What are the three most common calibers for brown bear?

And from a HISTORICAL Perspective - - -

The way I understood the original question, it could be taken in two ways:
1. "What are the three calibers most commonly CURRENTLY CHOSEN with which to hunt brown bear?" I believe this is the quest most of the responders have answered.

2. "Which three calibers have most often been USED to kill (shoot?) brown bears?"
I'll address the latter--
I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of brown bears killed in North America have been taken within the last 100 years. Prior to that, the human population interacting with brown bears was pretty small. In the time since 1900, I'd say the majority of Brown Bears have fallen to the .30-30, the .30-06, and the .303 British. I could be mistaken on the last--Perhaps the .308. It is my thought that bears are shot with whatever the shooter has on hand then the oportunity/necessity arises. Since Alaskan statehood--roughly since the .308 was introduced--the numbers of people living and working regularly in Alaska and Western Canada has risen hugely. My thought is that most of the rifles in that area are used to harvest meat. The "thirties" have ALWAYS been good for this purpose.

But then again, I've read that the native people in that vast area are quite fond of .22 rimfire, .222 and .223 for meat harvesting, so those calibers might account for lots of bears that are never logged in at Fish & Game checkpoints.

I'll be interested in reading responses to my line of thought. Especially from Keith and others who live in the area. How about it? Not just calibers used by bear hunters, but by those who happen to have shot bear incidental to other activities?

Best,
Johnny
 
Supposedly.

About three years ago, a customer came into my preferred gun shop
while I was filling out a few forms to import a select-fire assault
rifle, and he asked for a .50 cleaning brush, patch holder and some
gewase for a Swiss Army cleaning kit. I made a remark that he isn't
one of the bench-rest .50 shooter crowd since they all use specialized
cleaning rods. He nods, and then I incidently asked him what he did
with the rifles.

He was a hunter, and he hunted in the grisons (n the easter part of
Switzerland), where 10.3mm is mandatory for anything you hunt with
ball. Since that ammo is about as expensive as .50, he usually went in
with a repeating .50 BMG gun (foxes, rabbits and smaller game are shot
with 12 gauge over there). I later went to the range with my dad to
sight in his 9.3x74R rifle (which is perfectly legal to hunt all
critters in the canton of Berne), saw this guy firing a few sighting
shots until the rangemaster came by and told him to go since his gun
made too much noise.

Which prompted my dad to test wether the muzzle brake on his rifle was
good enough. It was. I was standing beside the muzzle, and my blue
jeans had a noticable black spot from the muzzle blast and power
residues. And his custom rifles hurts quite a lot when shot -
actually, I prefer .50s to this gun. :)
 
Johnny,

You're right of course. Most local people don't run out and buy a rifle just because they're going to go out and hunt brown bear. I think .338 is probably the most common rifle used simply because people view it as a good all-around caliber. I see an awful lot of .300 Win Mags as well. This is what's commonly being used today.
Out of staters who are plunking down 10 or 20k for a guided hunt generally don't mind putting out the extra money for a .375.
In the past, the hands-down favorite was the .348 in a Model 71 Winchester. You see very few of these around any more and they have taken on a collector status.
I don't think many brown bears are being taken with .223's, legally or otherwise. The .223 is extremely popular with natives in the interior and northern parts of the state but there are no brown bears up there, only grizzlies.

My 80 old neighbor Hank grew up in a small native village here on Kodiak Island. One day while talking over bear guns he dragged out an ancient Winchester in .25/35 and told me he had taken his first half-dozen bears with that rifle beginning when he was 12 or so. His father was generally gone, trapping or running mail and it was left up to him to provide food much of the time.
There were no deer then (they were planted from other parts of Alaska later on), and the salmon weren't running till June and so the spring was a hungry time for the villages. You either killed a bear or two or went hungry.
When I asked him how one killed a browny with such a caliber. He said you got very close and then whistled at them so they'd face you and hopefully growl, then shot them through their open mouth - and he was quite serious!
You just made do with what you had. People were a little tougher back then, methinks.
 
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