For those who have hunted bear....

codybrown

What caliber rifle did you use? For those who haven't hunted a bear, what would you use? I was talking to a guy who shot one with a 270wsm. Personally, I wouldn't go anywhere near one without at least a .338 win mag.

shrpshtrjoe

I have never Hunted bear. You didn't say black or brown bears . For black bears I wouldn't hesitate to use the 308 with a 165 or 180 gr partition. For the larger browns I would use the 338 with the 250 gr partition.
Joe

roklok

My favorite bear rifle is the .35 Whelen handloaded with 250 grain Nosler Partitions at 2550 FPS. I have killed two black bears and a grizzly with this load and it is very effective. Most black bears dont require as much rifle as a grizzly or brown bear but the thing is with blacks they can get huge and you never know when hunting them what size you will encounter. There are black bears killed every year in PA that go 600-700 pounds. I want a rifle that I know wont have any trouble dispatching the largest black bear I can encounter.

moose2

For black bears up to 250 lbs. or so, I've always used my 30-06 with 180 gr. bullets. We shot one a couple of weeks ago with my sons 300WSM with 165 gr. SST's at 290 yards. It never moved off the log it was ripping up. For these size bears a good .30 cal. is all that's needed along with a good bullet and shot placement.

codybrown

Well, I was talking about a black bear. The guy showed me a picture of it hanging from a tree. It was about 6 inches taller than him from what I could estimate from the picture. He's right around 6 foot tall.

roklok

Lots of black bears are killed by fairly light calibers. I know a fellow that killed a couple with .257 Roberts. I prefer heavy, larger diameter bullets because a bear has more fat and hair than a deer which can prevent them from leaving a blood trail with smaller holes or without an exit. I have never had to trail a bear though, they all have gone right down.

Crackshot

I have killed a bear! Not by choice but I killed him. 10mm Glock with 180gr JHPs, 10 OF EM!!!!!. It was shoot or be chewed on..............I chose to shoot before the chewing started! Shocked

After dealing with the DNR I think next time I will let one chew a bit first. Mad

Grant

I've taken most of my Black Bears with my good old 303 British shooting 174 grain bullets. Actually, now that I really think about it, I've killed every one of my Black Bears with my 303. Tough to beat that old gun I guess. I won't hunt Grizzle, don't really see a point to it.

hunterjoe21

Crackshot wrote:

I have killed a bear! Not by choice but I killed him. 10mm Glock with 180gr JHPs, 10 OF EM!!!!!. It was shoot or be chewed on..............I chose to shoot before the chewing started! Shocked

After dealing with the DNR I think next time I will let one chew a bit first. Mad

It was a few years ago, but we had a woman in Ohio that killed a bear that attacked her and her daughter while they were deer hunting. The State, after receiving enormous pressure from "bear friendly" groups, tried to prosecute and jail her for killing an endangered species. If I remember it correctly (I'm sure Dimitri will research it and find the article), the NRA came to her aid, and all charges were dismissed.

buffybr

I've only shot 3 black bears. The first was many years ago in Colorado with a .45 ACP with a 220 gr cast SWC handload. It was a 5 1/2' bear. The other 2 were shot in Montana, one with a 240 gr cast SWC handload from a Ruger .44 mag, the other with a .223. The .223 required several shots, but that bear had attacked a fellow worker, and that was the only gun I had available.

I personally feel that your favorite deer rifle in .25 caliber or larger would be sufficient for black bears, IF the bullet is placed in the heart/lungs.

FALPhil

When I was up in Baffin Island (now part of Nunavut), there was an old Inuit bear hunter that used to take polar bruins with a Winchester top-eject Model 94 in 30-30. He had one brass case, which he reloaded by hand with parts of a Lee Loader which were supplemented by some home made elements. He brought in about 2 bears a month. He would bring the bear back to Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) to process it. He would make enough money from the bears he killed every year (about 6) to last him all year. He would not take the Canadian welfare check.

tracker

FALPhil wrote:

When I was up in Baffin Island (now part of Nunavut), there was an old Inuit bear hunter that used to take polar bruins with a Winchester top-eject Model 94 in 30-30. He had one brass case, which he reloaded by hand with parts of a Lee Loader which were supplemented by some home made elements. He brought in about 2 bears a month. He would bring the bear back to Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) to process it. He would make enough money from the bears he killed every year (about 6) to last him all year. He would not take the Canadian welfare check.

Interesting, cuz before all of his people were rounded up and driven off their land, none of 'em took the Canadian welfare check.

FALPhil

Yeah, tracker, it was pretty sad. There were three bars in town back then. Two were clubs that required membership (read: whites only), and one was in the hotel. On the day the checks came in, the Inuits would line up outside the hotel bar. Only a certain number of people were allowed in the bar at one time, so the bouncers would let that number in, and the natives would proceed to drink to oblivion. When an Inuit would pass out, the bouncers would chuck him out on the tundra, where he would sleep it off. When he woke up, he would get back in line. This would continue until the welfare money was gone. The hotel operator was getting rich. The whole process would take about 3 days.

tracker

Yeah, I know.

Crackshot

My father used to tell stories of being abused verbaly and physicaly by towns folk and kids in school just because they were 1/2 Native American. Thats why they moved from Texas to Michigan when my Father was a teen.