"Bear calibers"

[wooltie]

I don't want to start a big ol debate, but just my not so humble opinion, lots of wounded bears are from guys shooting too far at an animal that has an outline and body features that are hard to tell even at close range.  Plus the whole going to break them down mentality.  You take out both lungs and that bear is NOT going to go very far.  My opinion, bears are easy to kill, as long as you take out BOTH lungs.  Their movements and lack of features makes guys "think" they are breaking down a shoulder and they are not.  So many guys try to shoot punishing rounds and can't shoot them accurately so they have marginal hits.  Marginal hits on a bear is most likely a lost bear.  Caliber?  Whatever you can shoot effectively and actually place the bullet where it needs to be. 

I would agree with this, I came across an exception that scared the crap out of me at 17. I was hunting elk near Ilwako in the 70's. I was sitting on a ridge finger, when I heard multiple shots coming from a clearing about 400 yards away. I made my way down to the clearing and there was an elderly gentleman in his 60s, sitting on a log who had obviously been chain smoking cigarette after cigarette, trying to recover his composer. The ground around the small clearing was total devastation! The underbrush had been ripped up and thrown in up the trees, and the small alders within the clearing had been knocked down or bitten through.
I asked "what happened?" he said he shot the bear from about 30 yards. He said his first shot was a hit, the next shots all missed. In the couple minutes it took to die, it completely tore up the surroundings in a huge circle, attacking everything within reach. 
When gutting, we noticed the bear's heart was gone. It his first shot been a perfect heart shot.
In the two minutes it took to die, the bear caused havoc on everything in reach. This bear was 140 lbs (guessing) not a big bear, yet the damage he caused in the last two minutes of life, was freaky.
He was so freaked out how lucky he was that the bear did not see him in its death throws, he had tears coming down his face.

I know this is not normal behavior for a bear, I learned a new respect for how tough bears can be that day.

A friend was shook like a rag doll by a dying bear that got him by the pants leg.  Had his knee not slipped out of it's mouth it would have been bad.  As it was, it didn't do him any good.  He was bruised up pretty bad.

Yikes.  So how did your friend come in contact with the dying bear?  Was your friend following a blood trail, or did it approach the dying bear thinking that the bear had already seen the revenant?

[JDHasty]

I don't want to start a big ol debate, but just my not so humble opinion, lots of wounded bears are from guys shooting too far at an animal that has an outline and body features that are hard to tell even at close range.  Plus the whole going to break them down mentality.  You take out both lungs and that bear is NOT going to go very far.  My opinion, bears are easy to kill, as long as you take out BOTH lungs.  Their movements and lack of features makes guys "think" they are breaking down a shoulder and they are not.  So many guys try to shoot punishing rounds and can't shoot them accurately so they have marginal hits.  Marginal hits on a bear is most likely a lost bear.  Caliber?  Whatever you can shoot effectively and actually place the bullet where it needs to be. 

I would agree with this, I came across an exception that scared the crap out of me at 17. I was hunting elk near Ilwako in the 70's. I was sitting on a ridge finger, when I heard multiple shots coming from a clearing about 400 yards away. I made my way down to the clearing and there was an elderly gentleman in his 60s, sitting on a log who had obviously been chain smoking cigarette after cigarette, trying to recover his composer. The ground around the small clearing was total devastation! The underbrush had been ripped up and thrown in up the trees, and the small alders within the clearing had been knocked down or bitten through.
I asked "what happened?" he said he shot the bear from about 30 yards. He said his first shot was a hit, the next shots all missed. In the couple minutes it took to die, it completely tore up the surroundings in a huge circle, attacking everything within reach. 
When gutting, we noticed the bear's heart was gone. It his first shot been a perfect heart shot.
In the two minutes it took to die, the bear caused havoc on everything in reach. This bear was 140 lbs (guessing) not a big bear, yet the damage he caused in the last two minutes of life, was freaky.
He was so freaked out how lucky he was that the bear did not see him in its death throws, he had tears coming down his face.

I know this is not normal behavior for a bear, I learned a new respect for how tough bears can be that day.

A friend was shook like a rag doll by a dying bear that got him by the pants leg.  Had his knee not slipped out of it's mouth it would have been bad.  As it was, it didn't do him any good.  He was bruised up pretty bad.

Yikes.  So how did your friend come in contact with the dying bear?  Was your friend following a blood trail, or did it approach the dying bear thinking that the bear had already seen the revenant?

Got cheap.  He was given some ratty old ammo that had a "little corrosion" on it, but since you rarely shoot a bear over dogs at a distance of over five or ten yards.... 

This was over three decades ago, but I think that I remember most of the details correctly:
The first shot was so weak that it ricocheted off the skull, but knocked the bear out of the tree.  The bear was not in the mood to talk things over and work out their differences when it landed on the ground at his feet, and the empty case was stuck in the chamber and the dogs were tied back and the bear got him around the knee and the dogs couldn't help him out. Luckily, he rolled and the bear ended up with just the seam of the double front Carhart's and was giving him a pretty good stirring when he was finally able to get the gun unjammed and finished the fight.

He was all black and blue that night all the way from his toes to his shoulder, but then turned the damnedest shades of green and purple I have ever seen after a couple days.     

[Machias]

Rodeo!! 

[JDHasty]

Rodeo!! 

Yee hah! 

[buglebrush]

I've killed a lot of bears with my .270  Really the only animal I still hunt with a rifle as everything else is archery.

[RadSav]

Rodeo!! 

Yee hah!

I knew a guy who roped an 80#ish bear back in the mid eighties.  Said it was all fun and games until he jumped out of the tree.  "S*&T got real in a hurry once I hit the ground", he said.  Then he pulls out his pictures...no bear pics, just pictures of him in the hospital getting stitches.

[seth30]

Will be using the 300 savage

[hunter399]

 

[Alchase]

Rodeo!! 

LMAO!

[1972Pinto]

My great grandpa used a savage 99 300 savage made in 1922! 150 grain corelokts never failed him! But then again his biggest deer he ever shot was a 180lb mulie. But when he passed on, so did the rifles hunting career. It's a fun gun! But at almost $30 a box for federal powershok, I don't shoot it very often.

[seth30]

My great grandpa used a savage 99 300 savage made in 1922! 150 grain corelokts never failed him! But then again his biggest deer he ever shot was a 180lb mulie. But when he passed on, so did the rifles hunting career. It's a fun gun! But at almost $30 a box for federal powershok, I don't shoot it very often.

I love mine and reload for it.  Have been using 308 brass, resizing, trimming and tuning to my gun