3 rifles to do it all

[kutenay]

I have owned/used six different .375 H&H rifles since I bought my first one in '82. This was my primary caliber, loaded with 285 GS and 300 NPs over IMR-4350, while working in very remote Grizzly country here in western Canada. I worked alone and was in places where air medevac was often not possible, due to weather and I did this sort of work from 1965-1993.

Based on that and the various guns I and many of my colleagues used and still do ( I retired at 55 a few years ago), I would NOT bother with a larger caliber than the .375 H&H for dealing with Grizzlies; in fact, I currently use two lever action .45-70s with hotloaded Swift A-Frames and Kodiaks for this purpose.

I have shot .458 Win. and .416 Rem. rifles and the weight necessary to keep the recoil within manageable levels makes these rifles simply too heavy to pack all day in typical Grizzly habitat; the rifle, in this situation, belongs in your hands, not on a sling. Actually, I prefer my .338 Win. rifles to my single, remaining .375 for this very reason and I used Browning Safari and P-64 Mod. 70 rifles in .30-06 for years without any problem, as did many of the oldtimers I worked with.

Elephant rifles have their place, but, unless you can shoot your big boomers regularly, I think that the recoil makes them inefficient for most hunters and the .375 H&H WILL stop a Grizzly up close without major fuss, even it kicks pretty hard.