lots of time is wasted in my opinion worrying about the theoretical differences in center fire rifle cartridges , we all tend to have favorites, we see the results other people have gotten, but from what Ive seen shot placement and the skill of the shooter is more critical that the head stamp on the cartridge case
a 308 win or 270 win or 30/06 is seldom going to let a good shot down.
personally Ive used a 340 wby and 375 H&H on most hunts one of my late partners preferred a 358 win BLR
and one guy in camp uses a 257 roberts BLR... we all kill deer and elk regularly..
,its hard ,even ludicrous to try too argue with a guy,
who has a long string of decisive one shot kills using his rifle choice.
from the results I've seen, finding a bear in Colorado is going to be FAR more difficult that killing one,
with about
any rifle you might carry to hunt mule deer or elk, provided of course you can shoot accurately from field positions.
I would suggest you carry a reasonably heavy caliber back-up revolver,
for the absurdly low chance you might need it.
I've generally carried a 44 mag, revolver in a shoulder holster,as a precaution,
but a 357 mag or 10mm would work fine,
and so far over the last 50 years,
only two guys in our elk camp that I remember have shot bears, one used a 308 win,
the other guy a 6.5mm swedish mauser, both worked fine.
I've hunted elk and deer, and even when I had a bear licence,
I could not find one large enough to warrant the effort of,
dragging it out of some canyon miles from my truck
, the only bears I've seen were while deer and elk hunting,
the bears on a gut pile run once you approach,tend to run once they detect you.
you might need a revolver for close range , where a scoped rifle is not ideal.
the only time Ive encountered bears was on return trips to retrieve elk meat ,
I could not pack out on the initial trip,
so I generally use a block & tackle to get the second return retrieval trips elk meat up out of their easy reach,
they generally clean up the gut piles along with coyotes if you are forced to make the second trip the next morning.
bears are very alert if not concentrating on a gut pile or other bait, I doubt youll be able to sneak up on one , randomly still hunting timber
BTW its nice to see more gals taking up hunting...
Id simply select a know quality, heavy for caliber bullet designed for deep penetration and personally Id want at least a 257 roberts and a 100 grain nosler partition,
or something a bit larger as a minimum.
Ive hunted all the areas marked with green dots at least once during either archery or rifle seasons
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