Hunting Grizzly with the 45-70

This thread would be pretty short if it was limited to those that have actually shot a grizz...
It would be even shorter if it was limited to those that have actually shot a grizz with a 45-70.

Hunting from the couch with the keyboard seems to get the most mileage, as does using imagination and pretend to do the shooting.

Again, pretty easy to tell the ones that have, from the ones that haven't.

R.

Bingo we have a winner.
 
Following you around? Get over yourself. Were all 8 rounds needed? Maybe not. Why on earth would you not keep shooting once you've wounded him? Why wouldn't you use the biggest possible cartridge you had access to? to question bearkilr who probably gets more experience bear hunting in one year than you will in 10 years is ... (you fill in the blank yourself)

You know, I didn't question bearkilr, I questioned a youtube video he saw. Like I said: read.
 
My apologies. You're right, you never questioned him.


...I've seen a video shot by a close friend who guides, and in it a large inland boar soaks up 8 (yes,8) rounds of 378 Weatherby without much sign of "bang flop" or "instant stopping power", and with each hit he gets more and more angry, biting at the impact and showing little effect. This is at distances from 200-300 yards. He finally succumbs to his wounds, but not until after shredding everything in sight. While this is perhaps not normal behaviour, few things in hunting are normal and routine...

"Biting at the impact", huh?

Well now we know you can piss off a grizzly by shooting it in the ass 8 times. Good to know! :)
 
I shot my last interior grizzly skull measured 24 3/16" with a 375RUM loaded with 300gr Partitions its performance is fairly close to that of the 378 Wby.

Shot entered almost perfectly centre on the right chest/lungs watched the bear snap at where the bullet hit bullet exited thru the offside front leg there was an 6" hole out the offside rib cage took out both lungs bear made it 80 yards into the thickest jumble of thick bush that I have ever had to track an animal thru.

It was getting dark when we started to head into the thick stuff to find it so we turned around and came back in the morning I was then packing my Marlin 1895GS loaded with 525gr hard cast wide meplat Beartooth Piledrivers @ 1600fps.

If a guy shot a grizzly 8 times with a 378 Wby and it was still standing the fellow was doing something wrong either extremely poor shot placement or he was using bullets that did not expand.
 
This thread has been very informative. I have learned that a 45/70 will either bounce off a bear or slay the heck out of it, that a 378 WBY is not a good bear gun and that shooting animals at 300 yards is not actually hunting, it's target shooting.

:)
 
Did you find that the TBBC just penciled right though?. As in the bullet was too stiff to expand due to the speed at 200y.

No pretty sure none of them exited actually, which I don't think is a bad thing. Between two Grizzlies five were plugged into them, dead bears and decently so, but I suspect would have been better off with a 150 or 180 in an Accubond, Partition, or the like. Dogleg's .300 Ultra with a 180 Accubond remains the quickest Grizzly kill I've seen.

One of the recovered 200gr TBBCs.


 
Thanks for the info Angus,

I planning on trying the TBBC for some big coastal blackies this year. I've heard good things, but I'm more familiar with the Accubonds.

That looks like a brute of a grizz.
 
Only ever shot one grizzly and that was with a .338 Win mag and the old style 225gr Hornady's.........made it less than 20 yards.Harold
 
This thread has been very informative. I have learned that a 45/70 will either bounce off a bear or slay the heck out of it, that a 378 WBY is not a good bear gun and that shooting animals at 300 yards is not actually hunting, it's target shooting.

:)

winter is always a good time to learn new things ...

remind me a story in CAR with a small buffalo (not the cape one but bigger than the forest one ...) a hunter insisted to use a 378 with factory ammo despite my boss advice .... the bullets never even wounded the buffalo seems deflected by the skin or his hoofs .... the noise starting to make the situation not very comfortable and ended with a 460 shot ....

i do not know for the distance but i think a grizzly hunt need more respect by getting closer .... the 378 with a good bullet and shot placement is not even in question now if you had in the equation the human being and having to keep your nerf at low level is not working for everybody ...

for the 45/70 i do not know as never thinking getting one, we all know it is working but i will not choose that caliber but that is just me ...
 
More than one grizzly guide has said that they prefer a 75-150 yard shot on grizzly. It's close enough for their hunter to make a good shot, and it's far enough for them to react if the grizzly decides to fight. These guys all have had plenty of experience, and their logic seems good to me. Last grizzly I almost dropped the hammer on was about 50 yards and advancing, so well within the distance where things can start to get interesting.
 
I agree Gate except your lucky you didn't have to drop the hammer on that tiny 375 Ruger you pack you would have got ate...
 
Dogleg's .300 Ultra with a 180 Accubond remains the quickest Grizzly kill I've seen.

Like Douglas and reloading, Dogleg is a poor barometer of hunters and their skills. That man has shot more tons of wild game than most non-professionals. I don't think that many others can claim to equal his game-shooting chops.
 
Like Douglas and reloading, Dogleg is a poor barometer of hunters and their skills. That man has shot more tons of wild game than most non-professionals. I don't think that many others can claim to equal his game-shooting chops.

You strike a good point. Suspect he's ahead of nearly all the professionals too.

For all my criticism of the .45-70 should note we're talking hunting rifles, not backup guns. In my opinion the .45-70 fares better as a backup rifle for a guide than a grizzly hunting rifle and by good measure. Reason being the only thing that's stopping a charging bear is a CNS hit, quite different from a shot under relaxed circumstances at a hundred yards in hunting circumstances. Many lever guns are quick handling, pointing, and have intuitive safeties. Given you can't hope for much of a shock effect after the adrenaline has spiked in the bear, if the guide likes a levergun and that's what he shoots best in a hurry, can see the application there.
 
I used to load my 300RUM with 180gr Scirroco's @ 3880fps I can see why/how Dogleg flattened a grizzly quickly with a 180gr Accubond.

I now load my 300RUM with 200gr Accubonds and 200gr A-Frames @ 3200fps.

My son put a 200gr A-Frame length-ways thru a 8' grizzly.

The 300RUM is an awesome cartridge...
 
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