Why magnums for USA, if AK Fish & Game say 30-06 enough?

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Logs said:
After shooting my Kentucky Elk twice at around 50 yards with 7mm Remington Magnum. These animals are really tough to bring down. I would have thought it would have rolled it, but it kept walking away. If I am in AK with Bears heck I would buy a bigger gun.

Not sure I would want to carry a 50 BMG, but I wouldn't mind having it. :)
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My Dad shot an Elk (in Colorado) at 80 yards, 3 times, nice tight ground in the middle of the chest with his 7mmMag. The Elk went back to eating. I handed my Dad my .30-06, one shot thumped it hard and it keeled over dead. I have seen similar with the .25-06 and .270 at close ranges.

I don't call that a gun problem, but a bullet problem. The bullets were going too fast and did not expand. They penciled right through. The .30-06 entered, expanded nicely and left a 2 inch exit hole.

Americans hunters have had magnumitis for years. But raw horsepower, if not matched with the appropriate bullet for the impact speed, won't anchor animals, just carry that energy through to the other side. My Dad also shot a Mule Deer buck at 300 yards with the same gun. Deer fell over dead and we never found any holes in the animal anywhere, but he still tagged it.
 
Last week, I spoke at some length with an Alaskan guide. He personally favors his 9.3x62 for big bears, and reccomm
ends .300 mag and up. to his clients.
 
What does he carry?

.458 Win Mag.
And a .480 Ruger Alaskan.

"Because when the customer f*#*s up, I have to know that I can stop that man-eater or bulldozer from getting its f-#ing dinner."
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And he will have a bead on the bear when the client shoots it and the first artillery round goes in right after.

That is the one place where you have a clear shot and can get a couple two or 3 rounds off, maybe better if its at range.

Its not how bear encounters go that go bad. There is a shift to 444 Marlins using hard cast bullets for penetration.
 
Huge difference in living in a bear world vs people parachuting in on guided hunts.

It was not magnums that whittled bears down, it was the 30-06 which was used on moose and caribou day in day out. 8 mm Mauser or a 6.5 Swedish would have been the same but the 06 was the common available and ammo for them.

My step dads father took 6 or 8 Grizzly with his 06 and its partly shot out (I know, I have it). All about picking your time and shot placement.
 
Bear "perfume," though popular with tree huggers, Green-worshippers, and other idjits often doesn't work ...The term "work" here meaning that the deployment of the spray actually stops or turns a charge, thus leaving the human alive and unmauled
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Not sure how we went down this squirrel hole bout sprays and such, but there's a funny little anecdote related to bears and bear spray.

Backcountry hiking experts suggest carrying bear spray and wearing bells to alert bears to your approach. Startled bears can be dangerous. You can tell if there are bears in your area and what kind of bears they are by looking for scat. You can easily tell black bear scat from grizzly scat. Black bear scat will smell like berries and have berries in it. Grizzly scat smells like bear spray and has little bells in it.

Or something like that.:D
 
W.D.M. Bell killed 1,011 elephants. 800 with a 7x57, the rest with a variety
of small bore rifles--nothing larger than .32 caliber.
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The numbers that Bell recounts in his book don't match up with your statement very well. Bell recounts he did shoot something like 300 with "light rifles" which were 6.5 & 7mm caliber, then moved up to the .318 Westly Richards (which, despite its name uses a .333" bullet), and later on went to a .416.

Bell was also often hunting in a situation that doesn't exist anymore, he was hunting elephants that generally had never been shot before, and frequently didn't react to the sound of gunfire, so he as able to shoot from close range and at game that wasn't spooked a lot of the time.

Additionally, Bell was "surgically precise" with his shooting, no one disputes that. He's a famous and historical figure for what he was able to do. There are no records of how many others tried the same things and failed. Africa recycled them...:D
 
Bears

I never needed any more than my Marlin .444 with hard cast reloads.

Then again, I know exactly where it impacts at various ranges as well as how to aim if shooting up or down hills.
 
So then maybe magnums have a role in AK for charging grizzlies (different opinions).

But in the lower 48, no use for the magnums except long range competition?
 
every post here has truth in it, if every thing goes as planned it may be a cake walk. but if things go south in a bad way, i want all the edge i can muster. the only DG i have shot was a cape buffalo in 2015 in africa and after getting the first shot at it standing at 40 yards and blowing the top of its heart off it ran off in a semi circle and i shot it two more times as it veered towards me, one thu the chest and the second shot broke its back and down it went. if it had charged straight at me it had plenty of air left to kill me if not for the two extra shots. my ph was to the right of me and could not get a shot in. its just my take on any animal that may want to kill me.
 
Reading posts from wanna be elk hunters is priceless.

If you shot an elk three times with a Sevumag and he kept on grazing, you missed.

If you shot an elk with a Sevumag and the bullet went straight through, the bullet did its job, you just didn't do yours by hitting it in the right place.

Yes, elk and bears are tough, but not if you do your job.

RJ
 
Here are my two shots with 7mm Mag behind shoulder. I would say my placement was pretty good.

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recoil junky said:
Reading posts from wanna be elk hunters is priceless.

If you shot an elk three times with a Sevumag and he kept on grazing, you missed.

If you shot an elk with a Sevumag and the bullet went straight through, the bullet did its job, you just didn't do yours by hitting it in the right place.

Yes, elk and bears are tough, but not if you do your job.

RJ
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Reading comprehension would help you not look like an idiot. They teach those in the community college, you should look into them.

It was not me, it was my Dad, and the shot placement was good. But yeah, only 37 Elk tags filled by me. :)
 
When it comes to large predators, I would much rather err on the side of more gun than too little gun. I would also rather err on the side of shooting what I decide is appropriate for me. How AK F&G wants to outfit their people is there business. How I outfit me is my business.
 
A magnum rifle requires a sturdy scope, expensive ammo, and being tolerable to vicious recoil. Why not hunt closer and shoot a .308?

Jack
 
depends on the magnum. Only magnum rifle I have shot was a 300 win mag. The recoil was milder than my lightweight 30-06..... regular scope, marginally more expensive ammo, recoil was stout, but not vicious. Like I said I can only vouch for the 300 win mag I shot, but it was not bad.
 
Behind the shoulder IMO is too far back, if you're not breaking the humorous or close to it, you're too far back, hitting the lungs too far back is asking for a long and maybe endless tracking job.

It doesn't matter how many you killed, it's how you killed them.

Being able to read, well, being able to illiterate the written word goes a long ways too.

Anyways

RJ
 
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