Originally Posted by
younggun308
There's very few animals in North America that won't easily succumb to a plain old 180-grain soft point from a .308. Haven't used it on bear, myself, but I love it on deer (slower bullet seems to bring better permanent wound channel for some reason; my 1:10" twist barrel likes them more than 150's) and have heard it's almost impossible to beat on black bear (unless you go up in caliber).
Agreed. I went to the .338 Federal because of the wound channel, not the killing. In 2017 I shot a bear in Maine with my .308. No blood trail. Did I miss?
Nope. When we found the bear, I actually blew the top of its heart off. Much blood inside the bear, but not enough wound channel to not plug up. So I use the .338 for the bigger channel, not because the .308 won't kill.
Also, when I bought a new scope, I didn't want to put it on the .308 because it was "so perfect" that I didn't want to mess with it, so I put it on my "experimental" .338 Federal instead (which came with a cheaper scope too). Wanted a lighted reticle. If you've ever shot black bear with a black reticle, you'll understand why.