Oats up to my neck, can see the bear only when they rear up and then you have seconds to chose by head size alone.... We filmed 12 bear going into the field and I was positioned on the side of the field between the crop and the woods on their escape route. Who says you can't reload a ML fast?

Man I love my job!

What a beautiful animal. So what kind of load were you running? And what distance were you from the bear? Are you just going to leave us hanging? Congratulations on the bear. It looks like you had an exciting hunt...

Nuthin' wrong with that animal size Rich. You may love your job - but I'll bet you ain't thrilled when having to loada critter like thaton an ATV??

I see you are wearing a light jacket - so the weather is still sorta' warm up there? Tell the truth now! How many flies did you swat off that bear to be able to stand still & stillpose for for those two photos?... lol

Is that the same scope that was on the Omega?
Also... lets end the long-running debate & ask your opinion on which rifle (Omega or Encore) is easier to clean -- which one would you purchase first for ML-hunting only?

One last thought! Did Sandi switch to the Encore also? Is she (cough twice) still"out-shooting" you?...lol[:@][]

I'm just home once again and trying to play catch up.
There were at least a dozen bear in the field and we worked our way along the bush edge waiting for a bear to hear us and stand up. I had very little time once one popped up to decide to shoot or not. A cow elk call calmed those that I turned down. Several stood up at 2 and 300 yards as they would hear other bear and check them out. 2 of these were real brutes but I'm not about to attempt an off hand throat/chest shot at those ranges.
This fellow popped up with 2 others at the same time and I later ranged my camera man from the kill at 93 yards. I took him (bear not camera man!) at the junction of the neck and chest and got a perfect pass through. I used 150 grains of pyro pellets and a 250 SST and the thump was horrific and can be heard on camera. I know you guys are bored to death about this load but it shoots so well in my TC's and just keeps on killing everything I shoot with it.
This guy moaned when he died, thank God! It is bad enough to make that trek in oats up to your neck worried about getting plowed into by fleeing bear but approaching a wounded one is something you think about twice. Ok, so I quit thinking twice about this stuff many moons ago but that probably isn't a sign of intelligence! My camera man took some convincing though.
I've shot more bear than I care to admit and I'll bet 80% moan and I haven't noticed it being related to size or anything else.

Loading it on the atv after packing it out of the crop was a breeze! You can't do more damage to the crop than the bear or the farmers won't allow you back.


No jacket just t shirt and shirt, it hit 70 degeres that day!

Good eyes! Yep it is.

I don't see a difference in cleaning, the removable plug makes it about the same in my opinion. If I was going to have a ML only it would be the Omega just because it is super quality at a lower price than the Encore.

Actually that is her Encore, she picked the new camo barrel and it was so cool when it came that I swiped it for the hunt. My SS may never kill anything this year! Of course she can out shoot me what happyly married husband of 26 years would ever say anything different?
Our hunt schedule has us doing so many near/far hunts (sheep, mule deer, etc) this year that we made the change over to the Encore. Now the camera man (me often) can just shove a long range centerfire barrel in the pack and we are ready for anything with out the added weight of an entire second gun.