One shot at 57 yards, 30-06 with 180 grain Swift A-frame bullet, double lunged, bear ran ten yards and fell, 7' 3" or 7' 1/2" depending on how measured, rough skull measure of 20 1/2, over 450 lbs. (an incredible weight IME for a spring bear).
The story:
My grandson, Jon, had planned for months to hunt bear with me this spring. Just before he came a friend who knows bears told me that he had found a big bear. This friend hadn't told anyone about the bear but he likes Jon so suggested a place for us to find it.
We arrived there an hour before dark, parked, walked 70 yards down an overgrown grassy road and Jon saw a bear ahead of us. I glassed it and saw a smallish to medium sized black bear walking toward us. Jon asked if he should shoot it and I said, "I wouldn't," in a tone that gave him the choice but indicated that if I were in his shoes I wouldn't shoot it. He passed.
At dawn were were back and spent 3 hours sneaking along grassy lanes and a clearcut. Saw one herd of elk and no bears. The little amount of bear sign, most of it big, made me think a big bear in the area was keeping smaller bears away.
In early afternoon we hiked 3/4 mile and sat on a log to watch a grassy area where we thought the big bear might be feeding. I took a long nap and then we walked around the edge of the meadow looking into hidden pockets.
When we headed back toward the trail, Jon saw a bear toward where we had been sitting. A LOT of BIG bear was sticking up above a large log as the bear grazed on the other side of it 75 yards away. Game on.
We edged behind a low spreading tree, got out a monopod for a rest and I glassed the bear's head when it would lift it. I told Jon that it was not the monster we were looking for but that it was a very big bear. Jon was too excited to be comfortable shooting at part of a bear above a log so we slipped back and around the tree. We moved 20 yards to our left and ten yards closer to the bear.
Jon put a fleece glove on the rest to pad it and got settled in. The bear began to get suspicious I think, and turned to its left, swinging around and walking slowly. Jon belted it tight behind the shoulder before it got quite broadside. (We had agreed that he would shoot a broadside bear center of shoulder but he said that his bow aiming instincts kicked in. It worked.) The bear stopped with a slight jolt, froze for a moment, then swung on around and galloped for the timber. It fell in the open within ten yards.
The photo of Jon shooting over the monopod was taken less than two minutes after the shot from the same position. The fallen bear is in view, the black hyphen in the middle of the bleached grass patch just above center in the photo. At the shot, the bear had been at the right edge of the light grass patch, broadside and ten yards closer.
The bear is a deceptive one, bigger than it looked, which is opposite to my normal. My friend who has guided used that word for it: deceptively bigger than first appearance indicates. Best fur coat on a large boar that I've seen, no bare patches in groin etc. Very slightly rubbed on lower shoulder.
