Hunting Kodiak Island with a .375-caliber H&H rifle, Oberlitner always figured he was pretty well protected. The cartridge traces its history to the British company Holland & Holland, which designed it in 1912 for hunting dangerous African game — lions and tigers. It has even been used in Africa for hunting elephants and water buffalo, and has long been thought to be near the ultimate stopper for bears in Alaska.
Where I live just a few miles north of Wasilla, Alaska I keep in the house ready in an instant a fully loaded short barreled Remington Model 11 semi auto 12 gauge loaded with slugs.
I have a Winchester Model 70 in .375H&H, in .300WIN and a 7MM, then I have the Ruger M77 Mk2 which is stainless in .338Win and it has a rubber coated fiberglass stock, thats my prime hunting rifle, whats nice is that it along with the Winchester can chamber a cartridge even upside down.
My preferred choice of bullets that I reload are the Barnes all copper Triple Shocks, I don’t actively hunt bear but if I did I would probably use the Barnes solids. We do have black bears and whe I go fishing I keep my Glock 20 in 10mm with me and I handload hot rounds in it.
I know of one group of guys up here that find the high ground and look for bear but they do it from a LONG way away, and they use a 50BMG that has a saboted round of .375 caliber. If I had to use anything against a Kodiak brown bear I would grab a .378 Weatherby, or a .460 Weatherby.
The .338 is the smallest rifle most guides will allow when hunting the browns up here, and yes they do carry 12 gauge slug rifles, more fast follow up shots than a bolt rifle.