Bear Hunting Alaska

[MountainBear]

The .45/70 will be going. But I will still take something else. The .45/70 will be good if I have to track a wounded animal or to stand guard while an animal is dressed out (no free lunches for big bears).
Otherwise I want a rifle with a bit more distance. I think I have narrowed it down to building a .30-06, a .35 Whalen, or a 9.3x62.

 

[Argonaut]

I have always loved a good 35 Whalen but if I was building a rifle from scratch I think the 358 Norma is more versatile. 250 grains at 2700 fps and it will fit in a standard length action. Better bullet availability that the 9.3 bore and if you need, brass is easy to make.

 

[bsa1917hunter]

If you are going to build something, according to your earlier post, why not consider the 300H&H. I know you don't want to consider the 300wm or 338wm. Make it something cool like the old 300H&H since you already have "9 or 10" 30-06's...... The H&H has mucho cool factor going for it..

 

[MountainBear]

It does, but the work to stretch the actions that I have available isn't worth the squeeze. If I had a Howa or Remington action laying around, the H&H definitely has a cool factor to it.

But opening an old Mauser, while possible, is likely more than I really want to do. I'd have to open the bolt face, mag box, the bottom of the action, and massage the feed rails and feed ramp...

 

[bsa1917hunter]

I gotcha. I forgot you were building on a 98. How are the other 30-06's set up? Excellent glass? Perfect balance? Does one handle better than the others or are you just bored and want to build a new rifle? Could you modify one of the existing ones to better suit your needs??? New Mcmillan stock for instance? Lighten one up and throw a primo scope on it, for another example...

 

[MountainBear]

I could use most any of them and have a great hunt. This is an excuse to build a rifle for a once in a life time (at least for me) hunt.

I have so many rifles that I could definitely hunt anything in the US and almost anything in the world. If I added a true dangerous game rifle beyond my .45-70, then I'd be all set. But there's limited fun in using something I already have. Much more fun, since I have to build a gun for my father in law anyway, so I may as well build two rifles...

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Very cool. I'm thinking you should build a matching pair. One for your FIL and one for you. Laser engrave the floor plate or something so you know which one is which...

 

[MountainBear]

He has much different desires in what he wants. He wants a slick barrel 19" .30-06 truck/boat gun. I want a 22" barrel with iron sights and a scope.
I like the laser engraving. May have to try that.

 

[MountainBear]

Well, I broke down and ordered a .35 Whalen barrel. I haven't decided which of my Mauser actions to use yet.

 

[orygun]

Well, I broke down and ordered a .35 Whalen barrel. I haven't decided which of my Mauser actions to use yet.

You'll have plenty of rifle.
I'm too late, but was going to say 30 Newton.

 

[MountainBear]

I considered .308 Norma magnum for a bit too. But after everything, the nostalgia of the .35 Whelen won out!

 

[Argonaut]

I built a 308 Norma magnum on a VZ24 action years ago. Was a good round and worked great in the standard length Mauser action. We rechambered an 06 barrel as I remember.

 

[MountainBear]

Once I get all the parts together I will start some build threads. I currently have at least four Mauser builds in th barreling stage.

 

[MountainBear]

Well, the hunt has come and gone. No bears were harmed in the making of these memories. Probably not a bad thing. I didn't have a grand to get it rugged out anyway.
I passed up a shot I should have taken and missed long (375-400 yards) shot.
All things considered, I was able to spend two days miles away from the nearest civilization.
Unfortunately, graduate school got in the way of finishing any builds, so I just went with a Ruger '06. I had time to mount the scope the day before I flew up. Unfortunately, when I went to zero it at the range in Juneau, the Leupold wouldn't zero. So I ended up hunting with a ragged old Sako Finbear. No worries, even ratty looking it was smooth as glass.

Good times had by all, five more months of grad school and hopefully I can finish all my projects. Maybe for 2018 hunting season...

And finally a few photos from the trip. One view from the beach, one huck-finning it in from the boat (bare foot on Alaska beaches sucks), and one of the meadow I sat on for two days. Well worth the effort.

 

[MountainBear]

Posted the wrong picture from the beach. The photo above was actually from the boat on the way back to town...

Here's the beach photo. Lost track of this was dawn or dusk. They were only a few hours apart...

 

[U8395279]

Well, the hunt has come and gone. No bears were harmed in the making of these memories. Probably not a bad thing. I didn't have a grand to get it rugged out anyway.
I passed up a shot I should have taken and missed long (375-400 yards) shot.
All things considered, I was able to spend two days miles away from the nearest civilization.
Unfortunately, graduate school got in the way of finishing any builds, so I just went with a Ruger '06. I had time to mount the scope the day before I flew up. Unfortunately, when I went to zero it at the range in Juneau, the Leupold wouldn't zero. So I ended up hunting with a ragged old Sako Finbear. No worries, even ratty looking it was smooth as glass.

Man alive, you sure tempted Murphy's Law a great deal here, by not preparing your rifle in advance before the trip. My experience in life has been that when Murphy is given an opportunity like this, he very often strikes.

Despite the comments of many here in this thread, one does not need any fancy, super powerful cartridge for Black Bear hunting. Any effort to go that route would have been wasted time and effort. Heck, my late father had a friend who loved to hunt Black Bears in Northern California. He hunted them many years ago, decades before hound hunting was made illegal in the state. He had two beautiful Black Bear rugs mounted to two walls of his den. And a third one lying on the floor of the room. It was a most impressive sight for a young man like I was at that time, to see.

In any event, since he was hunting the Bears treed at very close range, he used a Colt Gold Cup National Match 1911 .45 ACP loaded with Federal's 230 gr Hydra-Shok hollowpoint load. He told me that the pistol and the ammo never once let him down. Heck, I've also seen a number of photos in past years in the Oregon Hunters Association's magazine, showing kids and women with good sized black bears taken with just a .243 Winchester

Hopefully you have learned a lesson here from Mr. Murphy. Please don't give him another opportunity like this in the future.

.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Nice pictures MountainBear ... Thanks for sharing.
Looks like some beautiful country.
Andy

 

[KaniksuKidd]

.


I would have passed on the rock, anyway, how'd it taste?


Ray

Pretty crunchy. Broke all my teeth too.

 

[KaniksuKidd]

Well, the hunt has come and gone. No bears were harmed in the making of these memories. Probably not a bad thing. I didn't have a grand to get it rugged out anyway.
I passed up a shot I should have taken and missed long (375-400 yards) shot.
All things considered, I was able to spend two days miles away from the nearest civilization.
Unfortunately, graduate school got in the way of finishing any builds, so I just went with a Ruger '06. I had time to mount the scope the day before I flew up. Unfortunately, when I went to zero it at the range in Juneau, the Leupold wouldn't zero. So I ended up hunting with a ragged old Sako Finbear. No worries, even ratty looking it was smooth as glass.

Good times had by all, five more months of grad school and hopefully I can finish all my projects. Maybe for 2018 hunting season...

And finally a few photos from the trip. One view from the beach, one huck-finning it in from the boat (bare foot on Alaska beaches sucks), and one of the meadow I sat on for two days. Well worth the effort.

View attachment 376155 View attachment 376156 View attachment 376157

Life is so much easier when one believes in Murphy's law.

 

[MountainBear]

Not Murphy. Rather a wonderful new state licensing program for teachers called edTPA. Time was allocated to the most pressing need for my future. Sadly, the rifles getting built wasn't the priority.

I took a known functioning rifle, with a known to function scope on two airplanes to a place I knew there was a safe full of backups. I would have rather hunted with my own, but I have no regerts...