Mountain Rifle with Grizzly capability..your thoughts?
- Thread starter BCBAIRDO
- Start date
Boomers situation is totally different, it is his job to seek out and deal with bears in a very different set of circumstances than potentially bumping into one when hunting. He is also dealing with an entirely different animal with totally different habits and demeanors. I CAN tell you that when hiking last summer in the Yukon he was carrying my Mod 7 KS in 350 RM, which he figured was about perfect for the task at hand.
You would have been fun to sit next to during an upper island safety conference I attended last year... The top bear biologist for BC had a little bear aware seminar and she said several times that bear spray was better then a firearm... I lol each time she said it.
Personally bear spray is my warning shot...next up would be a 325 grain bullet from my 45/70 rifle.
Once the can I have is done I probably won't be replacing it with another one. Especially given the fact that the spray is almost more expensive then the ammo.
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What I'm learning from this thread:
There is no sheep/ griz gun. (I don't agree, jmho)
People with real world experiences carry a gun in Griz country.
People that read carry bear spray.
Old bush guys knew how to avoid conflict.
There is no sheep/ griz gun. (I don't agree, jmho)
People with real world experiences carry a gun in Griz country.
People that read carry bear spray.
Old bush guys knew how to avoid conflict.
I have real experience in grizz country and even experience dealing with bears (black and grizz) that have taken a particular interest in me.
When hunting in an area where I will be seeing grizzlies I carry whichever rifle is suitable for the game I am after AND I have bear spray on my packs waist belt. I do not select a firearm/bullet combo based on what I feel I may need to stop a charging bear.
When hiking/camping in grizz country I usually have a firearm...a marlin 30-30 with 170 grain softpoints. It spends most of it's time riding on my pack or leaning against a tree at camp. I still have bear spray on my packs waist belt as well when hiking to and from.
I trust bear spray (and my own situational awareness) enough to feel that I don't need to walk around a mountainside gripping my rifle and being ready to stop a charging grizzly.
I even had a chance to see bear spray work on a black bear once. Through the window screen of a camp shack no less. The spray blast lasted about a tenth of a second and the bear is still running for all I know.
I know a number of people who have taken an advanced problem bear training course, which involved quite a bit of shooting. Some of these people I know to be good shots on game. They all walked away feeling quite humbled by the charging bear simulator (a half sheet of plywood on some sort of track contraption that advances towards the shooter from 20m or 30m and you are not to shoot until it is 10m away). Turns out hitting something with any degree of accuracy that is coming towards you isn't that easy and takes quite a bit of practice to get it down (go figure!). Apparently the sheet of ply wood wasn't even moving as fast as a bear is known to move either.
I'm a decent shooter but realistically I don't have a great deal of confidence in my ability to make CNS hits on something rapidly moving towards me.
Perhaps I should do some fundraising for my local range to support building a charge simulator. I'd love to have a go it.
An easy way to practice that is using a rope tied to an empty five-gallon bucket. Set it out twenty-five yards or so, and have someone run away behind you as fast as they can. Begin with the rifle in your hand, or slung on your shoulder, and respond as soon as the can begins to move.
Most guys can get at least one shot off, a few two, and it's quite a humbling experience.
Ted
Most guys can get at least one shot off, a few two, and it's quite a humbling experience.
Ted
So the trappers of old were dealing with much less dangerous black bears than what we are today by your own statement. So how does the actions of the old timers have much bearing on how to treat the bears of today.
So what's the Marlin for when you are hiking\camping in Grizz country.
or let roll a tire on a slope filled with cardboard .....
not only black but any bears if there less hunted ones they loss the fear.
in the same when you have both a population of black and grizzly the blacks are a little more aggressive (competition). the same in some place where you meet polar and black bears the stress they push them to be more aggressive like I experimented on the Hudson bay.
there is no easy answers about bear human/ conflict and only if you have been there you can tell ...
as some said some never met any issues some had.
I sleep very while camping when some others can't so not an easy answer again.
then if you re between a sow and cubs or the meal that is a different story will it be black or grizz ...
in Europe the brown bear in most area are nocturnal because they learnt century ago about humane interaction, if tomorrow more hunters where hunting and killing bears then the story wont be the same ...
btw both of the meats are good to eat ...
Sometimes I think we tend to forget we're on CanadianGunNutz, not HuntBC or some of the other dedicated internet hunting forums.
Same as caliber wars, spray vs gun and fear of bears or lack thereof always seems to start a few dink measuring contests.
Long as we're of sound mind and legal,who really cares whether we are hunting or we are carrying for protection real or imagined?
God knows I just carry because I love guns. I can think of nothing more gratifying then ramblin' the hills with the latest greatest favourite rifle, the sun on my steel!
The OP seems to know his way around and has received some good info on caliber choices and rifle choices. As long as he doesn't feel under-gunned all is well. At the end of the day you have to "run what you brung" anyway.
Same as caliber wars, spray vs gun and fear of bears or lack thereof always seems to start a few dink measuring contests.
Long as we're of sound mind and legal,who really cares whether we are hunting or we are carrying for protection real or imagined?
God knows I just carry because I love guns. I can think of nothing more gratifying then ramblin' the hills with the latest greatest favourite rifle, the sun on my steel!
The OP seems to know his way around and has received some good info on caliber choices and rifle choices. As long as he doesn't feel under-gunned all is well. At the end of the day you have to "run what you brung" anyway.
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B/c I like guns...
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
That rifle was a joy to carry, and would be an excellent choice for the OP, if only it was still available. I'm having my Yukon trekking gun built as we speak, and I can only hope its nearly as good.
While we don 't have much grizzly experience, while in Alaska we did manage to get this young lady to pose . . .
I'm not a huge fan of bear spray. Perhaps its because the wind up here doesn't blow, it sucks, and a gusty 50 click breeze is not conducive to using bear spray without sharing the effect. A rifle cartridge that does all that the OP requires could be achieved in a 9.3X62. Its velocity with light bullets will have it shooting flat enough for mountain hunting, and with a good bullet of 270 grs or more, it will certainly be enough to handle the most truculent grizzly if you put one in the right place. The key will be to find a rifle that combines light weight and a handy length with this cartridge, a Tikka T-3 might fill the bill.
Humbling the man says, that's putting it gently Ted. Note how the bullets hit behind the pail! For those who haven't been bored by this video before, the rifle is a custom Brno 602 in .375 Ultra.
The black bears of today are only a little bit more dangerous than were the bears I wrote about and I pointed it out, just to be accurate in accounting of them.
How many bear attacks on humans did you have last year in Saskatchewan? Or the year before that? Or the year before that? or the year before------
I remembering a couple of years ago about reading of a bear killing a person in Quebec. The story on the news stated this was the second bear fatality on humans in Quebec in TWENTY TWO YEARS!
When was the last time you heard an official news report of a black bear killing a person, anywhere in Canada?
Pretty hard to consider them much of a hazard to hiking and camping in Canada, isn't it.
Two friends of mine were fly fishing on a small creek and river system in the late 1970s NE of Prince Albert Sask. when they were attacked by a Black Bear.
Both were cut up a fair bit because they were wearing waders and couldn't move fast in the middle of a stream with the current.
Both were big, husky lads ( off duty policemen ) and realizing they couldn't run , stood their ground and fought back.
Luckily one fellow had his filleting knife and managed to stab the bear several times after which the bear roaring the whole time ran back to the bank where it died.
The two men managed to get help and were rushed to hospital in PA.
Game wardens hauled the bear carcass in for an autopsy fearing Rabies and upon opening the bear's stomach found pieces of clothing that did not match the two fishermens clothing.
So after a search at the attack site the wardens found the body of another fisherman that had been partially eaten and had only been reported missing that same day of the attack on my buddies.
The bear in question did not have Rabies but was rather skinny and had an infection in its mouth from Porcupine quills.
The reason that you don't see many people killed by bears is because people have learned how to avoid encounters and take the proper precautions. That does not mean that bears are not a threat, but quite the opposite. People take precautions, bears are removed from campgrounds or killed. I would say anybody involved in camping and other outdoor activities consider them a very real hazard, which is what keeps them safe.
That being said a bear is an animal with a mind of it's own which means I can't control it's actions, so I will continue to consider them a threat. If you and the old time trappers want to mock me, go ahead. I won't be the next guy to be killed by a bear.
