Firearms and Ammunition

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

It is important for the hunter to accept a practiced knowledge of game anatomy, the ability to correctly estimate distance, the subject field to take only shots that can be fabricated with certainty, and the ability to shoot accurately from sitting, kneeling, and standing positions. You lot should be able to reliably place a bullet in a circle the size of the game's eye/lung zone from hunting positions at the distances you expect to be shooting. As long as the caliber is reasonable and a quality bullet is used, hunters kill game speedily 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 Safety® .375

If you shortly own a rifle chambered for the .270 Winchester, 7mm-08, .308 Winchester or .30-06 and can place all of your shots in an 8-inch circle out to 200 yards from a sitting or kneeling position you tin be a successful Alaska hunter. To be as effective as possible, these cartridges should be loaded with premium quality bullets that are designed to pass completely through a large game beast, if hit in the centre-lung surface area.

Big Magnums Non Needed

The rifle you bring hunting should exist 1 with which you are comfy. Because of the presence of dark-brown and grizzly bears, many hunters have been convinced that a .300, .338, .375, or .416 magnum is needed for personal protection and to take large Alaska game. This is simply not true. The recoil and noise of these big cartridges is unpleasant at best and plainly painful to many shooters. It is very difficult to concentrate on shot placement when your encephalon and trunk remembers the unpleasant recoil and noise which occurs when you pull the trigger on i of the large magnums.

The two most common complaints of professional person Alaska guides are hunters who are not in skillful physical condition and hunters who cannot accurately shoot their rifles. Considering these hunters exercise not practice enough they cannot shoot accurately enough. They miss their best gamble at taking their dream fauna or worse yet, they wound and lose an animal. Most experienced guides prefer that a hunter come up to campsite with a .270 or .30-06 rifle they can shoot well rather than a shiny new magnum that has been fired just enough to become sighted-in. If you are going to hunt chocolate-brown conduct on the Alaska Peninsula or Kodiak Island, a .30-06 loaded with 200- or 220-grain Nosler® or like premium bullet volition do the job with good shot placement. Simply consider using a .300, .338 or larger magnum if you can shoot information technology also as you tin the .thirty-06.

It is very pop now to purchase big magnum rifles equipped with a muzzle restriction. Near cage brakes are very effective at reducing recoil. A .375 magnum with a muzzle brake recoils much like a .thirty-06. Before disarming yourself that yous should utilize a muzzle-braked rifle, consider its disadvantages. A cage-restriction increases the muzzle blast and racket to levels that quickly damage the ear. Even when only sighting in or practicing, everyone near yous at the range will find the blast and noise bothersome. Anyone nigh the muzzle brake when the rifle is fired may suffer hearing loss or physical damage to the ear. An increasing number of guides will non permit a hunter to utilise a muzzle brake because of the danger of hearing loss.

Rifle Weight Reduces Recoil

Rather than rely on a muzzle-brake to reduce recoil, use a burglarize heavy enough to reduce recoil. If you lot are planning on packing out moose meat, caribou meat, or a chocolate-brown bear hide weighing hundreds of pounds, you tin can carry a 9- to xi-pound rifle including scope. A rifle of this weight in .300 or .338 magnum can be mastered with a lot of exercise. You can also avoid using a muzzle-restriction by selecting a cartridge that yous can shoot comfortably and savour shooting enough to practise with frequently. For most hunters, the upper limit of recoil is the .thirty-06 or 7mm Remington Magnum®. A majority of hunters are more than comfortable with a .308 or .270.

Recommended Type of Activeness

If you are choosing a burglarize for hunting in Alaska, you should strongly consider a modern bolt action rifle made of stainless steel bedded in a constructed stock. A bolt activity is recommended because it is mechanically uncomplicated, tin exist partially disassembled in the field for cleaning, and is the nearly reliable activity under poor weather conditions. Stainless steel is first-class for nigh Alaska hunting considering it resists rust caused by pelting or snow. Even so, stainless steel will rust with time then must be maintained after each day of field use.

Cartridge Selection

Alaska big game varies from the relatively small (deer, goats) to the largest game on the continent (brown bears, moose). In full general, hunters should select a larger caliber for the largest game. Encompass type should also play a role in cartridge option. Sheep and goats are almost always hunted in the mountains where long distance visibility is the rule. A smaller, apartment-shooting cartridge may be best hither. Deer in the coastal forests of Southeast Alaska are often shot at less than xx yards. Moose in the Interior may exist 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 middle or lungs of a big game animal at approximately 2000 to 2800 feet per second will expand or "mushroom" and destroy the vital organs. The shape of the bullet has no straight effect on its function, its accurateness, or its ability to kill. A "round-nosed" bullet that penetrates and destroys a vital organ is just as effective as the most streamlined of bullets.

However, a pointed bullet does not lose velocity as apace as a round-nosed bullet. For case, a .30-06 firing a 180-grain pointed bullet which leaves the barrel at 2700 anxiety per second, is travelling 2300 feet per second at 200 yards. In comparison, a round-nosed 180 grain bullet at the same speed volition have slowed to 2000 anxiety per 2d at the same distance, because the pointed bullet tin can cut through the air with less resistance just like a sleek fighter jet. Under actual field conditions, this will make no difference between a good hit, bad hitting, or miss. At distances across 200 yards, a pointed bullet will non drop as apace as a round-nosed bullet. About 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 Technology
Neglect Rubber®

Diagram of a Nosler Partition.

Nosler Sectionalisation®

Diagram of Nosler Ballistic Tip.

Nosler Ballistic Tip®
Hunting

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

A bullet must be "tough" enough to penetrate through skin, muscle, and even bone to reach the vital organs. It must besides exist "soft" plenty to expand and disrupt the function of these vital organs. Throughout the history of bullet making, this has been the constant challenge—detect the proper balance betwixt "soft" and "tough."

Modern bullets are typically constructed from a copper or copper alloy "jacket" that surrounds a atomic number 82 or lead alloy core, except at the very tip or "nose" of the bullet. Most conventional bullets accept jackets that are thin almost the nose and taper to a thicker diameter near the base. This method of construction is designed to control the charge per unit of expansion, as the bullet volition open up or "mushroom" speedily toward the thin "olfactory organ" but will not "mushroom" as quickly near the base of operations. Examples of this type of bullet are the Hornaday Interlock®, Speer One thousand-Slam®, and Remington Core-Lokt®.

The reward of these bullets is that they are relatively inexpensive and work well on most game animals at ranges from l to 200 yards. At typical velocities, these are splendid bullets for almost whatever game. One tin say with loftier confidence that a big game animal striking in the centre-lung vital zone with one of these bullets will die swiftly and certainly.

Construction of Partitioned Bullets

The side by side step in bullet structure and bullet complexity is the "partitioned" bullet. These include the Nosler Partition®, the Swift A-Frame®, and the Trophy Bonded Carry Claw®. These bullets share a common feature; all of them have a tapered jacket that is "H" shaped (see motion picture). The cross-bar of the "H" is a part of the jacket itself. Each end of the "H" is filled with lead, a lead alloy, or tungsten alloy. These bullets are designed to expand rapidly at the front but never expand beneath the cross-bar of the "H." In theory, this should be the best of both worlds: First-class expansion to destroy tissue and a protected core that will ensure deep penetration.

Functioning in the Field

The performance of partitioned bullets is splendid—they perform nigh likewise in real life as in theory. If a moose, elk, caribou, or even brownish bear is striking in the centre-lung vital expanse, these ultra-tough bullets ofttimes exit on the reverse side, leaving a improve claret trail and ensuring a double-lung hit. The only negative of these premium bullets is cost. For example, a box of factory loads with Nosler®, Swift®, or Trophy Bonded® bullets typically costs at least twice equally much as a box of conventional bullets.

To sum up on the subjects of firearm, cartridge, and ammunition selection: You tin't go wrong with a stainless steel commodities-action rifle chambered for a standard cartridge that you are comfy with and can shoot accurately, loaded with a high quality bullet.