Brown bear Rifle
- Thread starter zeeman
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
D
Deleted member 118518
Guest
longgun505
Well-Known Member
I think you're spot on. Practice makes for a safe hunt. I've seen some guys that were impressive with a bolt gun, and dang fast as well. But generally at close range stress fire they fell short a very high percentage of the time. I like the pump for absolute speed and accuracy. With very little practice it is immediately apparent to the user how quickly you can accurately engage a target. Face never moves, trigger hand never moves, eyes never move from the target for immediate feedback of shots. The rifle is lightweight for packing, more than accurate enough for rested shots on targets to 500yds if needed. Not a distance I ever want to engage DG, but certainly accurate enough for whitetail, mule, and the occasional wolf size animals. It's primary duty is hunting and or hiking in Bear country where I live. I once owned a Marlin guide gun, but found the versatility of the 7600 and higher BC projectile availability more suitable for hunting multiple terrain and species without sacrificing engagement/reload speed. The levers required me to release the grip with my firing hand, which I did not like especially in cold weather with gloves. The 7600 operation is just the right fit/best of all breeds I could put into one gun. Not the most beautiful rifle in the woods, but it's a work gun for me. Not a campfire conversation piece. I'll be hunting black bear with it tomorrow in the Salish mountains west of Kalispell
longgun505
Well-Known Member
Yes sir My wife often carries an Ithaca 37 12ga 18" when checking our camera line. Lightweight, very quick slick action, bottom eject, and lethal with 00Buck at close range. She prefers it over my 35 because of recoil. Truth be told I will likely put a brake on the 35 this winter 
.
My wife often carries an Ithaca 37 12ga 18" when checking our camera line. Lightweight, very quick slick action, bottom eject, and lethal with 00Buck at close range. She prefers it over my 35 because of recoil. Truth be told I will likely put a brake on the 35 this winter .The 300win would work just fine
D
Deleted member 118518
Guest
Good luck tomorrow.I think you're spot on. Practice makes for a safe hunt. I've seen some guys that were impressive with a bolt gun, and dang fast as well. But generally at close range stress fire they fell short a very high percentage of the time. I like the pump for absolute speed and accuracy. With very little practice it is immediately apparent to the user how quickly you can accurately engage a target. Face never moves, trigger hand never moves, eyes never move from the target for immediate feedback of shots. The rifle is lightweight for packing, more than accurate enough for rested shots on targets to 500yds if needed. Not a distance I ever want to engage DG, but certainly accurate enough for whitetail, mule, and the occasional wolf size animals. It's primary duty is hunting and or hiking in Bear country where I live. I once owned a Marlin guide gun, but found the versatility of the 7600 and higher BC projectile availability more suitable for hunting multiple terrain and species without sacrificing engagement/reload speed. The levers required me to release the grip with my firing hand, which I did not like especially in cold weather with gloves. The 7600 operation is just the right fit/best of all breeds I could put into one gun. Not the most beautiful rifle in the woods, but it's a work gun for me. Not a campfire conversation piece. I'll be hunting black bear with it tomorrow in the Salish mountains west of Kalispell
ScreenerX,
Yep, I think a lot of shooters today have a little bit of caliber overload and many have forgotten what a freight train older cartridges like the .358 Norma Mag really were, well... as Charlton Heston once said in the movie Mountain Men; "Beaver will shine again" let's hope so, it's a very fine cartridge.
Okay, gentlemen, color me crazy, but there are a few things we need to discuss further. Those of you who are smarter than me or have more experience with a wider variety of weapons, feel free to skip this rant. That will most of you.
Diameter first. The thirty-thousandths of an inch difference between a .308 caliber bullet, fifteen thousandths per side, and those of a .338 caliber projectile, is not the big deal some here seem to believe it is. Getting into the .375 caliber range and up, there is a small percent of additional frontage area to cause a slight difference in the impact, but not that much. A round nose .30 cal. bullet will have more striking surface than a pointed bullet of a larger caliber.
Velocity, bullet weight, and construction. Having done many penetration tests on phone books, (remember those?) logs from different types of trees and a myriad of other materials, I will make the bold statement that velocity, bullet weight, and shape and composition of the projectile make a more substantial difference in energy spent than a few thousandths of an inch in diameter. I am boring enough as it is, so I will not go into all the tests I have done (You can PM me if you are just bored and want to know about certain calibers--that will probably be a waste of your time), But suffice to say that a long, tough, heavy bullet in a .300 WM will produce plenty of energy to kill a brown bear, provided you do your part and put the bullet into the vitals or break the spinal cord--from about the front shoulders forward. A wounded brown bear can and will try to get to you if his hind legs are out of commission, but his front legs are working perfectly fine. No, that has never happened to me, but I have been able to read magazines since back in the 50s. And I had a television. So there.
I shoot a 378 Weatherby Magnum. On a Texas-sized whitetail deer a 270 gr. flat base, spire point bullet creates 6,000 pounds of energy. That energy will be used up at the rate of about a thousand pounds of energy on the deer, and about 5,000 pounds of energy on the tree behind him/her. I did not measure those estimated pounds of energy with scientific measuring devices. Those are guesses based on nothing more than giving the reader--you, something to argue about later.
A 180 gr. .300 WM bullet of strong construction will travel almost exactly the same distance through wet phone books as a round nose factory solid Weatherby 378 bullet. However, the round nose solid creates a much more severe wound channel (in a phone book) than the slightly faster moving .30 caliber bullet through wet phone books. It is this man's opinion that you can kill a brown bear with a .300 WM with the right bullet (longer and heavier than a deer weight bullet), but you will be safer with a larger caliber rifle shooting an even larger and heavier bullet. Always remember--You can hunt a bear with a stick, but it ain't a very good idea,
Seeing the difference, is believing the difference. It's been pretty obvious on 800-1,100lb animals. They must not run the math on bullet diameters.
Last edited:
What did you expect? Did you think I would not leave room for someone to decent? I also shoot a 340 Weatherby and if I need a bigger gun than my 378 Wby, I will borrow skipglow's 460 Wby. When my kids were young and needing deer rifles, the .300 Win. Mag. was my dream rifle, so I bought .300 Win Mags for two of them. One did not hunt at that time.
I am rather certain that MANY people will disagree with some part of my post, but as long as it stays civil, I enjoy reading the different comments. As far as the 800-1,100 animals not running the math, neither did the elephants killed with 7mm bullets from Karamojo Bell and cropped with AK-47s. It ain't the size of the pencil, it is how you sign your name!
I didn't expect anything, one way or the other. I now I have expectations. I don't expect much. Maybe some more math?
D
Deleted member 118518
Guest
Karamojo Bell loved the 275 Rigby cartridge. He shot everything he could with that rifle. A highly experienced rifleman with decades of first hand know how who understood bullet placement better than anyone of his period. He most likely wanted to just prove it could be done or maybe he was getting financial inducements from Rigby. But he was not stupid or have a death wish. He went everywhere with a handful assistants who carried his big bores and were trained to use them. KB would walk thru the tall grass with the little Rigby and a bearer carrying a tripod ladder. Behind. When he was within a distance he was comfortable with the ladder was setup and the bearer would retreat behind the fellows with much bigger Rigbys. He climbed the ladder lined up on the elephants eye and pulled the trigger. The elephant went down. I think shock to the brain did kill many of them but there were probably some that were finished with a .416 Rigby or .500 double. Another thing he knew to do was he had to do this to the dominant bull. This eliminated the possibility of getting trampled by the dominant bull. He also had camera crews present filming some of these exploits. They required protection as well. But, to compare what he was doing to a herbivore in wide open spaces with a small army behind him is apples and oranges to what a guide and his client are doing in dense terrain in cold weather by themselves with huge carnivores with ginsu knives for toe nails. As for kinetic energy if you make me choose between getting hit with a five pound sharpened pencil or a ten pound cinder block. I'll take the pencil.
From my experience hunting with guides on Kodiak Island, I doubt if any guides will let you shoot a bear over 150yds because, they want to be able to back up your shot. The last thing a guide wants is a wounded bear he has to find and put down. Both bears I killed, fortunately with one well placed shot on each, the guides had me put another shot into for good measure. The first one I shot the guide was going to if I didn't. In both cases, my guides told me they rarely have clients that make one shot kills. The first time I was told this I thought the guide was just giving me a pat on the back but, after hearing stories in camp I believe them and feel fortunate.
