Grizzly/Brown bear

[Guy Miner]

Mr. Miner

I saw this the other day but forgot to respond to it.

My mother and father hunter the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia and said the bears were big and plentiful.

This may be another option for some to consider when deciding where they want to hunt the big bears, in addition to Alaska and Canada.

Jamila

oh btw, they did not take me with them )-:

Thanks AH! I spent a career trying to figure out how to invade the Soviet Union via the Kamchatka Peninsula... :mrgreen:

I understand the bears are big, the remaining Siberian Tigers prey on the bears :shock: and that the salmon & steelhead fishing is unreal... Like Alaska was 100 years ago...

Guy

 

[SJB358]

Mr. Miner

I saw this the other day but forgot to respond to it.

My mother and father hunter the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia and said the bears were big and plentiful.

This may be another option for some to consider when deciding where they want to hunt the big bears, in addition to Alaska and Canada.

Jamila

oh btw, they did not take me with them )-:

Thanks AH! I spent a career trying to figure out how to invade the Soviet Union via the Kamchatka Peninsula... :mrgreen:

I understand the bears are big, the remaining Siberian Tigers prey on the bears :shock: and that the salmon & steelhead fishing is unreal... Like Alaska was 100 years ago...

Guy

Great info Jamila. Almost forgot about Russia. I remembered awhile back they had some great bear hunts for good prices too.

Guy, trying to get the Corps to invade places I'd like to go has been a mission in futility.... Let me know if you have any tips..

 

[DrMike]

Mr. Miner

I saw this the other day but forgot to respond to it.

My mother and father hunter the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia and said the bears were big and plentiful.

This may be another option for some to consider when deciding where they want to hunt the big bears, in addition to Alaska and Canada.

Jamila

oh btw, they did not take me with them )-:

Thanks AH! I spent a career trying to figure out how to invade the Soviet Union via the Kamchatka Peninsula... :mrgreen:

I understand the bears are big, the remaining Siberian Tigers prey on the bears :shock: and that the salmon & steelhead fishing is unreal... Like Alaska was 100 years ago...

Guy

Great info Jamila. Almost forgot about Russia. I remembered awhile back they had some great bear hunts for good prices too.

Guy, trying to get the Corps to invade places I'd like to go has been a mission in futility.... Let me know if you have any tips..

Yeah, it does seem as if the Corps only invades places where no one really wants to be.

Like Alaska was 100 years ago...

You mean there were tigers in Alaska? Wow, and I missed that in my younger days. :shock:

 

[Guy Miner]

LOL! :mrgreen:

 

[Thebear_78]

I was just talking to a buddy of mine tonight that took a nice 8.5’ brown bear this spring. It was an older bear, teeth ground down and hardly any ears left. He was clearly on the decline but still an excellent bear. I was admiring the skull tonight, you can really see their age when you look at they teeth, the wear and cracking of teeth, and long white claws are good characteristics of an older mature bear. Holding a skull that you could fit your head inside gives you a good idea of how awesome these animals are.

He and his hunting buddy were both using 45/70 guide guns. Alan was using 400gr barnes busters and his buddy was shooting remington 405gr factory ammo. Between the two of them they shot his bear 7 times from 20-35 yards. The final shot was a spine shot with the 405 rem load, the jacket was found in the spine, and core was opened up like a silver dollar below the spine. All of the barnes busters completely penetrated the bear, first shot taking out both shoulders and front of lungs. Second shot rear lung/liver shot, third was low shoulder/brisket, 4th was left of spine exiting front of chest. The other two rem 405 loads failed to penetrate the shoulder and neck muscles and opened up flat and shed core. Even after the final shot the bear growled and popped his teeth for another minute or so.

The lungs were shredded, the liver blown open, and two vertebrae cracked. Still took this older boar quite a bit of time to give up the ghost. They can be tough SOBs at times. It never ceases to amaze me how they can react to getting shot. Sometimes they can soak up lead like a sponge showing almost no reaction, others they tip over at the shot never to move again. It's quite a difference between this bear and one my buddies wife took with a 30-30, she put one in the heart with a 170gr nosler Partition. Dropped him like flicking a light switch.

The area these guys bait is a fairly steep hillside of broken timber. These hillsides get regular avalanches so there are scattered downed trees resembling a large scale game of pick up sticks. This kind of close dense cover is tailor made for the guide gun. Alan was pretty happy with his penetration but thinks a heavy bonded soft point might do better for tissue damage, his partner was not impressed with the rem 405gr load and will be switching to something different for next year. He had used it successfully on black bear in the past but it didn’t hold up to the bigger bear.

I think the down side to the 45/70 is you don’t get that immediate energy transfer. Penetration is great, and you get good terminal damage but it lacks that quick immobilizing shock value that you get with the faster rounds. I’m going to be hunting with him in this area this spring and will be using my 375 rum, or my 458 Lott if its finished. Hunting these big bears in thick, close timber in coastal areas is a whole different ball game than arctic barren ground bears, or more open mountain side and valley hunting of the interior.

 

[DrMike]

I was impressed with the performance of my .356 on grizzly. I was shooting 220 grain Speer FN bullets. I got complete penetration with most bullets. I found a couple of cores and one bullet that had penetrated well over four feet of muscle. First shot broke both shoulders. I would think that the 45/70 would be a great round for close work. Penetration should be sufficient even with 300 grain bullets. In the thick stuff you describe, it would be a fine rifle to use.

 

[Guy Miner]

Remington's factory 405 gr load routinely only clocks 1100 - 1300 fps from most rifles. It's pretty wimpy in the realm of .45/70 loads.

Considering that any handloader can coax nearly 2,000 fps out of the same bullet, with published loads. I'd love to see Nosler come out with 350 & 400 gr Partitions specifically for the .45/70 cartridge!

Big ol' grizz sure seem like tough characters!

Mike, a lot of the 300's on the market are intended just for deer hunting, and open really fast, with poor penetration. I've had some of those 300 gr JHP's just fly apart, even at only 1800 fps muzzle velocity (factory spec).

Guy

 

[SJB358]

I would love to see a Nosler 350 Partition. Their 300 was amazing in the penetration department, usually going 7 jugs and sometimes 8. A 350 wouldn't penetrate further but it might do more damage with an increased frontal area.

Then again, those old cast bullets are pretty tough to beat in the 45-70. If the meplat is wide they plow through some meat.

 

[Thebear_78]

I shot the guide gun a few years ago and a lot of my buddies shoot the 45/70. My buddy the gunsmith used to run the shop at Wild West Guns before he branched off on his own. Between the group of us we have done a lot of experimenting with 45/70 bullets for big game.

The Reming 300s and 405s are really too soft for the big stuff. The 405 has a track record of failing at the anemic factory levels so I wouldn’t recommend pushing them any harder. The hornady FXT load is another one I would never recommend on big game. The examples I have seen used open up too much and penetration is poor.

The bullets that shine are 405gr Kodiak bonded, 350gr kodiak bonded, 350gr speer Hot core, 350 interlocks, and 400gr Swift. The non expanding flat point bullets that I have seen work well are barnes 400gr buster, 425gr and 525 WFNGC from bear tooth bullets, 420 WLNGC and 460gr WFNGC from cast performance and Jae-bok young’s Crater and crater light.

For my guide gun I ran starling brass and H322 52.0gr and 405gr remington JSP for practice, and 405gr kodiak bonded for hunting. They ran right at 1900 and 1930fps respectively. It shot great and the 405gr kodiaks would penetrate completely thru a 2’ thick spruce tree. I really enjoyed my guide gun but rarely hunted with it. It seemed that I would always grab one of my bolt guns when it came to crunch time. Sadly it was one of the rifles let go to pay for my daughters birth. Sometimes I wish I could trade her back for all those rifles!!

Remington 405 on the left Kodiak on the right


My tricked out Guide gun

 

[Vince]

Why does the name Core Loss keep ringing a bell with me?

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[SJB358]

Heard great things about the Kodiaks. Are they still available?

 

[Oldtrader3]

I have a 9.3x74R, shooting 287 gr Partitions for such times. Only grizzly that I have seen up close was in Grey's River drainage in WY but I was carrying my .270 for deer.

 

[sask boy]

Thank you all for posting it has been very interesting .

Blessings,
Dan

 

[Thebear_78]

The 9.3 will get the job done. I have a 9.3x62 and have been running that 286gr Partition exclusively for several years now. I'm getting close to 2500fps with that bullet and after seeing it work on moose have no doubt it will work on any North American game.

 

[DrMike]

The 9.3 will get the job done. I have a 9.3x62 and have been running that 286gr Partition exclusively for several years now. I'm getting close to 2500fps with that bullet and after seeing it work on moose have no doubt it will work on any North American game.

I built my 9.3X64 specifically for the big bears. I wanted something that would drop them right smartly. I have no doubt that this will do so.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I get the same velocity as the 9.3x62 in my 74R because of the larger case and lower pressures. I am pretty confident the a 286 Partition at 2470 will kill anything that I want to shoot at, at least in North America. Plus, the Partitions in my rifle with IMR4350 will do 5-shot shot MOA groups at 100 yards. Close enough for the big stuff.