best gun for polar bear protec/hunting
- Thread starter hillbilly deluxe
- Start date
Just waiting for "Boomer" to chime in. I think he's the resident expert. The guy lives in Churchill MB., so he's probably got more experience then the rest of us put together.
As for myself, it's a 450 Marlin all the way. And no I don't want to hear about those wimpy 45-70's.
As for myself, it's a 450 Marlin all the way. And no I don't want to hear about those wimpy 45-70's.
I agree.
I've got a Ross M-1910 wild catted to 35/303 that was done up in the Yukon that I seem to recall the seller telling me the previous owner had it for bear protection and hunting. Not Polar Bears, but Alaskan browns are bad enough, plus your not going to get as much range as on the open tundra.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Me too, but in the meantime I'll vote .375. It's not that I know anything about polar bears, it's that I know a three seven five is never a totally bad choice for anything.
The parameters surrounding the choice of cartridge for a polar bear defensive are no different than the cartridge choice for protection from any other dangerous game animal. Simple choose the most powerful cartridge you can use competently under the given circumstances. If you are recoil hardened go as big as you like, if you are recoil sensitive you should probably consider the .30/06 as the upper limit of your choice, and then it should be in an 8 pound rifle. However, I think it is a mistake to go smaller than a 6.5X55 with heavy round nose bullets.
The rifle might take a bit more thought than the cartridge as conditions along the coast when the bears are about can range from pleasant to atrocious; with high winds, freezing rain, or snow, and all can occur on the same day. Your rifle must have an operating system that shrugs off the elements with minimal amount of additional effort. Under some circumstances, power can be a disadvantage, consider what might happen when pushing through a thick stand of willows and you must shoot from an unsteady position or one handed. Ditto for the fellow who has access to an ATC. While a handgun bullet must be able to penetrate well, and a foot of penetration is the absolute minimum, heavy recoil can get you into trouble if you do need a fast repeat shot.
But there is more to bear defense then the choice of a powerful rifle or shotgun. Most Kabloona's fall far short of the Inuit's knowledge of big bears, as they have the combined wisdom gained from a millennium of living in this habitat, a wisdom which mostly keeps them out of trouble, and did so throughout their history without any firearms. Today Inuit rifles are almost always a means for acquiring food and not so much for protection, thus they tend to be on the small side, many preferring high velocity small bores to anything else. I don't share that knowledge that is intuitive to the Inuit, but I stumble along as best I can. I get a great deal of satisfaction from close range interaction with polar bears, a situation that no self respecting Inuit would put himself in.
The most important tool I carry for bear protection isn't a gun, its a pair of binoculars. You can't protect yourself from something if you don't know its there, and everytime we venture out without seeing a bear we assume a bear has been watching us. Now you would think a large white bear would be easy to see in the summer, but consider the following series of pics:
In the winter it can be worse -
A couple of weeks ago, my wife decided to get some pics of a group of 5 bears that had been feeding on a whale carcass that had washed up. I was working, so she jumped in the Jeep and headed along the coast on her own. She got to the place she could see the carcass and while there were bears in sight, none were close enough to be a concern, so she thought it would be a good opportunity to get out and get a few pics of the carcass. She's not sure why, but a voice in the back of her brain told her to stay in the Jeep. A minute or two later a nearby bluff colored rock that was mostly covered in seaweed, that there was nothing about to attract her attention, and which was completely unconcerned about the close proximity of the vehicle, stood up and wandered back to the carcass to resume feeding! Had she stepped out she could have easily been cut off from the vehicle and in some trouble. Your most important asset in bear country is your brain.
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You may not share my opinion, but my Outlaw has given me no problems at all after 500 rounds through it, 200 of them being slugs. I bought it with the intention of using it as my backup gun while guiding for blackies, and it hasn't let me down yet. It's been with me all over northern Ontario, and northern Manitoba, including Churchill.
