Hunting rifle

trugracie said:
Yep! I'd say bear spray as well. Studies have shown that a bear can be hunted and shot while its eating or distracted, but once they charge they don't seem to feel the pain or mind the noise from a rifle/gun shot, of course unless you're lucky to get a kill shot.
Mace/spray in other hand affects their visibility and sense of smell immediately no matter how pissed they are.
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That is ridiculous. I must have missed the study where they repeatedly shot charging bears in a laboratory setting, then asked the wounded bears how they felt. :rolleyes:

There is also the fact that pain doesn't kill anything. So depending on a close range last ditch nonlethal device that under perfect conditions can only irritate a bear is not advisable.

There is no way to guarantee bear safety except maybe by not going where there are bears.

I would carry at least a Magnum revolver. Having some pepper spray might be nice too, but I wouldn't bet my life on it. Maybe you will run into a bear that likes spicy food.
 
seanystrangle said:
Sorry this maybe way off topic if so just close it and sorry.
But I'm looking for a light weight hunting rifle to take hunting in Alaska I'd be hunting like moose being the biggest but I'd also want it to help with oh shit bear encounters I was thinking 45-70 or 30-06 what can you all recommend?
Thanks in advance
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If you are going on a guieded hunt,
The guide will not let you hunt with a 30-06 btw on of my fave Rifles,
I believe they the guides or the outfitter will tell you the minimum rifle you can go with.................
I do know I had to buy a new cal rifle I don't remember what it was though
 
bear spray is the way to go, and its fairly cheap for what it can do...

as far as a hunting rifle you can never go wrong with a remington 700. ive been using them since i was 12 and they have never let me down. as far as a hunting round, i have used a remington .300 ultra mag for the past 8 years. i cant say enough good things about this round. Ive used it on antelope, mule deer, and primarily white tail and it performs flawlessly. its a little expensive but you get what you pay for. as far as a light rifle i use a christiansen arms. their carbon fiber rifles are amazing and very light. I combined mine with a swarovski scope and its perfect. but thats just my .02 cents. good luck on the hunt.
 
If you want a big caliber lever action, with more umph than a 45/70 google 50alaskan, its chambered in a modified marlin guide gun. It is made up in alaska, and expressly used up there.

Someone said 338lapua, EVEN if you reload for it, the brass is a couple dollars around, and the componets after that will cost you over a dollar. If you are going to hunt, the gun should be shot enough so you have a basic dope on it and a firm understanding of the firearm. The expense of the 338lapua to me, isnt justifiable, unless you are looking to routinely going past the 1300yd mark, under that, their are a lot more affordable cartridges.
 
I would rather bet my life on a big heavy piece of lead then some relish at the local mexican restaraunt. Come to think of it I have never heard or PH in africa using pepper spray to stop big mean nastys coming to kill anyone, they prefer the heavy leaded approach. Just my .02 cents since I have never been charged, but I know what I would do.
 
the 375 h&h is still a great gun you might think about that if your not comfortable with a 45/70. the marlin guide gun is light and hard hitting i've carried one alot.

but for bear defense up close dont forget the good old pump 12 gauge.

pepper spray is a good idea to.

take it easy
cricket
 
I met a guy at the range who used a 7mm magnum to take down a bear, ( i think it was a grizzely but not sure) at 1050 yards. He let me fire the rifle and it was pretty sweet, I think it was a rem 700 in a knoxx pistol grip stock.
 
I know I'm not the most dexterous man on the planet, but there is no way I could hunt with my 30.06, a shotgun full of slugs, and my pack.

When bear charges you it's not going to be from 500 yards off where you can calmly get you crap together. Someone said with bear spray you'll have to be fairly close. Yeah, you'll be fairly close and very quickly. I stumbled on a black bear this last year hunting. We noticed each other at the same time. No more than 20 yards apart. It was actually pretty funny, you could tell we both scared the hell out of each other. The bear grunted and took off through the forest like a wrecking ball. I've hunted bear but this face to face left me shaking pretty good. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I would have actually had to try and get a kill shot from 20 yards at a charging bear.
 
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Agreed on minimum calibers. Lots of outfitters won’t let you hunt with anything under X caliber. Not because the round won’t do it perhaps but because they’ve never seen you shoot and don’t want to be tracking or losing wounded game all over the country side.
 
30.06 just might be the best cartridge if you can only have one rifle. You can get 120-220grain bullets. The .45-70 is great cartridge if you are close! If I was going on a bear hunt...had money to spend...I'd likely get a .300 Win mag or .338. The .300 would be great for deer and elk too.

.44 mag is great handgun AND ammo is easily found. Problem with .454, .500S&W, etc is it is hard to find ammo everywhere.
 
imaginefj said:
30.06 just might be the best cartridge if you can only have one rifle. You can get 120-220grain bullets. The .45-70 is great cartridge if you are close! If I was going on a bear hunt...had money to spend...I'd likely get a .300 Win mag or .338. The .300 would be great for deer and elk too.

.44 mag is great handgun AND ammo is easily found. Problem with .454, .500S&W, etc is it is hard to find ammo everywhere.
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Absolutely. .30-06 is like the SAK of rifle rounds. There's a reason it's still so popular after all these years. Remember the old Winchester rounds that were a .223 bullet in a plastic sabot loaded in .30-06 brass? Dad got a box of those somehow when I was a kid.
 
Thank you everyone! Can anyone recommend a company that make a 30-06 my budget is about 1.5k sorry just trying to compare prices and weight/ size with a marlin guide gun
 
MHill said:
I know I'm not the most dexterous man on the planet, but there is no way I could hunt with my 30.06, a shotgun full of slugs, and my pack.

When bear charges you it's not going to be from 500 yards off where you can calmly get you crap together. Someone said with bear spray you'll have to be fairly close. Yeah, you'll be fairly close and very quickly. I stumbled on a black bear this last year hunting. We noticed each other at the same time. No more than 20 yards apart. It was actually pretty funny, you could tell we both scared the hell out of each other. The bear grunted and took off through the forest like a wrecking ball. I've hunted bear but this face to face left me shaking pretty good. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I would have actually had to try and get a kill shot from 20 yards at a charging bear.
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I agree, and perhaps should have worded my post a bit better. I certainly distinguish between carrying for hunting and carrying for protection/defense. When working in the bush I carry a shotgun most of the time, but this is strictly for defense against an attack from a bear, the rifle stays in camp. While hunting I would certainly never bring both rifle and shotgun.

I've had black bears charge on several occasions, and it can certainly be intimidating, luckily on each occasion there was ample time to react (they were spotted well before charging). I have seen a bear "charge" from about 400m out (or is it simply called "running" if they are that far away), it spotted me, stood on its hind legs, sniffed the air, then ran at me full speed, it closed that distance surprsingly fast! I fired two pen bangers at it when it was about 50m out, which scared it away temporarily, giving me plenty time to radio the helicopter to drive it away.

I've worked around grizzlys in Alaska but luckily never had a real run-in with one. Most of the local guys I worked with there opted for 44mag revolvers, with Ruger and Taurus the most popular choices. I have carried a revolver in the past, but in Canada the government keeps making it harder and harder to get the required carry permit (they are now very region specific with short validity periods, and they have just implemented a timed range proficiency test that must be passed before permit issuance).

Polar bears are the ones that really scare me as they are such effective predators, chances are I would never have a chance to get the shotgun off my pack in time, luckily I've not run into one on the ground face-to-face, I've seen plenty from the relative safety of the helicopter. The polar bears I have seen were not scared by the helicopter noise like black and brown bears, in fact I've seen polar bears stand on their hind legs and try to swat the helicopter out of the air! Luckily they spend most of their time out at the pack-ice hunting seals and not wandering around inland looking for humans to feed on!

If I was going hunting specifically for Grizzly/Brown/Kodiacs/Polar bear I would opt to buy a larger calibre rifle, perhaps a .300 win mag or a 375 H&H.
 
seanystrangle said:
Thank you everyone! Can anyone recommend a company that make a 30-06 my budget is about 1.5k sorry just trying to compare prices and weight/ size with a marlin guide gun
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I love my Sako, smoothest action I own, but my next will be a Tikka (22-250 T3 Super Varmint for coyotes)

Don't forget to budget for quality optics, probably about the same or close to the same as what you plan to spend on the rifle!
 
Router said:
Yeah, being as they don't stop all pumped-up large humans immediately, maybe they will change a ticked-off charging grizzly's mind. ;)
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I just saw this new wildlife Taser in the news last week, but the $2000 price tag is a bit prohibitive :)

_50884214_wildlife_taser_01.jpg
 
I was going to chime in about the .30-06, but it sounds like there's already a chorus.

I have a Remington 700 ADL in .30-06 with a Leupold scope, and it cost me less than $1000. Some variant of the Winchester Model 70, Remington 700 or Savage (110 I think) should serve you well. You should be able to the rifle and a Leupold VX-II or maybe even VX-III, including mounts and a nice sling for less than your budget.

SP
 
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