Firearms and Ammunition

There are no simple answers when it comes to selecting a firearm and accompanying armament. How accurately you shoot is far more important than the type of rifle, cartridge, and bullet you choose. Alaska has some very big game animals, including 1600-pound mature balderdash moose and 1500-pound coastal brown bears. Moose or dark-brown bear striking in the gut with a large caliber magnum rifle such as the popular .338 Winchester® Magnum is wounded and only as probable to escape as if information technology had been hit with a small caliber burglarize such as the .243 Winchester®. The bore size, bullet weight, and velocity are of secondary importance to precise bullet placement in the vital heart-lung expanse.

Information technology is important for the hunter to have a good knowledge of game anatomy, the ability to correctly judge distance, the discipline to take only shots that can be made with certainty, and the ability to shoot accurately from sitting, kneeling, and standing positions. Y'all should exist able to reliably identify a bullet in a circle the size of the game's eye/lung zone from hunting positions at the distances you expect to exist shooting. As long as the caliber is reasonable and a quality bullet is used, hunters impale game quickly and humanely with precise bullet placement.

Select a quality bullet

Photo of ammunition

Winchester (left to right): Partition Gold® 7mm, .30-06, .300, .338, Fail Safe® .375

If you presently own a rifle chambered for the .270 Winchester, 7mm-08, .308 Winchester or .thirty-06 and can place all of your shots in an eight-inch circle out to 200 yards from a sitting or kneeling position you can be a successful Alaska hunter. To be every bit effective as possible, these cartridges should be loaded with premium quality bullets that are designed to pass completely through a large game fauna, if hitting in the eye-lung area.

Large Magnums Not Needed

The rifle you lot bring hunting should be one with which you are comfortable. Because of the presence of brownish and grizzly bears, many hunters have been convinced that a .300, .338, .375, or .416 magnum is needed for personal protection and to have large Alaska game. This is simply non truthful. The recoil and noise of these large cartridges is unpleasant at best and obviously painful to many shooters. It is very difficult to concentrate on shot placement when your brain and body remembers the unpleasant recoil and noise which occurs when you pull the trigger on 1 of the big magnums.

The ii most common complaints of professional Alaska guides are hunters who are non in skillful physical status and hunters who cannot accurately shoot their rifles. Because these hunters do non practise enough they cannot shoot accurately enough. They miss their all-time chance at taking their dream animal or worse yet, they wound and lose an animal. Most experienced guides adopt that a hunter come to camp with a .270 or .30-06 rifle they tin can shoot well rather than a shiny new magnum that has been fired just enough to get sighted-in. If you are going to hunt brown bear on the Alaska Peninsula or Kodiak Island, a .xxx-06 loaded with 200- or 220-grain Nosler® or similar premium bullet will practice the task with skillful shot placement. Only consider using a .300, .338 or larger magnum if you can shoot it as well equally y'all can the .30-06.

It is very popular at present to purchase large magnum rifles equipped with a cage restriction. Almost cage brakes are very effective at reducing recoil. A .375 magnum with a muzzle restriction recoils much similar a .xxx-06. Earlier convincing yourself that you should use a muzzle-braked rifle, consider its disadvantages. A cage-brake increases the muzzle blast and noise to levels that quickly damage the ear. Even when just sighting in or practicing, everyone near y'all at the range will find the blast and noise bothersome. Anyone near the muzzle restriction when the burglarize is fired may suffer hearing loss or physical damage to the ear. An increasing number of guides will not allow a hunter to employ a muzzle brake because of the danger of hearing loss.

Burglarize Weight Reduces Recoil

Rather than rely on a cage-brake to reduce recoil, use a rifle heavy enough to reduce recoil. If y'all are planning on packing out moose meat, caribou meat, or a brown bear hide weighing hundreds of pounds, you lot can carry a ix- to xi-pound rifle including telescopic. A rifle of this weight in .300 or .338 magnum can exist mastered with a lot of practice. Y'all can too avert using a muzzle-brake by selecting a cartridge that you can shoot comfortably and enjoy shooting enough to practice with oft. For most hunters, the upper limit of recoil is the .30-06 or 7mm Remington Magnum®. A majority of hunters are more comfortable with a .308 or .270.

Recommended Type of Activeness

If you are choosing a rifle for hunting in Alaska, you should strongly consider a modern bolt action rifle made of stainless steel bedded in a synthetic stock. A bolt action is recommended because it is mechanically elementary, can be partially disassembled in the field for cleaning, and is the most reliable activity under poor conditions atmospheric condition. Stainless steel is fantabulous for about Alaska hunting because information technology resists rust caused past rain or snowfall. Nevertheless, stainless steel will rust with time so must be maintained after each day of field utilise.

Cartridge Selection

Alaska large game varies from the relatively pocket-sized (deer, goats) to the largest game on the continent (brownish bears, moose). In general, hunters should select a larger caliber for the largest game. Cover type should also play a role in cartridge selection. Sheep and goats are almost always hunted in the mountains where long distance visibility is the rule. A smaller, flat-shooting cartridge may exist best here. Deer in the coastal forests of Southeast Alaska are often shot at less than 20 yards. Moose in the Interior may be shot at intermediate distances. Select your cartridge based on the expected circumstances.

Round-nosed versus Pointed Bullets

A high quality rifle bullet placed into the heart or lungs of a large game animal at approximately 2000 to 2800 feet per 2d will expand or "mushroom" and destroy the vital organs. The shape of the bullet has no direct effect on its function, its accuracy, or its ability to kill. A "round-nosed" bullet that penetrates and destroys a vital organ is just every bit effective equally the most streamlined of bullets.

However, a pointed bullet does non lose velocity every bit quickly as a circular-nosed bullet. For example, a .thirty-06 firing a 180-grain pointed bullet which leaves the barrel at 2700 feet per second, is travelling 2300 feet per second at 200 yards. In comparison, a round-nosed 180 grain bullet at the same speed will have slowed to 2000 feet per 2d at the same distance, considering the pointed bullet can cut through the air with less resistance just similar a sleek fighter jet. Under bodily field conditions, this will make no divergence between a good hit, bad hitting, or miss. At distances beyond 200 yards, a pointed bullet volition non drop every bit quickly as a round-nosed bullet. Most hunters should not shoot big game at distances further than 200 yards.

Bullet Quality versus Shape

Diagram of a Nosler Fail Safe Bullet.

Nosler Combined Engineering
Fail Safe®

Diagram of a Nosler Partition.

Nosler Partition®

Diagram of Nosler Ballistic Tip.

Nosler Ballistic Tip®
Hunting

The bullet shape is non as important as the quality of the bullet and how well your rifle will shoot a particular bullet. Some rifles will shoot a pointed bullet more accurately and some will shoot a round-nosed bullet more than accurately. You should attempt quality bullets of both shapes to notice out which weight and shape produces greatest accuracy in your firearm.

A bullet must be "tough" plenty to penetrate through skin, muscle, and even bone to accomplish the vital organs. Information technology must also be "soft" enough to expand and disrupt the function of these vital organs. Throughout the history of bullet making, this has been the abiding challenge—find the proper balance betwixt "soft" and "tough."

Mod bullets are typically constructed from a copper or copper alloy "jacket" that surrounds a lead or lead alloy core, except at the very tip or "nose" of the bullet. Most conventional bullets have jackets that are sparse near the nose and taper to a thicker bore nigh the base. This method of construction is designed to control the rate of expansion, every bit the bullet will open or "mushroom" quickly toward the thin "nose" but will not "mushroom" equally quickly near the base. Examples of this blazon of bullet are the Hornaday Interlock®, Speer One thousand-Slam®, and Remington Core-Lokt®.

The advantage of these bullets is that they are relatively inexpensive and work well on about game animals at ranges from l to 200 yards. At typical velocities, these are excellent bullets for virtually any game. Ane can say with high confidence that a big game fauna hitting in the middle-lung vital zone with one of these bullets volition die swiftly and certainly.

Construction of Partitioned Bullets

The next pace in bullet construction and bullet complication is the "partitioned" bullet. These include the Nosler Partition®, the Swift A-Frame®, and the Bays Bonded Bear Claw®. These bullets share a common feature; all of them have a tapered jacket that is "H" shaped (see picture). The cross-bar of the "H" is a part of the jacket itself. Each end of the "H" is filled with atomic number 82, a lead blend, or tungsten alloy. These bullets are designed to aggrandize rapidly at the front but never expand below the cross-bar of the "H." In theory, this should exist the best of both worlds: Excellent expansion to destroy tissue and a protected core that will ensure deep penetration.

Performance in the Field

The functioning of partitioned bullets is first-class—they perform well-nigh too in real life every bit in theory. If a moose, elk, caribou, or even brown bear is hit in the heart-lung vital surface area, these ultra-tough bullets often get out on the opposite side, leaving a meliorate claret trail and ensuring a double-lung hit. The but negative of these premium bullets is cost. For instance, a box of factory loads with Nosler®, Swift®, or Trophy Bonded® bullets typically costs at least twice as much as a box of conventional bullets.

To sum up on the subjects of firearm, cartridge, and ammunition option: You lot can't become wrong with a stainless steel bolt-activeness rifle chambered for a standard cartridge that y'all are comfortable with and can shoot accurately, loaded with a high quality bullet.