moving to alaska i the future,going to need a new rifle.

S

screaming4vengence

New member
hello everyone, i will hopefully soon be moving somewhere in alaska in the somewhat near future (if all goes as planned). how ever ....my arsenal only consists of the following :tikka t3 -.308, a1909 mauser98 -8mm and (lol) a rem 710 in 300 win mag.(be gentle the 710 was 200$)

the old 8mm is my babby and has seen better days and its finally time to turn it into a wall piece,honestly if something were to happen to that rifle i might actually cry (a lot) as i grew up with it. but as my own little house warming gift im grabing a mauser m12 to more or less keep the same feel.

but the question is...what caliber? i know the 30-06 legion will here to tell me its the best case ever for NA and its killed everything and yada...yes its great ive shot plenty of them, but i think when you move onto brown-kodiac bear territory you start to lose effectiveness. could you YES certainly you could-but is it best, probably not. the choice of calibers i have to choose from is small but here it is.

calibers: 8×57, 9.3×62
magnum calibers: 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag, .338 Win Mag

thanks in advance
 
Is your purpose for hunting or defense against large predators since you mentioned brown kodiacs? For defense most Alaskan guys will carry a 12g loaded with slugs, get some hardcast slugs and even better.
 
Ok so basically you're saying your biggest animal should be in the Brown/Kodiak bear category so you want a rifle for that as a max.

Personally I might go for two. One with the intent of shooting bear which is the 300 win mag and the other being 30-06. Guess it depends on how much you shoot vs how much you intend to shoot. The price of the large magnums hurts my wallet quickly.
 
Purpose is for hunting( shoudve included that in the OP).
I fear using a 30-06 because I've seen 300 lbs black bear run with multiple hits 4+ , poor shot placement for sure but the idea of it still being able to run is rather uncomforting. So I Dont mind being a bit overkill.although I Dont plan on making bad shots and so far have kept it to one shot per animal ( bullets are exspensive! ), there's always a chance of pulling a shot or whatever.
 
A bigger caliber won't make up for poor shot placement.

But if you're not recoil sensitive and you're getting a new rifle, my vote would be the 375 Ruger.
 
I can't take that caliber, the ones available to me are in the OP. No bad placement is still bad placement but at least a bigger caliber will have a bit more stopping power and be able to reach out to the longer ranges
 
I've seen 300 lbs black bear run with multiple hits 4+ , poor shot placement for sure
Click to expand...
A bigger caliber won't make up for poor shot placement.
Click to expand...
Yep, if you don't hit them someplace important, they can cover a lot of ground before laying down.
calibers: 8×57, 9.3×62
Click to expand...
Now there's a winner! 9.3X62 will take a Cape Buffalo down, so I believe it would suit your purpose just fine. Question is, can you shoot it?
 
the 9,3x62 is a winner, not that sharp of a recoil in a correctly stocked gun

I'd go with a tikka because you already know it or a benelli argo,
I think that would do great as a defense against bears rifle to, it is very very reliable, recoil is less to, and in a pinch you could fire one handed if you are run over by a bear

it is thouroughly tested in colder climates, shares some feauters with battleproven guns
 
Going to Alaska I'd buy either a SS Ruger All Weather or Winchester Extreme Weather. Caliber would be 30-06. The 1st priority for me would be the toughest, most reliable CRF rifle I can get my hands on. The SS and synthetic combined with those 2 actions is about as bullet proof as you'll get.

I like the Winchester a little better over all and it holds 5+1 rounds vs 4+1 in the Ruger. The Ruger is a darn good gun too and the price difference is something to consider.

If you don't think the 30-06 is enough read this.

http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/gtr152.pdf

This a document published by the Alaska game and fish dept about bear safety. According to their tests they recommend 375 mag as the best bear stopper. The 2nd place finisher, and the caliber they recommend for most shooters, was a tie between 30-06 and 300 WM when loaded with 220 gr Nosler partitions. They out penetrated 338 mag, 12 ga slugs, 45-70, 350 rem mag and many others. That performance combined with reasonable recoil and easy to get ammo makes 30-06 their top choice.

FWIW, at least 2 guides/gunwriters have conducted similar tests over the years and concluded the same thing. Finn Aagard in Africa and Phil Shoemaker in Alaska found that heavy loaded 30-06's out performed everything short of 375 mag on large game.

You also have to look at WHERE you are going to be. A typical grizzly that lives in most of the state just aren't all that much bigger than a typical black bear. Although they can be more aggressive. The truly big bears only live in a very small, isolated region of the state. If you're not going into brown bear territory, you certainly don't need a cannon for grizzly.

Your 308, 7mm mag or 8mm loaded heavy is a lot better than you think. Truth is, you don't really need another gun. You just might want to reconsider the ammo you'd use in what you have.
 
None of us need a new gun. I could probably shove some pills out of the .308 ( hand loads ftw). But I'm grabbing one any way , so I'm just trying to pick something up maybe a bit more suited then what I have.
 
Last edited:
move up there and talk to the guys in the LGS's, a bunch of different shops, and then make a decision based on what they say.

Personally I carry a .454 handgun and hunt with a longbow or recurve, when I lived there.

PM being sent
 
There are some very incorrect statements in the posts.

As for bone fides, I have lived in Alaska for 60 years. Bear attacks are very rare.

No Bigger than black bears?: wow, so not true. Pretty much South of the Alaska range they are damned big, far bigger than a black bear. Black bear tend to be non aggressive, if one is you want to kill it, not play dead.

Big Bears in a Small Area: Yea I guess, something the size of Nebraska at a guess. The very biggest ones are Kodiak Island, Southern Cook Inlet, Cordova Coast and South along the gulf and South East Alaska (panhandle). That’s only the size of Ohio at a guess.

Guns provide little if any protection from an attacking bear. Almost all successfully shoots from sudden attacks are a result of the bear attacking one person and his partner shooting the bear off him.

Most people refuse to believe this, but the reality is the encounters are so fast that you will not get a shot off and even if you do its going to be so hasty that you miss or its placement is going to be wrong (and killing a charging bear even with a well placed shot is not fast) .

You also do not know how you will react, we all like to think we are Cool Hand Luke, reality is that we are scared, adrenalin running and simply are not.

Play Dead: In most encounters playing dead the bear whacks you once or twice and then goes away. Hard to do but its effective.
It is a judgment decision as there are circumstances where that does not work.

Pepper Spray, Pepper Spray, Pepper Spray: Its been well proven to stop a bear attack, I have carried it since they came out with it. Before that I carries a pistol.

When I was surveying we had a shotgun, 4 rounds of OO buck to mess up the bear face and a slug at the end to kill it. Others advocated different combinations. I liked the idea, knew what we had an knew how to apply it if needed. Best chance of some hits on the face of the bear. We never did need to use it.

While I have never been attacked by one, I have seen how fast they can move (from a distance). Frankly unless you have seen that in person, you have no idea how insanely quick they are and you will be trying to reacting from 75 yds or less.

Guides are moving to a think the 444 Marline with heavy cast bullets. I don't have any personal knowledge as to use and how well its performed. Keep in mind that those encounters are a known, i.e. client has shot a bear, guide is fully ready and on point. You are not going to be, safety is like on (and should be).

As for hunting generally, 30-06 is good, 7mm does fine, 338 does fine for Moose. Caribou depends on the range as a 7mm at close range messes them up and even out at 200 yds unless you can get a 90 degree shot can damage the opposite side shoulder if shot from that angle. 270 is really the ideal for Caribou, but most go heavier as they also moose hunt (or there is that chance)
 
A friend of mine who spent a lot of years up there told me that the most common rifle is the 5.56 nato. For every huge, angry bear that may want to attack you, there are literally thousands of other critters, and plenty of dirty rotten scoundrels, and that the idea is to plan for what you are far more likely to encounter. hungry Dogs, wolf, angry walrus, drug crazed nuts, etc. You may even find the occasional fox that wants to eat your cat.

This is like the guy who want's to carry his glock with 2 30 round magazines to the grocery store. The chance of ever having to use even a pair of 15 round mags is so remote it's not worth discussing. I doubt that a single person has been saved by a 30 round magazine when he was just going to the store.
 
Good advice and seeing how big bears are coming into the city's you may want to carry a large caliber revolver as well. If you find yourself under gunned the best you can hope for is to tattoo the animal that killed you.
 
"...None of us need a new gun..." Don't be daft. You're on an 'I want one." quest anyway. Wouldn't bother with any magnum myself.
I'd rethink the 9.3 and 8mm Mauser. May not be available in Alaska. Mail order is very expensive to there too.
"...I have lived in Alaska for 60 years..." Trumps us all.
"...have seen how fast they can move..." 35 MPH flat out. That's 100 yards in under 6 seconds. And everybody, on every forum, thinks they can recognise the danger and react quick enough. Funnier when they talk about Kitty. Kitty hunts from above and behind.
Mind you, buckshot in the face will give you a very PO'd bear. Multiple slugs would be better.
 
I have spent many years in alaska myself and my sister in law spent some time counting salmon on kodiak. She had trouble with the bears tearing up her fish traps so she rigged up some bear mace to keep them away. When they started ripping in to the fish traps the bear mace would go off and drive them off, in theory. When she went back to check her traps. she found parts of fish traps hanging in the trees so she gave up on that idea.
As far as hunting in alaska , i liked the .35 Wellon(bad spelling but what the heck). It would be a good idea to take some handloading equipment with you also, since when you get outside of Anchorage there might be long distances between places you could buy ammo. It not unheard of to find you have go 100 or 200 miles or more before you might find the ammo you are looking for. (especially with the 35 Wel. whatever).
Good luck and I hope you have a job waiting for you up there.:)
 
By the way. The last moose I bagged in alaska was with a extention ladder. I had it leaning against a tree and it walk between the tree and the ladder and got tangled in the rope. It managed fall over a stump and died from something.(maybe emberesment) (by the way you might notice that I have my own method of spelling). The good thing was it was only about 50 feet from my meat house. The bad thing was my ladder was never the same afterwards. Such is life in Alaska!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top