ORIGINAL: Dan in Alaska
I am going on a black bear hunt this spring. The hunt will be a week-long guided adventure via boat in Prince William Sound, Alaska. I have never hunted black bears before, so I am pretty excited about it.
I have a Remington 700 that was rebarreled in .338-06 several years ago, and I have worked up several loads for this rifle using 200gr Balistic Tips and 250gr Grand Slams. Both loads will group under an inch at 200 yards. I am also planning to work up a load using Nosler's 225 grain Accubond bullet. Of the three .338 caliber bullets I've chosen, I think the the two heavier bullets would be a better choice for black bear.
But I am curious, does anyone have experience using the .338cal. 200 BT's on large game? Do they hold together well, or are they rather explosive like many of the smaller caliber Balistic Tips?
Second Question:
I have a 30-06 that I am planning to take along as a back-up gun. In the past, my 30-06 has been used for deer hunting with 165gr bullets, so I would like to work up some bear loads using 180-200gr bullets. I am thinking about trying the Barnes 180gr X-Bullet and the Nosler 200gr Accubond. Does anyone have any good 30-06 loads using these bullets? Any other .30 caliber bullets/loads you'd recommend for black bear?
Thanks,
Dan
I once killed two 300+ pound blackies in Galena Bay, just out of Valdez in Prince William Sound, with a .270 Win. loaded with 150-grain Nosler Partiton bullets. One shot per bear. There is NO DOUBT at all that any of the bullets you listed above, except for possibly the Ballistic Tip, will do a very good job killing black bears-even the very biggest blackie in all of Alaska!
When I lived in Fairbanks, there was a local doctor's wife there who used her .270 and the 150-grain Nosler Partition bullet to kill large polar bears! (This was before the Endangered Species Act.)