bears. I find it laughable that some think the 223 is the ideal choice against bears - it will obviously kill one under good conditions, so will a 17 Rem. The entire 223 thread was based on the idea a big fast magnum was overkill - ask a professional if they feel they are over killing.

I’ve only personally talked bear rifles with two guys who kill them as part of their job. One shoots them from his pickup in open country and uses a 30-06. The other gets the call to sort out coastal bears under less than ideal conditions and used a 375 H&H for many years and upgraded to a 416 Rem mag.

A guy I worked with on a fire crew drew the long straw and got to help remove a bear attack victim from Yellowstone - years later I saw a photo in the accident report - the image of the remains has always been sobering. Usually we see pictures of the scratched up guy who survived and has a lot of stitches. When you’re killed for dinner, they eat the organs and rip open the rib cage.

Google “bear attack victim body” and there are a few good pics of partially eaten bodies.

I also don’t buy the idea that a big caliber can’t be shot accurately or quickly. My iron sighted 375 H&H with Brown Precision Pounder stock was under 7 lbs so recoil was brisk, but quickly shooting 12 gauge shotgun hulls offhand at 10-20 yards was quite doable by normal guys.

Shoot what makes sense to you - the Darwin Award is alive and well.

So, not to get into a pissing contest here, but I made the AR15 suggestion having seen with my own eyes what happens when a grizzly kills a man. Secondly, we are talking defense of life/family so in my mind the only scenario is, I am standing between an aggressive bear and someone I'm defending, putting as many rounds into that bear as I possibly can to turn it before it gets on top of one of us. All rounds kill, obviously. All of my reasonings before are based off of that. This is the internet so take any of that for what it's worth.