Well the economic stimulus checks will be here in about a month and i'm thinking about joining my Uncle bear hunting in NY. I'm looking at the Mossberg Rifles as they are reasonably priced and haven't heard to much bad about them.
The Mossberg ATR is chambered in .270 Win, .30-06 Sprg., .243 Win and .308 Win. while the 4x4 is chambered in 25-06, .270, 30-06, 7mm Rem Mag,.300 Win Mag and .338.
I'm not sure what caliber would be appropriate for Black Bear so i'm lookin for some advice. Also if there are some other moderatley priced rifles you would recommend that'd be great to.
How does he hunt the bear's?? With dog's?? If so then a fast lever action with good open sights is the answer. An 1894 Marlin in 44 Magnum would be a dandy. The rifle is light and fast handling. And the 44 is great bear medicine, especially with a quick folow up shot(if needed) from the 1894. Tom.
__________________
West by God Virginia.
We need to stop using these terms today, "Sniper Rifle", "Tactical", "Assault Weapon".
For thos NY blackies you don't need one of the magnums. And you can also eliminate the 243 (great deer round but a little light for bear) and I'd say the same for the 25-06. Any of the others would work fine for you.
My favorite black bear rifle here in PA is my Marlin Guide Gun in 45-70. It hits them hard and puts them down fast.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.
I'm not as good as I'm gonna get - but I'm better than I used to be. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
Every cartridge you listed is adequate for black bear shooting. Even the .243 if you use a premium bullet. However, I would choose a larger caliber. When I was living in AK, I did my black bear shooting with a .270 Winchester caliber Mannlicher Schoenauer carbine loaded with150-grain Nosler Partition bulletsat a MV of 2900 FPS.
With this load, my farthest black bear kill was at a range of slightly over 200 yards, and the bear was killed with one shot-he ran straight ahead as soon as the bullet hit, and my second shot missed! My excuse is that he was running!! He covered about 30 yards up a slight hill before flipping over on his back facing back downhill, where he remained. The bullet had traversed from just behind his last rib on the left side,forward through his chest cavity,smashingthe right shoulder before exiting into his right front leg, where it travelled down the leg to his paw, and was found lodged under the skin of his right wrist. It had broken his right leg in two places as well, before stopping! I still have that bullet. It is one of the only two NPJ's I've ever recovered inside a game animal! (My hunting buddies had been teasing me about "hunting bears with a varmint rifle". I killed two that day, with three shots. Afterward, they told me "well, bears are nothing but varmints anyway!!)
There was NOTHING forward of this poor bear's diaphragm except a bloody soup made of his heart & lungs, the biggest remaining pieces of which were about the size ofquarters...... Those two bears that day were in the 300-pound class-6'7" from nose to tail. There is no doubt in my mind that that particular 150-grain Nosler Partition bullet load would have killed things ALOT BIGGER than those two bears!
__________________
"Bitte, trinks du das Wasser nicht. Dahin haben die Kuhen gesheissen."
For thos NY blackies you don't need one of the magnums. And you can also eliminate the 243 (great deer round but a little light for bear) and I'd say the same for the 25-06. Any of the others would work fine for you.
My favorite black bear rifle here in PA is my Marlin Guide Gun in 45-70. It hits them hard and puts them down fast.
This rifle would be less than 1/2 a step behind my choice of the 1894 in 44 magnum. This rig would also be a fantastic choice. I just like the lighter 1894 if you are running behind the dogs in the mountains.
I would also have to go with the 1886 instead of the 1895, but that is just a personal thing. Both rifles are of fantastic quality. Tom.
__________________
West by God Virginia.
We need to stop using these terms today, "Sniper Rifle", "Tactical", "Assault Weapon".
You don't need to stomp a NY blackbear to death, just poke a hole in 'em, in the right place, with a good bullet, andmake 'em bleed.
350 to 400 pounds is a dandy for the most part, anywhere in the state with the majority of kills being smaller than that. 500 to 600 is rarer but certainly possible. Have one now 600 plus that been around the house the last three years.
The big one's aresmart enough to stay outta the way.
It comes highly reccomended from meto hunt 'em withX's....
An X will give you larger/flattercaliber performance in a smaller chambering.....IOW, if hit right, the 6mm 85 TSX or the .257 100 TSX will kill 'em fine.
The key point there, is shoot theRifle that you can shoot the best with nary a flinch. Most any clear shot in NY is going to be not more than a glimpse and likely inmoderate to heavy timber/brush...so the Rifle need handle well in your hands, and you need intimate operation of it's function.
Practice.................
Pick a rifle you can shoot, an average Deer Rifle will hunt bear just fine, and less in the hands of the skilled.
I think that a small bear will go down with any of those calibers. A big bear might also. However I would choose the widest bullet I could for bears. They have a lot offur and a lot of fat that has a tendency to clot bleeding and make it hard to trail if the shot isn't perfect or there are complications. 30 cal minimum for me and a 338 caliber, preferably 338-06 as the magnums are a bit much in my estimation. 35 cal would be nice too. of course 444 marlin or 45-70 450 marlin woulr be good choices also.
They can go along way when wounded, and keep in mind they bite back! a wider bullet is cheap insurance.
aren't mossbergs cheap? maybe good for the money, but when talking firearms, I want quality, not good for the money, sure I don't want overpay, but I'd rather overpay and have high quality than save a nickel, and lose quality.
I think you can get a very nice rifle for a decent price, IMO spend the money.
As to NY black bears, I don't think they'll require anything overpowering, but of those mentioned, I'd go .30-06, and maybe consider, 300 win mag, or 338 win mag.
.270, .308 will work, though I'd want more gun for bear....
Bear Rifle
