308 vs 270 for Michigan Bear.
 

One of my MC brothers just left and was asking what my recommendation was for a Michigan bear hunt. He was at a Outdoors Sports show and began talking to a guy who lives up there and is wanting to do some trading.
This guy is willing to take my buddy and his wife up there for a bear hunt and stay at his place for a hog/deer hunt in So. Missouri on property my buddy owns.
He owns a .308,.270 and a .300 Win Mag. He is going to shoot the 300 and was wanting to know if the .308 for his wife would have enough to cleanly take a bear from up there. I will be loading for this excursion. He is not sure if she could shoot the .270 without issues. She has not hunted large game before and shot the 270. I dont know if they will be stand hunting or stalking.
Whatcha think? Thanks.

There is a slight edge to the 308 in power, but not much. I would use whichever she feels most comfortable shooting. The only bear I have taken was with a 270 in Montana.

With the 308, would use 165 to 180 gr bullet, with the 270, 140-150.

Either would work for a black bear. I'd pick the .308 myself, as I use a 30/06. Does your friend have very many preference points for our draw? Here is what he can expect.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dn...s_461143_7.pdf

ATB

ps what txhunter said.

the bears won't know the difference. let her shoot both and use the one she gets along best with. bears can't take a hit to the vitals nearly as well as a whitetail.
RR

Some good advice in the replies so far. Have her practice with both rifles, and let her shoot the rifle that she is the most comfortable with. Also have her practice a lot (like several boxes of ammo) with the rifle that she will be using. Spread the practice out over several months and practice shooting with field positions that she would likely use on her hunt.

I've killed a couple of black bears, spot and stalk, one bullet each. One bear with my 45 acp model 1911, and the other with a .44 mag. Neither bear ran very far after being hit, and both of those pistols have a fraction of the power of either a .308 Win or .270 Win.

either would be perfect! with the right loads of course.

My dad used a .270 win. on his vancouver island black bear, 150gr Nosler Partitions.

Both are adequate if the shooter is but I would give the .308 the edge with more mass and energy.Heck more bears were takin with the great 30-30 than any other cal.

I a lady that killed a grizzly with a 270 winchester. It wasn't big grizzly but it was a grizzly. The biggest bear my cohesion killed in wv was 480lbs with a 6mm remington. The last one he killed was almost 300 lbs with a 480 ruger handgun.

Put any well made modern bullet from either a 270 or a 308 in the vitals and the bear will be cleanly taken. They ain't bullet proof.

Just pointing out that a lot of people hunt bear in Michigan with a bow. And the .30-30 is also popular.

If I ever take a bear, it will be with a .30-30.

Important to remember though, that Black Bears can climb trees.

There probably over fifteen calibers ...
 

that have taken bear and deer in the continental U.S.

Old hunters mostly used a few calibers. Who buys fifteen calibers and uses rhem ? Most hunters try a few. And those are their favorites. The rifles worked.

Decades ago, .270 got a reputation for a western U.S. cartridge by writer Jack O'Connor. I never did think of it as an eastern cartridge after that.
One caliber became an unfavorable to me. An acquaintance shot a deer with one caliber; the deer ran over the hill and was downed by a hunter with a 30-30.
I could never shake that memory and never bought that caliber.
I never did find out how bad a shot he was.

And that's one story how we come to liking certain calibers.

It takes a number of preference points for a resident here in MI to get a bear license in most units and with a 2% cap on nonresidents I seriously doubt that they'll need to worry about what caliber to use in the near future.

Mostly great replys!!!! I have forwarded this info on and will let them do the math after that.
I told him that I would lean the 308 route for I know after 10's of thousands of rounds from it, what it can and not do. I will build some lighter loads and let her start from there and see what comes of it. Thanks again.

Isn't that the truth !!! :poke:

270 or 308 will do all that is asked and more.

Well, I used to do a little blood tracking. Most hunters had used a bow, but .270 was the most common rifle round. Never did have a 30/30, or 25/06 though.:confused0024:

The shortest track was a 30/06 by the way. More a case of vision then marksmanship that time.

ATB

Close your eyes and play eeny, meeny, miny, moe or flip a coin. Six in on hand half dozen on the other. Either way the animal will be dead as long as you do your part.