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Thread: Wounded Bear & the .41-cal; Jackets, velocity & Hard-Cast... the retrieval effort

  1. #21
    In Remembrance
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    It is amazing how mean a dead black bear can get.
    My wifes cousin runs a pack of bear and lion dogs and does a lot of guiding for bear and lion. his dogs had a bear up a tree and his hunter made a bad shot (generally pretty easy shots) anyway the bear came down so he cut the dogs loose again and they ran him into some thick scrub oak, that you couldn't walk in. They waited until the dogs got quiet and he went in on his hands and knees, all he carried was a browning hipower. He got to where he could see the bear and a couple of dogs were chewing on it, so thought it was graveyard dead, when he got around 10 feet from it the bear opened his eyes and spotted him, he said all he had time to do was to push off and hit it something like a line man playing football. It mauled him pretty good before he convinced it, that it was dead with that little browning. lol

  2. #22
    Boolit Master MyFlatline's Avatar
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    Have seen a few different critters that just refuse to die...Great story.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by MyFlatline View Post
    Have seen a few different critters that just refuse to die...Great story.
    Yeah, like squirrels sometimes!!!

  4. #24
    Boolit Master MyFlatline's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by vzerone View Post
    Yeah, like squirrels sometimes!!!
    Yep, that is one. Never put one in your vest back till you squish it's little haid...Ask me how I know...

  5. #25
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    I remember watching my dad and another man shoot some hogs in a trap. They were using 22's and every hog dropped in it's tracks and just gave a kick or two, until the last one and the guy missed the sweet spot by a hair, I was only 6 years old but will never forget that, iirc it took 11 more shots to kill that one.
    Last edited by starmac; 10-28-2017 at 07:16 PM.

  6. #26
    Boolit Master Shopdog's Avatar
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    We were bowhunting opening day Spring Turkey one year.The only other hunters were shotgunners.We heard the shot,when we left the woods,saw their sedan car 100 or so yds up the farm rd.The car came to a stop,me and bud thought they stopped for us so we kinda hoofed on up closer,then all heck broke out in the car.My bud is looking at me,looked like a cheap B horror movie but,they had thrown a Tom in the back seat,and 10 or so minutes later it's now raising heck in the car.

    Took us a cpl minutes to figure it out then....they get a door open,buddy and I are watchin this in slo-mo.The turkey starts halfway wobbling back N forth at a trot down the rd.The happless hunter missing about 2 times,then finally finished with the 3rd.

    Me and my bud were rolling in grass laughing so hard we were crying.

  7. #27
    Boolit Master MyFlatline's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by starmac View Post
    I remember watching my dad and another man shoot some hogs in a trap. They were using 22'2 and every hog dropped in it's tracks and just gave a kick or two, until the last one and the guy missed the sweet spot by a hair, I was only 6 years old but will never forget that, iirc it took 11 more shots to kill that one.
    That is another one, and it will hurt you so fast.

    We raised our own beef growing up,and butchered our own. Dad always stuck a 22 behind the ear and they dropped. Then there was the one that said nope. Very unsettling to see something suffer and it bothered him bad. I've had a few different animals not go down, I don't like it either.. Would take extreme care with one that fights back...

  8. #28
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    I watched a hunting channel this evening and Razor Dobbs was on it and it was about the first Cape Buffalo he shot with that 10mm. Now I told you fellows wrong, the pistol was a Dan Wesson 1911 from CZ with standard 5 inch barrel. The bullets were 200 grain with a big meplat, they were hard cast and gas checked. He practiced a lot off a shooting sticks and knew he had a small window for a heart shot when the buff was broadside. He had two professional hunters with him for back up, of course with the big bore elephant guns. One was a double barrel. He spend some time to make sure he got the right shot and by God he did. It was 35 yards and he put two bullets into the buff's heart. I went 100 yard and piled up dead. When they autopsied it they could only find the one bullet and it passed clean through the buff and was right under the skin. He had also shot quite a few of the big plains animals with equal results.

  9. #29
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    I learned along time ago after witnessing several bear get harvested To use the what ever rifle you own that shoots the biggest diameter bullet and to pick a bullet or boolit that will exit for the best possible blood trail...which always gets plugged by fat. I've shot them with 2" gater 100's broadheads and made a four inch slice in and out with a perfect broadside heart shot on a 500lb bear that went a 150 yards with no blood. I shot a couple with a 300 RUM which is overkill but did good. One dropped with a double shoulder shot using a 180g ballistic tip (that are junk in my opinion for large game) and I used a 200g parition on my last. That one was a bradside shot heart n lungs. The 350lb bear did a somersault, got up and walked away. He made it 40-45 yards with with about seven pencil eraser head size drops for a sparce blood trail and let out about 7 or 8 blood gurgling roars! When we skinned that non bleeding bear had an exit hole almost the size of a coffee can in his ribs but the hyde had a bullet size hole through it.

    I've learned after watching 16 bears get harvested and help tracking a few more is they don't normally drop at the shot and never give a good blood trail. I've also leaned that bear aren't any harder to kill than a deer with the correct shot placement but at times they travel alot farther distances than you would imagine before expiring.
    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 10-30-2017 at 05:25 PM.

  10. #30
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    We have a very large black bear population in East Tennessee. Two reasons, the massive Cherokee National Forest and the Smokey Mountain National Park. I live right next to the Cherokee National Forest, surrounded by it actually. Smokey Mountain National Park is only like two hours away. In addition we have a bear refuge about 12-15 miles from us. One of the many bear refuges they take the "bad boys" from Smokey Mountain National Park too. So most of us know how far bears roam for food.

    To say we have a bear hunting season is an understatement. We have quite a few of them and with and without dogs. Where I live is a primer hunting area. With that said I'll tell you what some of the typical bears harvested in my area are like. In this one season they shot a 450 pounder 100-150 yards from my place. Couple miles away they harvested a 615 and close to that some teen boy got himself a 627 pounder. Those, in my opinion, are serious black bears. I have bears coming through my place all the time except for when they hibernate. They dig the hell out of my yard and field digging up yellow jacket larvas. I keep my garbage cans inside my garage. There is absolutely nothing for them to eat around my house. We know better then to feed them. Then they become a nuisance. I don't hunt them. The typical rifles the hunters in this area use are the 30-30 and the 243. With the forest so thick here you don't see the big boomers and long distance flat shooter calibers. Very rarely you get over a 25-50 yard shot here. I also don't have a dog.

    So you read the excellent story here about retrieving that 350 pounder, imagine what the ones I just described could do? Yup they look cute and all, but can be vicious killers. What is they say....if a grizz attacks you play dead, but if a black bear attacks do anything you can to get away from it or fight it. When the black bear makes up his/her mind to attack you one thing is on it's mind...too kill you!!! Lots of times the griss isn't like that, not to say other times they are.

    Be careful retrieving a bear.

  11. #31
    Boolit Buddy Snow ninja's Avatar
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    Great write up, very entertaining, thank you.
    Do the best you can, with what you've got, where you're at. -Theodore Roosevelt

  12. #32
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    Lots of good information in that write up. Thank you.

  13. #33
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    Good afternoon
    Another thank you for this fine story and good information !
    Been shooting 41's since 1981 and can attest a cast 240 grainer and heavier will go through all sorts of bone and meat and make a good exit hole.
    Never got to see a bear though. But should I get the opportunity as much as I like the 41 it will stay home and our BFR 475 Linebaugh with a 350 or 400 grain FNGC at 1200 + fps is coming along. This well described bear story says plainly "normally it is no issue". But I want to be ready for the one time "things will get real western in the bushes".
    Mike in Peru
    "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
    Male Guanaco out in dry lakebed at 10,800 feet south of Arequipa.

  14. #34
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    Great job Sir both the tracking and the report,nothing like being eye to eye with a very passed bear.
    I started out with nothing and I still have most of it left.
    Paralyzed Veterans of America

    Looking for a Hensly &Gibbs #258 any thing from a two cavity to a 10cavityI found a new one from a member here

  15. #35
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    Great story told well too! No such thing as to much gun!
    Semper Fidelis, to God, Country and Corps!

  16. #36
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    Believe it or not, a young man took a bear in the NE Georgia mountains about 6 weeks ago that weighed 673 pounds--the new GA record--with a crossbow! That must have been a big surprise on both ends of that crossbow. Having hunted up there I just wonder how they got it out of the field. Here in GA it is legal during archery season to carry a pistol if you have a valid concealed carry license. It's not legal, however, to use it on game. I'd have waited a good long time before I approached that animal on the ground. GF

  17. #37
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    9.3X62AL's Avatar
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    250 Savage for nuisance black bears........some elements of light-tackle angling don't translate well to the hunting fields. I don't hunt bears, but that doesn't mean I won't shoot one if the need arises. My thoughts are that for bear-whacking a rifle caliber's diameter should start with a number "3" and a handgun caliber's diameter should start with a number "4".

    O/P--strong work under really cruddy circumstances not of your choosing. Good on ya, sir.
    I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.

  18. #38
    Boolit Buddy
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    Very good hunting story. I hope to read many more.

    Bob

  19. #39
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    Nice story and congrats, we hunt big tough bears here in Kanada, and I would not head out after them with either a .250 Sav. or a .41 Magnum. We can't use handguns but my min. would be .44 mag. or .454 Casull, for rifles in close quarters it would be the 45/70, or a short light .356/.358/.35 Whelen.

  20. #40
    Boolit Buddy hockeynick39's Avatar
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    Nice!!!!! Love my .41 Mags! Have a Ruger Blackhawk Bisley hunter with 7 1/2" barrel that has a 250 HP load at 1250 fps and a 210 gr FN load at 1350 fps. Haven't harvested anything with it yet. Also have a S&W Model 57 with a 4" barrel, that shoots the same loads, I use to carry in with me when I go hunting and haven't had to use it yet (thank God)!

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