Originally Posted by [email protected]

Hi folks-

I've done some searching through the archives here to see if there's any answers to my questions, so here goes:

The wife and I will be doing some black bear hunting in Idaho in the Spring of next year. My hunting experience (non-human- I'm former military) is mostly deer and hog, while the wife has only hunted hog.

I've had some conversations with the outfitter, and they're obviously pushing us to bring as big of a gun as we can, preferably 45-70. The wife's 7-08 is too small, according to the guides. Not a problem, she has a Tikka 300 WSM just like me.

Question 1: I've had great success using 165gr Accubonds in the Tikka, they're laser accurate (generally too much gun for hog and deer under 100 yards), but I think these are going to be a touch light for bear. I bought a couple boxes of Partitions at 200 and 220gr weights, plus I have a couple boxes of 180gr Accubonds sitting on the bench. Are 180s going to be enough, or should I go straight into load development for the 220s?

Question 2: Load development- at 180, 200 or 220gr, how important is velocity over bullet weight? According to the Nosler manual, a 220gr Partition with a max charge of powder is going to be around 2500fps at the muzzle. If I drop down to 180gr, I can top out at around 2900fps, which is a difference of about 300 ft/lbs of energy. I'm not likely going to be using max charge, so the bullet velocities are going to be lower.

Question 3: Aimpoint- obviously bear anatomy is different from a deer or hog, and the boiler room is set back a bit further. As best as I can tell, tight behind the shoulder if the bear is standing still, around the horizontal midline of the body seems to be where to point in. The wisdom of the internet seems to be to go for a double lung shot rather than trying to hit the heart.