.308 vs. A bear

Can bears type?

dead bear! ar10 really dead bear! It would'nt be my first choice tho. If I had a choice it would be a .600 Nitro.

I was thinking a .50 BMG with the APC option...

I would be satisfied with an M60 and a full can. Plus it meets the .308 criteria.

Depends on the bullet used and the size of the bear and the shot placement. If it's a big griz or brownie and you shoot at the top of that sloping skull with a soft point and he is close, you could be a dead man. Those big bears have a thick slope on the skull. I know of one guy that had a .338 bounce off a brownie, the guide stopped the charge with a 12 ga. slug.

You fail to mention the type of bear? Not to mention bullet weight and design?

Just for the heck of it give this a read for starters. Also, avoid all bears at all cost for the time being.

Ron

Most grizzly guides feel that a well constructed 200gr bullet fired from a 30-06 @ 2600-2700 fps will work. The same bullet at 2500-2600 fps will do about the same job.

It is still about bullet constructon and placement.

Most grizzly guides also carry a 338win or 375H&H to finish the job when needed.

As for me, when hiking in the woods up here in Alaska, I carry my 308 Galil.

a 180gr TSX should penetrate around 40" of 10% BG call that around 33"-36" of bear if you factor in thick hide, and if you don't hit any of the really heavy bones. That makes for a very impressive performance for an off the shelf hunting bullet, and should be capable of passing through a bear's vitals from nearly any respectable shooting angle with full expansion, HOWEVER I have come to understand that there is a huge difference between a hunting rifle and a stopping rifle, as a stopper the 308 would not make my top 10 list unless you are talking belt feed fully automatic No a stopping rifle should hit really hard, ideally hard enough to break his stride or heavy shoulder bones if encountered, hardened 12ga magnum slugs really come into their own there, as do larger rifles, but a 308 can work, many a bear has been stopped with fast handling 44 magnum and 454 Casul wheel guns, just a long way from my first choice in a rifle.

Fire_Moose said:

But would live to bag a moose one day. My buddy said a .308 might not cut it but that article seems to disagree...

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The 308 is capable of taking anything in North America, this has been well established. Now it is a long way from the ideal in some cases but I would think a tough 180gr bullet would not be too far on the light side, many a moose has fallen to less powerful 6.5x55s and 7x57s, just don't try to use a fragile bullet designed for deer. Now I will say that on any animal that can reach a ton in weight I would much rather have a potent 338, 358 or 375 caliber rifle myself.

There's a guy here on THR or TFL that (or maybe a couple guys) both live in AK and one survived being mauled by a bear. Basically their experience indicated unless you could successfully shoot and hit 'em in the nose (assuming you're using something smaller than a literal cannon) that you'd be better off with bear spray.

Granted, this is on the big bears but the OP did ask about stopping a charging bear, not hunting them; to me that's a key difference. I'd take a 12-gauge using slugs (with a good amount of practice and the right kit), and bear spray.

After seeing how fast most of them can move I'd likely be hoping the stench of my rapidly soiled boxers would serve as an effective deterrent.

Funnel

.308 for bear

I'm pretty sure a .308 with a good heavy bullit will be at least as good as a .44 mag, probably a lot better.

Black bear AND grizzly have been killed by .22LR. .308 is overkill for a black bear. More have likely fallen to .30-30 than any other caliber. Heck, for many years, the native Americans in Alaska relied on the .30-30 for everything, from browns to polar bear. Ain't the arrow, it's the Indian.

The OP, as is normally the case in such threads, declines to acknowledge that ther are several species of very different bear on this continent. It makes a big difference if we're talkin' Kodiak or 200 lb black bear.

http://catfishgumbo.blogspot.com/2007/10/grandmas-griz.html

Again, hunting and stopping a charge are potentially vastly different circumstances.

Funnel

Bears!? Better take off and nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Based on personal experience, I can say that the .308 AND .303 British AND the .30'06 will all cleanly kill bears and moose and caribou.

This is predicated on using GOOD bullets and placing them properly for maximum effect. (My personal benchmark for bullet performance is the Nosler Partition, but that benchmark is now being threatened by the Barnes TSX.)

An auto-loading .308 loaded with these GOOD bullets is a fearsome instrument against anything. I used a TRW M-14 with 180 Noslers as a camp rifle to deal with barren-ground grizzlies north of the timberline. It worked just fine, and I never worried a bit. Remember too, that a .308 at the muzzle is the full equal of a .300 Magnum at a couple hundred yards.

For charging bears, just get on that trigger and keep shooting while trying for good shot placement. (N0, senator, us civilians have NO NEED for large-capacity magazines... but that M14 with 20 Noslers aboard sure came in handy, and it was a great comfort.)

Yes a heavy for caliber, well constructed. 308 bullet at. 308 Win velocities will kill any bear on Earth with proper shot placement. I, for one, do not believe that I would be capable of proper shot placement if charged by a large bear. I guess I might get a shot into the bear before the adrenellin and yips made me turn and run but I doubt I could hold steady and take a killing shot in a surprise situation. I think this is why bear spray is often seen as a more effective deterrent. Aimed in the general direction of a bear it is more likely to give the bear pause than a non - lethal gunshot.

I wonder if the scent of human feces is a deterrent? I would be far more likely to get proper shirt placement than shot placement in a charge situation...

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when you buy pepper sprey and little bear bells they have serial numbers on them that are registered to you,so when the dig thru the bear SH*T they can id whats left of you, 12ga shotgun loaded with hardened slugs with break them down quick. eastbank.

i've never faced a charging bear.
sure hope I don't ever have to.
if I ever do ... I pray I've got a 45-70 Marlin guide gun in my hands.
But anyway - I read a story this week (old story) about some guys charged by grizzly in Montana. They said that grizzly came at them very low to the ground and very fast. I don't know if that's "standard procedure" for a griz ... but getting a fatal shot into an animal doing that does not sound easy. Unless you've got a friend who's standing off to one side - you're in trouble. That may be the real answer - make sure you've got a friend who'll stand his ground and shoot.

CA R

I'd be more worried about that moose you plan on hunting than a bear. Moose kill more people than bears.

big differnce in hunting a bear with 308 and stopping a charging bear. the 308 will kill any bear on the planet with a surgicaly placed shot. It is NOT a stopping round in any sense of the term. Stopping rifles for bear start at the 338 mag. and even that is considered light by some. Id bet more bear guides in alaska use 375s then all the rest combined. Now if your talking black bear the chance of you getting charged is about nil and if your one that gets struck by lightning twice a week and do get charged by one id still want something bigger then a 308 if given a choise.

If it's in North America, a 308 will do the job. Anyone who says different probably isn't a very good shot.