Your Knowledge Needed 358 Bear

[Todd N.]

Out here in the West , our bears must be the small country cousins to what you guys hunt back east. The last bear I took was in 2015, weighed 315# field dressed, and fell to a double tap from a 10mm Glock and 200 grain Hornady XTP's. I shot him twice because we were hunting Oregon's Coast Range and I did not want to risk the bear disappearing into the impenetrable rain forest. He staggered 17 feet, fell, and was dead in the time it took my nephew to smoke a cigarette.
After reading this thread I went back through my hunt notes. In almost 40 years I've killed 31 black bear. I used a .270 Winchester, a .35 Whelen, and a .45-70 for 3 of them. All the others were handgun hunts- 10mm, .45 Colt, .41 Mag, .357 Maximum.
EVERYTHING I know and practice about hunting boils down to putting the bullet in the right spot for a humane, fast kill. Bear, like almost all other game species in North America, are not hard to kill.

And to the OP:
Perfect your accuracy load and practice precise shooting with it. Learn where the vitals are on a bear so you can shoot into the vitals EVERY time, from any angle. Quit worrying about making 2 holes- your efforts should go toward making 1 in the right spot. Get to know your weapon and your load so well that you KNOW it will be a good shot, and you will know when NOT to shoot.

Good Luck!

[Tripplebeards]

I ran into a campfire post morning on shooting black bear and thought it was a good read. I have some 265 grain HP Lyman devastator‘s, clear PC and GC, loaded up with 21 grains of H110 that average between 1575 to 1600 ft./s out of my Ruger 77/44. I’m using a 7.5 BH alloy I mixed with 16 to 1 of pure lead and pewter. The alloy folds back and flows nicely imo. I shot three deer last year using alot harder 15.4 alloy in the same gun and boolit about 200 FPS faster. It never expanded but did cause a lot of trauma when I hit bone with the harder alloy. It basically didn’t expand zipping through like a hard cast flat point solid metplate boolit would. Two of the deer ran over 100 yards before they expired and the one drop in its tracks because I hit it in the heart but first shattered the ribs that exploding both lungs. I have a post here on it in the archives. My plan is to switch to the softest alloy that I can shoot at most accurately for a hunting round this year which is my 7.5 alloy in hopes that the soft alloy will expand violently to cause more of an instant shock and quicker dispatch.... I am far past worried about eating up to the hole and trying to track my animal a football field...and then some before recovering it with a well placed heart and lung shot like my deer above did. The recoil is similar to a 223 or a Light 410 load and my 77/44 is lighter than my BB gun. This was my bear load I had loaded up for my buddies kid two years ago but he never saw a black bear to test it on during his season. Worst case scenario is if my alloy is to soft and driven to fast my bullet will stop in the animal transferring 100% instant shock and trauma for a quicker recovery IMO.

Here’s a Lyman devastator with 7.5 alloy loaded at 1600 FPS I recovered from a dirt back stop behind my target at 25 yards. The pedals flowed back and one ended up braking off on a rock. It expanded close to twice it’s diameter. We all know dirt is harder than a deer or bone, but I was still impressed how well it stayed together at that velocity and soft alloy. I believe it was around 180 grains and started at 265. So if I get some fragments and shrapnel making some additional wound channels for a quicker dispatch I’m in!






I plan on finding out this year if softer is better. After my experience last year
I won’t hunt with “hard” alloys anymore.


Here the article I read this morning on hollow points out of a 44 magnum on blackbear versus hard cast. Sounds like they were too hunters that had quite a bit of experience using both inside the hard cast zipped right through their bare and ran like they weren’t hit just like my dear did last year versus using a soft hollow point was dropping most of them on the spot. Gungeek is who I’m referring to...


https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...pics/2390856/1

[Tripplebeards]

Here’s a good shot placement video I found today for blackbear...

https://youtu.be/hMuKIs4WUKM

I don’t agree with the center mass shot showing unless you want to shoot a bear in the guts and never find it. I would rather aim for the shoulder on the opposite side... Or both before I would center mass a bear.

[Prodigal Son]

Should work just fine if you do your part! They need to be drt and no tracking to make a good hunt or real hunt!

[versa-06]

This is some GOOOOOD Info! Just had a real eye opening experience during a muzzleloader hunt. 6" Spike, Bullet entrance behind right shoulder, exit in front of left shoulder,deer ran well over 200 yards around to the back side of a very steep ridge. There was blood everywhere! The bullet was a Barnes 300 gr. HP, Huge Holes, Only the second time I've ever seen this far of a smack & dash after a good hit, I think I like the soft mix & a complete pass thru just in case it happens again. Bears are known to do this from what I have read. Thanks for all of your input! Jim

[versa-06]

P.S. Still haven't seen a bear but got photo's. Jim

[waksupi]

This is some GOOOOOD Info! Just had a real eye opening experience during a muzzleloader hunt. 6" Spike, Bullet entrance behind right shoulder, exit in front of left shoulder,deer ran well over 200 yards around to the back side of a very steep ridge. There was blood everywhere! The bullet was a Barnes 300 gr. HP, Huge Holes, Only the second time I've ever seen this far of a smack & dash after a good hit, I think I like the soft mix & a complete pass thru just in case it happens again. Bears are known to do this from what I have read. Thanks for all of your input! Jim

The wound channel was too big, they don't bleed out efficiently with big holes.