Recently had the chance to use my Winchester Model 70 404 Jeffery on Grizzly in Alaska. Rifle is stainless with a 25 inch McGowen barrel. I was shooting 400 grain Swift A Frames loaded by Superior ammo, targeted velocity was 2350.

The bear was out on the tundra feeding on blueberries. We were hunting about 100 miles south east of Nome.First shot was right behiind the shoulder, but the bear headed quickly for the alders which were about 100 yards away. So I added one more shot which stopped the bear in his tracks. No recovered bullets just 2 nice 1 - 1.5 inch exit holes.

The rifle performed well except for some rust on the blued rings. Scope used 1.5 X 5 Vari X III.

Outfitter was Jerry Austin.

Saw 11 bears in 3 days.

Ann was kind enough to post photos over on the Alaska Hunting Forum under the title Tubdra grizzly from Nome. J Babcock started the thread with another nice tundra Grizzly.

BigB

Congratulations BigB
You are quite the World Hunter. From Elephant to Grizzly in a relative blink of the eye of Old Man Time.

I am glad to see the McGowen barreled M70 Classic Stainless .404 Jeffery makes a great Tundra Grizzly Rifle. I've got one too.

The pics on the other thread are great. I'll go get them here.

Nice bear, good shooting. The great old .404 strikes again!

Great pics...thanks...

Rip,

Thanks for posting the photos of the grizzly. I am quite impressed with the 404. It shoots very well, kills well and has very little perceived recoil. I may need to develop one of your sheep loads for the rifle and use it for something else. Although right now I am thinking I should do another field test with it. Maybe for a Zim buff or maybe one of those big alaskan moose we saw ( season was not open when I took the bear)

Thanks

BigB

quote:

Originally posted by BigB:
Rip,

Thanks for posting the photos of the grizzly. I am quite impressed with the 404. It shoots very well, kills well and has very little perceived recoil. I may need to develop one of your sheep loads for the rifle and use it for something else. Although right now I am thinking I should do another field test with it. Maybe for a Zim buff or maybe one of those big alaskan moose we saw ( season was not open when I took the bear)

Thanks

BigB

Those Alaska/Yukon moose are big up there, and would be a very good target for your 404! As I told you in my E-mail, my son looks at the pictures you sent me of that bear, every time he comes to my home. He is enveous your Bear, one of his wants!

Very nice bear, Byron!

Congrats, that's a beautiful Griz! Nice going...

I've never used one, but John Taylor had the highest praise for the .404 Jeffery as an all-purpose bolt rifle for the heaviest game.

Great photographs, thanks for posting them.

I have a question; are Texas rats bigger or smaller than grizzlies?

I find it not surprising that the .404 killed the bear but would like to know what loads your were using and at what velocity...

Were I to use my .404 on a bear I would use the 400 gr. Woodleigh RN soft point behind a cup full of IMR-4831 at about 2600 FPS in that long tube of mine and expect to roll him up like a ball....

Ray!

Do you think it might be a problem to use the 400 gr. Woodleigh designed for a veloity of 2,150 at 2600 fps? I'd be concerned about bullet blow up.

465H&H

Ray,

I can try and find out the load but doubt they will tell me at Superior. They claim 2350 fps but no idea how they arrive at that number.

BigB

quote:

Originally posted by oldun:
Great photographs, thanks for posting them.

I have a question; are Texas rats bigger or smaller than grizzlies?

Come on up to Texas, and I'll take you rat hunting, so you can see for yourself! Bring your 500NE double rifle!

465,
The Woodleigh is designed for 2400 FPS not 2100..

I have used both the old Woodliegh 410 at 2100 and 2600 FPS on Buffalo and they worked I have a number of recovered bullets, and the 2600 FPS bullets do show more expansion but they all held together..

The faster bullets killed better and did considerably more internal trauma. however the seem to have less penetration, which one would expect with a larger frontal mass to deal with.

At any rate they both worked well, I prefer the 2600 FPS load followed by solids, or simply use a solid at that high velocity, it will leave the off side of a buff and crowd a sudaneese village from the Tanzania bush!

I have shot Woodlieghs for years and have only seen one fail, a 500 gr. .470 and it slid along the teeth and was cut in half, part went out the jaw and back into the neck/shoulder and the other half went down his gullet, pissed him off big time, the clients second shot broke a leg and the PHs gun jammed, a 404 Woodliegh solid settled the matter and his nose pushed mud over the tops of my shoes...

Also the late George Hoffman used Woodleigh softs in his 460 Wby No. 1 rifle followed by Hornady softs, and told me they worked well, much to my surprise.

for what its worth.

correction: last paragraph should read followed by Hornady SOLIDS....

MacD37,
Thanks for the invite but I've nothing bigger than 458 and I would not want to show up under gunned.
The thought of being charged by an angry Texas rat scares the poop out of me.