well i believe i am ready , i finally got to shoot my 416 ruger guidegun. this is what i got through my chrony. using hornady 400 DGX with varget i started around 2000 fps and worked my way to 2150 fps.my favorite loads and most accurate so far are with RL-15 i worked my way up to 2250 fps all these loads were a pleasure to shoot. I think at 2250 fps even if this is the max i can reload that i am ready for anything.I hope to be able to get to alaska in about 4 years but for now i will use these loads on deer and black bear hear in the north east. this week i am going to order some hornady factory 400 DGX and also a box of solids. i am really curious to see what i get through the chrony with these.I guess i can also expect a little more recoil.

Personally for brown bear I'd rather see the client show up with a .300 Win. Pretty well the perfect cartridge for the application, people over-gun for bears, even huge ones, they truly aren't that hard to kill. Bear isn't as hard as people seem to think of them as, the African mindset on cartridges is a little misguided.

Now, your .416 will work fine, but it won't outperform a .300 on even the biggest bear, and in fact at those velocities you may find it a little slow to act compared to something faster. Bears caught unaware are very susceptible to "bullet shock", but this doesn't appear to happen as much as you make the bullets sturdier, and slump closer to 2,000fps.

If you can shoot it was well as a lighter chambering, have at it, it WILL reliably kill your target. Just from the guide's perspective seeing a .416 in a light rifle show up when all you need is .30-06, .300, or .338 at the very most can breed a tight smile on the guide's face. Moral is you don't need a big gun, you just need the gun you shoot best.

Happy Hunting and good luck in your bear quest!

actually the rifle is not that light. 8.1 out of the box but loaded with scope and sling she's close to nine pounds . now if it was a remington 700 xcr , that i consider light , besides the the rifle has alot less recoil then i thought it would have.the 2250 fps loads dont really kick much more then my marlin 45/70 did with heavy loads, i dont know if its the shape of the stock or the muzzle brake, or i guess a combination of both. i used to shoot a 338 win. mag in a ruger m77 that i think kicked more than this.maybe its just me but i dont think anyone would have problems mastering this rifle in 416. anyhow i have a few years of hunting with it hear in the northeast before i make the trek to AK

Sounds like you know what you're up too in that case, good stuff, and good hunting when the day comes. You'll enjoy this part of the world, we're the neighbours bordering Alaska here in BC and run coastal bear hunts here as well. No shortage or bears to look at up here, on the hunt in Sept we ran into seven bears in three days inside 100 yards. The closest at muster a lougie and spit on them range, so your gun will be a comfort. Shoot her offhand as much as you can naturally, don't imagine you're doing much bench with an 8lb .416 anyhow.

Thanks for your input Angus and your correct no bench shooting i use the bench to fine tune then i like to walk the property where i have set up several targets and shoot in positions that i would do if hunting, this is alot of fun and keeps you tuned.we did this with 3d targets with our bows and thought it was a great idea for our firearms. sounds like you have some really nice bear country up there.

And sounds like you're the kind of hunter that makes things easy, have a ball hope the big hunt comes soon for you.