First of all that is the reason you dont go after dangerous game alone... If I was the hunter I would be carring the 300. mag. And my back up would be with the 12ga with slugs and the plug out loaded to the hilt...

If I was hunting griz/brownies, I would go with my .300

If I was shooting a bear that was charging me, my benelli black eagle with 1 oz. slugs would be my choice. The shock power of the slugs combined with the fact that I could get 8 slugs into the bear before I had to reload would outweigh the 2-3 shots with a .300 . The shock power of a .300 is not as much as a 12 ga. And even though we didn't kill the bear, I have been charged by a sow grizz and she covered the 50 yards that she started away from us in the time it took my dad and me to scramble 7 feet up the tree that was 4 ft to our left. So about 3 seconds. You would barely have time to line up the rifle once let alone more times. A shotgun is more suited to fast aim. I could get three maybe four shots off with my semi auto.

hey brutal... my father in law use to fly hunters into the landing strips in the middle of the frank church W.A. .. he and the hunters that he flew to meet up with their guides would see grizzly all the time.. i called him when i read your post , he informed me that over 100 flights thru the wilderness he averaged 2 bears a flight ...do the math.....so are you in challis
or elk city?? my father and i , while elk hunting in 2000, witnessed a grizz right out YELLOW PINE.


lol.. we went from the original topic of what would you perfer at 60 yards to what would you hunt with to not hunting alone......

to all the hunters who are charged by a grizz and only have a (boomstick)(taken from army of darkness) ill have my whole congregation prey for you when elk season opens and you choose to hunt in grizz country..lol

hey j3k2c1
so the bear charged and was right there in your area in 3 seconds...all the 12 guage postsers are mentioning (8 shots) sounds like you would have been lucky to get 1 shot off and an act of god to get 2 shots off. remember with your .45 caliber slug , you have to aim it just like a rifle....


ill have to post my hunting pics from alaska when i go with my 30.06.. after all thats all you need.....i should be a winchester spokesman because the only bullets i use
are the winchester failsafes... always a 1 shot kill.....good luck eveyone, especially the
guagers...

uh huh...

I was charged by a big brown bear once. It let out one hell of a growl, poped it's jaws, and here it came! In the big woods, it echoed quite loudly. I would have had plenty of time for two shots with a bolt gun.

I chose to put the cross hairs on it's head and let it come in. I wanted it under 20 yards for a sure kill with the first shot, but at about 25 yards it saved it's own life and broke off the charge!!!

When it stopped, it walked back and forth popping it's jaws, and woofing. When it was side ways to me, i moved the cross hairs to the top of it's shoulders, but after a time of walking back and forth, it moved off "slowly". I stood there for a time to make sure it was gone, and then went back to hunting.

Drilling Man

I go back packing in about 28 miles trout fishing from here regularly along the candien/Mt. border fishing in remote griz country, I saw a sow griz with two cubs while driving in last week and thats just the way I like to see them. Where I park my rig and hike into wolverine lake, its a 2.5 mile hike in and the area is littered with black bear and griz signs all about with the snow just melting and the dandelions blossoming, a bear encounter is very high as most times I am by myself going in and picking up some rainbows and heading out near dark-thirty. I pack a 357 with a 3" barrel along with bear spray and an 870 loaded with 1oz slugs. The only reason I prefer the 870 with slugs is b/c thats what I have and it will work if I can react fast enough. Bobby

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One other factor that I haven't seen discussed here is the rate of decelleration. If you have 2 bullets of equal weight and delivering the same energy at the same range, fired from the same gun, one a hollow point and the other a fmj. the hollow point will decellerate much faster (assuming that it mushrooms and does not fragment) and deliver its energy in a much shorter time perioid. This will "whap" the target much harder than the more gradual decelleration of deeper penetration. Furthermore, if you get full pass-through penetration, the massXvelocity of the exiting projectile is not delivered to the animal.

I'm not sure exactly how the 12 ga slug measures in this way, but I do know that they "hit" about as hard as any projectile of their mass and velocity could.

What I'm trying to say is that there are several aspects to the equation of stopping any animal -- Total energy delivered, the rate that that energy is delivered, any vital organs hit, WHICH vital organ hit, super-sonic shock wave, the attitude of the animal when hit, how much adrenaline kicks in, whether or not bones are broken and mobility is disabled, and I'm sure there are several others that we haven't discussed yet. There has been a LOT of good tecnical data delivered here. I think most of us have a valid argument, at least to some degree. Personally, I would want the most massive projectile I could get, travelling at the highest velocity possible, that decellerates the quickest, and placed in an essential spot necessary for mobility, delivered from a weapon that cycles VERY quickly with a recoil that allows for quick reacquisition. My pick -- a .50 Beowolf or a .45-70 either in the brain or clipping the spine.