WB
Gary's buddy in AK George George Faerber
Tuesday, May 08, 2018, 11:08

carried a .338 Ruger stainless with the boat paddle stock. He had cut the 24" barrel back to 22". He said it just needed 2" less barrel. I asked him why he carried no sidearm and he said there would be no time for it in a charge. I later sort of saw what he meant. I'd want it on me for back up, maybe a Daniel Boone Bowie knife too! My luck the ONE time I laid the rifle against a tree and took two steps...

George said in his personal experiences shooting bears with everything from 7mm, .300's, .375 and .458's that the .338 seemed best above all. It had more "shocking" effect he said that the bears responded to. Not very scientific but I'll take real world experiences over science any day. I've heard the same type of comment about large African cats too.

From what I saw in AK it's "use what you have", basically. But the consensus seemed you would like to be carrying a .300 Mag and up. Two of the four guides we encountered carried .375's and also .44 Mag. S&W 4" 29 variations. The others included .300 Ultra Mag., the .338, the .375's were a Ruger and H&H. The only other Guide's handgun was a .454 Casull Ruger Super Redhawk Custom. They were not really playing around.