Ridge Runner

Finaly have calmed down enough over your bear pistol thread to post some information that may be informative. I started bear hunting in 1978, wasn't many back then but we hunted hard, we for the most part use dogs, I have been part of seeing many bears taken with alot of different firearms. I stated in your original thread that they were not hard to kill and I hope to explain why I stand by my statements in that thread. Here in wv, we unlikee pa have a 5 week season where we use dogs to hunt bear, we have the option of being a bit more particular of what bears we harvest, we do not line up and drive bear just like most states where they drive deer as they do in pa, running shots are rare but are taken on occasion. When we decide to harvest a bear they are almost always stationary setting in a tree unless we find the males who have an attitude and are reluctaant to climb, then they are dealt with by the most experienced hunters and marksmen in the group. I have as I have stated before taken 14 myself, of which 1 was running, the first hit with a 348 win. 200 gr bullet was not a good hit, the second shot put him down as soon as I could get a clear shot to avoid hitting the dogs. have taken 5 more on the ground which either were bayed up and stationary or just slow walking they were taken with the 348, 280 (2), 6mm rem, and 7mmstw. none of those 5 as much as took a step and 4 of them bounced when they hit the ground and never as much as kicked. I will say if you hit one bad, they seem indestructable. As far as the treed bears, the ranges are close, shooters and rifles are varied. Most of the treed bears are shot by young hunters, have been under the tree assisting with shooters as young as 5 years old, rifles run the gamut from 223's, 243's, 30-30's and the like. if the bullet is placed where it needs to be, the bear is dead when it hits the ground. so maybe this explains why I say they are not hard to kill if you put the bullet where it needs to be. The guys who trapped them back in the 30's used a 22 almost exclusively. This has been my experience.

bronko22000

RR I agree 100% with you. Black bear simply ain't that hard to kill. I haven't taken as many as you, only 5.I had a 6th one get away on me. I shot them with 300WM, 30-06 and .45-70 and 308. But unlike you all but one of mine were moving but I wasn't participating in a drive but they were likely pushed by someone. The ones I recovered either dropped immediately when hit or only traveled a short distance. The one that got away was hit 4 times with the 308 and Rem Core lokts 4 times. First in the gut, the next 2 in the center chest as it was running straight toward me and the 4th behind the left shoulder as he went into the thick laurel. (I could see all the shots as it rained the night before and his coat was soaked. It splashed where he was hit). That bear was killed by another hunter about 200 yards away), BTW that is the reason til this day that I have a bad taste the 308.
But back to the main point - you hit a bear solid in his boiler room he will die pretty quickly.

CalHunter

Thanks to both of you. And yes RR, I agree that the other topic got way off track. I've had similar experience to yours with my 270 on black bear.

In the other topic, I was curious about a pistol's ability for when I'm checking game cameras and also whenever I'm field dressing a critter. In checking the internet on that for black bears only, some seem to think a 10mm is okay, some not. Most seem to think a 41 mag is minimum and everybody seems to agree that a 44 mag is enough. For now, I use a 40 or 45 as that's what I have. In the near future, I'd like to upgrade by a few pistols and am looking at 10, 41 and 44. This would just be for when I am checking game cams or field dressing a critter. For hunting black bear specifically, I'm still using my 270.

Ridge Runner

would not feel the least bit disadvantaged with a 10 mm, have absolutely hammered whitetails with 180 gr ammo. I stand by my original post, black bears are not hard to kill!

Ridge Runner

wasn't the caliber it was the bullet, just sayin!

Bocajnala

Come on now.... Deadliest mushroom in the woods.

-Jake

Ridge Runner

could be, I know I don't care for them, to many unexplained failures.

CalHunter

Thanks. this is the kind of experience I was hoping to see.

bronko22000

Yes 10mm should be fine. I watched a show with Razor Dobbs take not 1 but 2 cape buffalo with a 10mm. And they're a lot tougher than blackies.

CalHunter

Do you have a link to that video? That would be amazing to see.