Posted on 08/24/2013 7:26:28 PM PDT by marktwain
So, my good friend Johnny Walker is in Kodiak, Alaska teaching kids how to ride horses and shoot guns while riding horses. He had to rent the horses for his project and the deal was, he had to help the rancher round up some cattle first. Seems like the bears were eating too many of them.
Johnny: “What do you do when you see a grizzly?”
Rancher: “Shoot ‘em. Shoot everyone I see.”
Johnny: “What do you shoot them with?”
Rancher: “My two, forty, three.”
Johnny: “Really? Why do you use a .243?”
Rancher: “Well, I can find ammo for it anywhere and at anytime. And, it kills them.”
Johnny told me he didn’t feel so bad with a .45 Colt on his hip after that conversation.
I once say a news tape of cops killing a rogue elephant with 9mm handguns. I have no idea how many shots but is was obviously a lot.
There seems to be a rough agreement that the .375 H&H is the minimum for the large brown bear or Grizzly.
The .375 is my choice for anything that bites back. The recoil is a bit much shooting off the bench but when you have hair in the scope you will not even feel it go off.
Exactly how many was that...?
Exactly. I used to live in Alaska, and I’ve never heard of someone intentionally going after a Brownie with something as small as a .243.
In a way I agree with you. If I were personally hunting dangerous, large game, I would use something like an 8mm Remington magnum or 338 mag, or even a .458. One of the Marlins in 45-70 would seem OK too.
On the other hand, WDM Bell killed more elephants than any man ever and he not only used those small calibers but he also recommended them for others. Karamojo Bell had more adventures in his life than 10 men would probably ever have. I would not laugh off what he had to say and yes a 160 grain .264 diameter bullet has a tremendous sectional density and that was what he wanted.
I was station in AK the 1980’s twice and 30-06 with 220gn bullets were common for a bear gun. Heard a lot stories about guys on Kodiak using them with great success.
375HH were also popular.
The only person I knew who personally took a Grizz used a Savage 110 shooting 7mmMag.
Black Bears and Moose were taken with 30-30, 30-06 and even 12g.
$89 was a pretty darn good deal!
My daughter - posted on Kodiak with her Coast Guard hubby - is going out tonight ‘stalking bears’ - with a camera.
NOw I'll be up all night with visions of that huge claw filled paw in that photo - and since they're 4 hours behind us, time wise, I won't hear from her until late morning!
Sorry I am going to have a 44 magnum or more with a grizzly bear. I plan for worst case. A .243 is not going to stop a charging Grizzly or a Kodiak.
Story of a Field and Stream interview with a forest ranger in Alaska asking about being out in bear country. The ranger said you should always have a pistol with you in case you were attacked by a Grizzly bear.
The next month some old timers from the Yukon wrote back and offered the additional advice that you should first file down the front sight on that pistol. That way it wouldn’t hurt so much when the bear stuffed it up your butt.
I’m with you! 44mag on the belt, and my 458mag as the long gun.
I have no intention of getting et!
I respect you
I own a Mossberg pump
Never hunted bear.....I’ll just watch Shockley...lol
Whitetail
Turkey
Dove
Hog
Duck
I was talking to a helicopter mechanic in Alaska. He often had to fly out to grounded choppers and carried an Uzi, fully automatic. He liked to have it across his back while he worked in the field.
I said, “A .45 caliber round won’t stop a grizzly, will it?” His reply was “No. But 30 of them will.”
I appears that the rancher in the story is not hunting grizzlys. He is merely killing them as pests.
I would not use a .243, myself, as I do not think it would have enough penetration at a number of angles.
However, I remember a conversation I and my brother were having about “elk” rifles. My 80+ year old uncle, who was an absolutely superb woodsman, a professional trapper all his life (until 93) who had shot lots of elk, spoke up and said “a .243 is plenty for elk”.
I’ve got a Mossberg .270 and love it. need to take it to the range.
When I bought the .243 I debated about getting the .270 instead.
My final decision was based on one of the criteria mentioned in the original post. It seemed (around here anyway) that the .243 ammo was far more plentiful.
In fact, even with the current shortages, I’ve never not been able to buy the .243.
Now it’s true that the .270 has a slightly larger parent case and a slightly heavier grain slug. But deer is about the biggest thing we shoot around here. In fact it is only recently that the state started allowing deer hunting with rifles. (They were starting to overpopulate.)
Anyway, for the distances involved and the game in question the .243 is plenty.
Well a 44 mag pistol is a lot better than a .243 rifle any day.
You are a man of few words. Good ones though.
Reminded me of a friend of mine who was seriously wounded in Vietnam but survived and lives happily to this day. Long ago (I was in my mid-teens when the war ended) he told me how since he was that tallest man in his unit--tall skinny farmboy, really had no idea where he was or what he was doing--he was 'elected' to carry the BAR.
I thought that was really cool and I managed shyly to ask him if he'd killed lots of 'gooks' with it, something stupid like that.
He said (if I remember correctly) no that mainly it was used to knock down the water buffalo in the rice paddies 'cause they could be dangerous as hell.
It makes no difference why he wants to kill them it takes the same amount of energy to kill them either way. A .243 will kill an elk. I have a rancher friend in Idaho who kills a nice elk with a 22-250 every year. He sits in his blind and head shoots them when they come down to feed on his ranch. It is not often that you can create the situation where you have a good rest and a clear close head shot on an elk. It works for him but would not work up the mountain in the trees and brush. One more point, elk almost never attack when wounded or flushed out at close quarters big bear do.
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