My buddy and I will be hunting Moose/Brown Bear in separate camps this September. He has an seldom fired 375 H&H and a 300 Wby he has shot well for 25 years. He used a 375 in his last Africa hunt for buffalo hunt and recoil was not an issue. Factory 375 ammo is a little hard to find these days. So, he leaning towards taking the 300 with 180 soft-points. Will he under-gunned and curse by his guide?

I used a 300 weatherby for years and killed several moose.
I became disenchanted after a while due to less than premium bullets that l blamed the cartridge for.
Eventually I'd like to have another again, but truthfully I now favor the 06 cartridges in +30 caliber sizes for moose so I'm not sure I'll ever use a 300 weatherby on Alaska game again.

Moose are big and semi tough, I think a 300 with good bullets would punch them thru a d thru and pile them up nicely.,

A 300 Weatherby with 200 Nosler Partions is the Holy Grail!!!

As WaterRat says, use premium bullets like TSX, Partitions, Swifts, North Fork or any other of your choice and you will be more than adequately armed.

Since you mentioned cursed by guide ....

I once had an outfitter refuse to take me Brown Bear hunting with my .300 Wthby mag and I wanted to use 200 Gr. NP or 220 grain. He said .30 was not enough gun he would take me with .33 caliber or larger, but recommended .375 H.H., which I did not want to buy since I felt that would be a gun used on one hunt and never again.

I ended up going and using .340 Wthby mag and in my particular situation was likely a better choice, but generally for Brown Bear I think .300 Wthby with 200 gr Premium bullets of your choice is a fine choice, with shot placement being king of course.

As for .300 Wthyby on Moose, I have not taken a Moose with my .300 Wthby, but I have taken a couple with my .340, the .300 Wthby would knock the crap out of a large Alaska Yukon Moose or for that matter any of the smaller Moose in the Moose family.

The .300 hits like Thor's hammer out to great distances.
Good luck.

Cold Zero, as a whole most guides are unsophisticated about rifles and are just as likely as the average hunter to assume that because some animal runs away wounded that the client swears he hit correctly, then the caliber was insufficient.

There were a lot of guides throughout the 1960's and 70's who carried 300 Magnums that clients had bestowed on them.

There were also plenty of stories about how poor Weatherby rifles were, but the usual culprit was the operator, not the rifle and certainly not the cartridge.

Rsimmons, when I hunted brown bear on Kodiak, one guide in camp carried a 300 weatherby and the other guide carried a 30-06. They both thought 30 caliber guns were enough. When I hunted moose on the peninsula, guide carried a 338 Winchester and said it was plenty for any brown bear.

Ironic isn't it. The 30-06 with 180 grain premium bullets has pretty much killed anything on this planet, twice. Yet some shit for brains Alaskan guide decides that a 300 Weatherby won't reliably kill brown bear. Time for a new guide.

quote:

Originally posted by Macs B:
Ironic isn't it. The 30-06 with 180 grain premium bullets has pretty much killed anything on this planet, twice. Yet some shit for brains Alaskan guide decides that a 300 Weatherby won't reliably kill brown bear. Time for a new guide.

or non premium before 1948 ....

Yes! As has been suggested the 300 WBY is plenty. Load some premium 200 gr bullet and your buddy will be fine. If he gets that longer shot on a moose he'll be able to take it with confidence.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Macs B:
Ironic isn't it. The 30-06 with 180 grain premium bullets has pretty much killed anything on this planet, twice. Yet some shit for brains Alaskan guide decides that a 300 Weatherby won't reliably kill brown bear. Time for a new guide.

My first choice for the hunt was my .30-06 since I had to most experience with that and was very confident with it. It was also the heaviest caliber I owned at the time prior to then purchasing the .300 Wthby, after being told the .30-06 was too light. You can imagine after then purchasing the 300 Wthby and having a trigger job and a butt pad installed and a Swarovski scope how disapointed I was when I was told that this set too was also too light.

A solid hit from a .30 caliber rifle shooting heavy for caliber premium bullets, I like Nosler Partitions, is better than a marginal hit from a heavier caliber gun your hunter recently purchased and does not have a lot of rounds thru. M.H.O..

So far, everyone is confident the 300 Wby with a premium 200+ grain bullet is moose medicine. What about brown bear?

quote:

Originally posted by RSIMMONS:
So far, everyone is confident the 300 Wby with a premium 200+ grain bullet is moose medicine. What about brown bear?

Without a doubt!
I have had clients take monster old boars with a .270 using 150 grain Partitions and the absolute largest bear we have ever taken was with a single shot from a 300 Wby!

if it wasn't - there would be no weatherby award

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:

quote:

Originally posted by RSIMMONS:
So far, everyone is confident the 300 Wby with a premium 200+ grain bullet is moose medicine. What about brown bear?

Without a doubt!
I have had clients take monster old boars with a .270 using 150 grain Partitions and the absolute largest bear we have ever taken was with a single shot from a 300 Wby!

My uncle was stationed in Alaska while serving in the Air Force in the mid 60's. He took a monster boar that squared 10'4" with a 300 H&H. I have no idea what bullets he used back then as he passed away a few years back and lost his ability to recall much of his life a few years before that. I suspect they were Winchester Silver Tips but I don't know.

I do remember him telling me he shot the bear several times but I also shot my second brown bear several times with a 375 H&H a few years back. So what!

I'd listen to guys like Phil. If he says a 300 Mag get's it done, I'd say you can take that to the bank. Personally, I like a larger caliber but I'd have confidence in a 300 using premium bullets all day long.

On that second brown bear hunt I did in Russia, I had the opportunity to watch the guide and a client armed with a 300 Win Mag stalk and take a 9'5" bear. That bear stood on its hind legs to get a better look at then, the client fired, the bear dropped to all fours and started running. He hit it a second time with the 300 and rolled him. He didn't move again. It worked fine.

Up until the early 1960's the 30-06 was the most popular guides rifle in Alaska. In fact the World's record Kodiak brown bear was taken with one. And Bill Pinnel & Morris Tallifson , P&T, the famous Kodiak guides even recommended the 30-06.

Two of our browns this spring dropped to the 308 with no issue. No suprise. Guns are made to kill stuff. Sometimes I wonder where our minds would go if we weren’t so busy contemplating the difference in 20 or 30 GRAINS into a several hundred POUND animal…

quote:

Originally posted by Fourtyonesix:
Two of our browns this spring dropped to the 308 with no issue. No suprise. Guns are made to kill stuff. Sometimes I wonder where our minds would go if we weren’t so busy contemplating the difference in 20 or 30 GRAINS into a several hundred POUND animal…

We would obsess over 50 fps more bullet velocity, whether 9x is *really* needed for a hunting scope, or most importantly, Ford v. Chevy. Because that's what people do.

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
Up until the early 1960's the 30-06 was the most popular guides rifle in Alaska. In fact the World's record Kodiak brown bear was taken with one. And Bill Pinnel & Morris Tallifson , P&T, the famous Kodiak guides even recommended the 30-06.

P&T - nuff said.

quote:

Originally posted by delloro:

quote:

Originally posted by Fourtyonesix:
Two of our browns this spring dropped to the 308 with no issue. No suprise. Guns are made to kill stuff. Sometimes I wonder where our minds would go if we weren’t so busy contemplating the difference in 20 or 30 GRAINS into a several hundred POUND animal…

We would obsess over 50 fps more bullet velocity, whether 9x is *really* needed for a hunting scope, or most importantly, Ford v. Chevy. Because that's what people do.

Don’t forget vaccinated or unvaccinated!!

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
Cold Zero, as a whole most guides are unsophisticated about rifles and are just as likely as the average hunter to assume that because some animal runs away wounded that the client swears he hit correctly, then the caliber was insufficient.

There were a lot of guides throughout the 1960's and 70's who carried 300 Magnums that clients had bestowed on them.

There were also plenty of stories about how poor Weatherby rifles were, but the usual culprit was the operator, not the rifle and certainly not the cartridge.

Harry Selby killed a rather large Brown Bear with a Winchester Model 70 in 300 H&H he bought on arrival in Alaska.

Didn't I read somewhere that many thousands of moose have been take over the years with lever action 30-30s?

200 gr Aframe or Woodleigh.