.300 Win Mag Enough For Grizzly/Kodiak?

[Mr.Blue]

I've seen it ranked as the lowest acceptable for brown bear. Is it good enough for bear defense while hunting elk or carribou?

 

[dprice3844444]

yup

 

[H&Hhunter]

Use a good quality controlled expansion bullet in 180 gr weight or heavier and the answer is definitely yes.

 

[caribou]

Yes.

 

[Loosedhorse]

I'd prefer a .375. But a .300 WM wouldn't give me any worries.

 

[wyohome]

I would not buy one for that purpose, but it is a lot of weapon with the right bullet.

 

[AK_Maine_iac]

Yes

 

[Supertac45]

Absolutely with a good bullet.

 

[Sav .250]

I`ve never shot the above mentioned animals but if the possibilty of one of the big bears was possible, You can bet I`d go with something that would take care of business.
The 300 Wm, is good but Why guess? My choice would be a 375 HH.
If you ever have a face to face with one of the biggies, You surely don`t want "acceptable" but rather.... preferred. That can mean other cals to other folks. That`s fine as well.

 

[brnmuenchow]

Yes, if you think a .30-06 is good enough for defense in the American wilderness, than the .300 Win. Mag. is just icing on the cake.
If I were hunting a brown bear that I would go with something bigger.

 

[sixgunner455]

Listen to caribou. He kills them with a Mosin-Nagant rifle. .300 magnum is just more of the same goodness.

 

[DM~]

The 300 Win. mag is MORE than enough for the biggest bears....

It will easily do the jos AS LONG AS you use good bullets... My personal experience has been with 200NP's, but 220NP's would be a good choise too. The best part is, 200NP's work very well on elk, deer and moose too!

The secret is, in useing good bullets, and then you will have excellent big bear medicine!

DM

 

[brnmuenchow]

Mosin Nagant's for sure work. Most Russian's only had a Mosin Nagant to survive in their wilderness and they have some "BIG" brown bears!

 

[MrSpiffy]

If you're concerned about the .300WM being too weak, perhaps you'll want to give this guy a call.

On a more serious note, it'll do just fine if you put your shot in the proper place and use proper ammo. It wouldn't bother me to have that on me for protection from almost anything on the planet.

 

[caribou]

Mosin Nagants are more than enough, and .300Wm is plenty powerfull, and wll proven.

My oldest son uses a .300WM on Oogruk, Beluga, Walrus and PolarBears.

I use a Mosin on all my hunts, plenty of my old posts have vids of that.

 

[MCgunner]

I`ve never shot the above mentioned animals but if the possibilty of one of the big bears was possible, You can bet I`d go with something that would take care of business.
The 300 Wm, is good but Why guess? My choice would be a 375 HH.

Because the OP is hunting "elk or caribou" (didn't know they had elk in Alaska) with a 300 and I doubt he wants to take two rifles hunting and he probably doesn't wanna buy a .375 on the off chance he has to defend himself against a bear. Just my guess.

Are there big brownies in caribou country? I thought they were all standard griz up north, brownies on the southern coast? Maybe they range up the Bearing straight to the north?

Ah, whatever, the .300 with a good controlled expansion bullet is a good penetrator. Bud of mine has a BAR in .300 win mag. That would give you an instant second shot, but that rifle is HEAVY to tote around very far in rough country.

If I were going to buy one gun for Alaska, Browning has a BLR in .325WSM. Only thing, i've heard this caliber is limited in the bullet weights it can utilize, but I love the gun and the caliber is impressive on paper. With a good premium controlled expansion bullet, it might be the ticket if one were going to actually BUY a new gun for Alaska. .338 is a popular round up there and, on paper, is about on par with .325WSM.

 

[caribou]

Grizz become Browns by walking over lines on a map in Alaska.......... The three times I have looked up a map of such, I got 3 different maps, so go figure ~~LOL!!~~

Everywhere theres Alaska, there are Brown Bears, they roam wide and far thats why my Bear pistol is my Rifle.

 

[Kachok]

While I would perfer a 338 or 375 the hunters I knew in Russia used 7.62x54R. Just as with all anamals if you place your shot just right it does not take a cannon to put them down, but if one chargers you the larger caliber does have a little more stopping power. I would recommend a heavy controled expansion bullet to ensure enough penatration, most .30 cal bullets are not designed to drive that deep.

 

[DM~]

Elk in Alaska are mostly on one island near Kodiak Island, and big bears are on all of those islands.

All i can say is, if you can't get it done with a properly loaded 300 Win. Mag., you can't get it done with anything bigger either!

DM