I have two hunting rifles, my grandfather’s old P-14 .303 and my model 70 .270 and now I only use the .270 and in my little world that is a perfect gun for North America. Filled my elk tag this fall with one shot 150 grain partition.

I find all this bear and ‘griz’ talk amusing. There are 100s of thousands of people who are in the wilderness of the Canadian Rockies and Foothills each year and there are very few bear encounters that lead to confrontation, injury and/or death. Statistically speaking the bush is a safe place and probably much safer with blaze orange.. When bear attacks do occur, the majority of them could have been avoided and usually involve tourists who don’t understand basic bear precautions when in the wild, specifically on the side of the highway when they stop to take a lovely pic of a feeding bear, or try feeding it themselves.

All year round I’m playing in ‘griz’ country and from spring to fall, I mountain bike unarmed, backcountry camp unarmed, I fly fish in the foothills unarmed and I bow hunt in the fall unarmed, except for maybe 4 arrows and a 4” Grohmann knife. I have had my share of bear encounters, but never an issue to date. Give them their space.

No caliber will replace basic bear precautions.

But as far as which all round caliber to chose from, I would suggest which ever caliber you prefer out of the .308, .270 or .30/06…