Gun Models and Calibres for Artic Conditions

[terrym]

What you want is a stainless steel and synthetic stocked bolt action 3006. Something with controlled round feeding is also desirable. The Ruger is a good choice with it's integral scope bases ( one less thing to fail worry about) Buy one that has iron sights also as if ever the scope fails you can remove the scope and still use the rifle. As for scopes a 2x7 Leupold VX2 is the way to go. Keep it simple and use proven and reliable stuff. The Arctic is not the place to bring hard to source ammo or cheap scopes that can fail.

[Coady]

A bolt action for cold weather and a versatile caliber with good ballistics. Im liking .280 rem more and more. Cant go wrong with a 7mm mag !!! Both good for long distance big game. .243 for smaller game but still good abd flat along with 22-250. Happy hunting

[Kilo Charlie]

I'd go minimum .30-06 with 180-grainers given that the only bear common in the Arctic is the polar bear. I travel the arctic extensively, especially the Eastern Arctic (Pangnirtung, Qikiqtarjuaq, Clyde River, Pond Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet, etc) and .30-06 is available EVERYWHERE. So is .303 British and .223 Remington, which are the three cartridges most used for polar bears. (Yes, the .223 Remington. Not a typo, lol!) I have seen lots of other cartridges for sale up there, but often it's because of an error on an ammo order and air-freighting returns is pricey. I have seen scads of .375 Winchester, .44-40, .257 Roberts, in white Winchester boxes. I just scored five boxes of .250 Savage 100-gr Silvertips in white boxes from the mid-eighties in Taloyoak. But those are anomalies. I have been in towns where they have no .30-30 or .270 or .308 Winchester, but they had .30-06, .303 British and .223 Rem.

I don't know if I replied to this post in 2014 or not, lol!

[greatwhite]

Seeing as Kilo is up in Yellow knife and there only seems to be 30-06, 303 and 223. I think I would go with the 30-06 or the 303 British. The 223 is really a tad bit under power for Polar bears and seeing the Polar bears are really the only animal that will hunt a human I would want something with a bit of bite to it.

[greatwhite]

Crap didn't realize this was from 2014. Why did you reply to it?? Happy New Years Kilo.

I'd go minimum .30-06 with 180-grainers given that the only bear common in the Arctic is the polar bear. I travel the arctic extensively, especially the Eastern Arctic (Pangnirtung, Qikiqtarjuaq, Clyde River, Pond Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet, etc) and .30-06 is available EVERYWHERE. So is .303 British and .223 Remington, which are the three cartridges most used for polar bears. (Yes, the .223 Remington. Not a typo, lol!) I have seen lots of other cartridges for sale up there, but often it's because of an error on an ammo order and air-freighting returns is pricey. I have seen scads of .375 Winchester, .44-40, .257 Roberts, in white Winchester boxes. I just scored five boxes of .250 Savage 100-gr Silvertips in white boxes from the mid-eighties in Taloyoak. But those are anomalies. I have been in towns where they have no .30-30 or .270 or .308 Winchester, but they had .30-06, .303 British and .223 Rem.

I don't know if I replied to this post in 2014 or not, lol!

[Kilo Charlie]

Happy New Year, GW!
I didn't realize until later that it was old. Newer member Coady replying to old posts after using the search function is my guess. It does happen a lot, lol! At least he only resurrected that one old post! Imagine if he were looking up .270 Winchester for Moose!
Kevin

[trimmer21]

The OP hasn't been on-line since Nov 2015. I hope the Polar Bears didn't get him LOL

[MikePal]

What is nice to know, from a retail perspective if your considering a rifle for the north, is that the SAKO T3 .308 Winchester passed the extensive military specification testing as the replacement rifle for the Ranger's old .303 Enfield.

That alone would seal the deal

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...e-temperatures