Yipppeeeee

[white eagle]

Finally got my pass to hunt black bear in Wisconsin
I think I had 10-11 preference points and after a long hard battle I finally drew
this is my 3rd bear hunt in my own state
I plan on hunting over bait with a 500 Linebaugh rifle with a cast boolit
probably in 25-1 and definitely powder coated
unsure of which boolit I will use I have a few molds up to 500 gr
also unsure if a hp is needed with this rifle and boolit combo
the hunt is scheduled for Sept.15 and I can hardly wait

[fatmanunited]

Outstanding

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[smoked turkey]

Sounds fantastic. Your chosen caliber and boolit will do the job nicely. Good hunting and keep us informed especially with a hunting story and pictures too!

[444ttd]

nice cartridge, if i do say so myself!!!

[white eagle]

would you use a hp or not I am leaning towards not or maybe a cup point
decisions,decisions

[444ttd]

i use a 450gr lfn gc.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Do you have an idea what the impact velocity will be ?
We shoot all sorts of caliber .50 rifles from 50-45 up to 50 AK. A FN Cast of 25-1 is going to expand at 1100 fps. A 450 grain should go clean through a BB from any angle at 50 yards and under. But again 25-1 is going to expand at the velocities your 500 can produce at 50 yards.

Thousands of BB's were taken with muzzle loaders using your mix with caliber .40 (Ned Roberts) and up to .50 with 300 grain cast slugs throughout the northern US of A.

[Jim22]

I'm afraid I wouldn't worry much about expansion using a fifty caliber boolit. It's already as big as a perfectly mushroomed .30 cal. boolit. And, as stated above, it will expand with your chosen alloy.

[jaydub in wi]

Congrats white eagle. I drew a tag in 2018 so it'll be a long wait for me. Which zone did you draw? Last time, I hunted zone C. Next time will probably be zone A. Good luck

[white eagle]

I got zone A, like I always do
this will be my 3rd time here
I had at least 10 preference points I believe
love bear hunting love bear meat win,win and win

[white eagle]

so far my most accurate boolit is a 400 gr Keith
made by Tom @ Accurate Molds
this accuracy was test was done at 100 yds.
I think hunting over bait will make that a long shot
so I may need to re-test and sight in @ 50 yds.
would that make sense?

[725]

Personally, I'd forget the HP. Wide me plat ~ yes. Not real hard animals to kill, but penetration is comforting.

[Tripplebeards]

Awesome!!! I put in for a preference point (again) because I don’t have a place to hunt. First time I was drawn I went in the public forest in winter. Went with guys that ran dogs. They have all sold off their dogs over the last 20 years and quit hunting. Wolves took out their best dogs. Second time I went on private land in rib lake. I need to find somewhere to hunt before I put in for a kill tag instead of a preference point. I believe I have 10 or 11 points like you do. I live on the southern tip of the southern part of the state by the MN boarder so It’s a trip to bait once a week. By the time I’m done buying bait and driving back and forth all summer it’s more cost effective to go to Canada. Keep us posted!!! I would give up deer hunting for bear hunting all day long! I would use whatever bullet will give me the largest exit so you have a blood trail if needed. Black bears do not never give a good blood trails because the fat seals the exit hole. I’d stick with your HP boolit. They are no harder to kill than deer. They just have a tendency to run after being hit...just like a chicken with its head chopped off. Imo I’d want an expanding HP for the best chance of some energy transfer for a quick kill and a larger exit for a blood trail. I learned my lesson with to hard of alloy on deer a few years back. Two ran over a 100 yards with no blood and the third dropped on the spot but kicked around for a minute or two. I would never use that 44 cal, non expanding , 15.4 BH, HP loaded at 1750 FPS on game again unless I was trying penetrate an elephant’s brain. My 35 Rem with 50/50 at 2100 FPS in a HP dropped my first deer where it stood this past season. It will be my bear round when I found a place to hunt. Your 1/25 sounds good. My 16/1 pewter and pure lead at 7.8 BH imo would be a winner at pistol velocities. I still remember my last WI bear. I shot it with my 300 RUM loaded with a 200 grain Nosler Partition. Hit it right behind the shoulder. It did a summersault, got up, and ran a good 45 yards through brush I had to crawl through to find it. A few pencil eraser sized blood spots every four to five feet till I found it. Took out both lungs. The rigs looked looked like you could put both your fists through it on both sides but it left a little bigger then a bullet diameter exit hole that the bears fat clogged up. A bigger exit hole the better imo. What ever you choose will kill a bear it just depends on how hard of a tracking job you’ll make for your self with boolit and alloy choice.

[white eagle]

I just mounted a Ultra Dot on my rifle
I hope this one can take the recoil ride of the
500 Linebaugh
I went through two Ultra dots on a 475 Linebaugh
but that was a pistola and I believe the 475 produces more chamber pressure
so time will tell
I can't see black cross hairs of a typical rifle scope on a black body of a bear
so I would be guessing exactly where my shot would be going
this eliminates that part of the problem

[Duckdog]

I haven't hunted them in years, but we used to be able to add them onto our deer licence back n the day. I can't say I ever had a problem killing them as long as you put one in the bread box. I live near Antigo and there a lot of bear by us. In fact, too darn many. The trouble for the guys not running dogs, is the dog guys have baits all over, and just use them to get a scent for the dogs. They do not actually hunt over them. It makes it hard for the guys who only have one or maybe two baits, but I guess choice of location becomes more important.
I know they usually get a couple over 500# each year around here.

I think your choice of caliber will drop a bear like a bad habit! good luck!

[white eagle]

yes that is my understanding as well
they use someones bait for the scent trail for the dogs
and run bears off of them
I had a guide in Winter that had that very issue and
was very confrontational towards dog runners in his area

[Tripplebeards]

Yep, it’s screws up bear hunting for bait sitters. Besides educating the bear it also knocks the bear nocturnal before season even starts most the time. The main reason why I haven’t put in for a kill preference. I’d like to find someone who owns land that is far enough away from public land where dog hunters haven’t trained and ran their dogs all summer. Pretty frustrating. IMO there should be zero dog running”training” aloud until dog runner season opens. Wisconsin rotates ever other year for sitters or dog runners to hunt the first week. Then the second week both are aloud to hunt. Never understood this concept because the dog runners already have knocked all the bear nocturnal from “training” their dogs all summer anyways and have wrecked hunting for the bait sitters. If I were on the WI bear hunting committee I wouldn’t allow dog runners to train on public land and would have them start 2 weeks later every season after sitters had a chance to harvest a bear. The odds of harvesting a bear would go way up which had always been WI’s goal. I have a couple of the ultra dot match dots. I have not put enough trigger time behind my andaconda to put it to the test. My other is on a 22lr target pistol. I’ve bear hunted Canada a couple of times where dog running isn’t allowed. There are bear up there like mosquitoes here. It’s not uncommon to see a half dozen or more every sit. The last time I was drawn for sitting I hunted a few miles away from public land where dog running was allowed. I had bear coming to my bait at all hours of the day. As soon as season came they all went nocturnal. I spent the first 9 days in the woods and saw zero bear. I burned up my vacation time so the flowing weekend I went back out and got lucky after sitting Friday night, Saturday morning, and then harvested one Saturday night.... A 7’ 1” boar. It sure makes you feel good when you worked hard for it and it pays off. A couple years later my buddies kid got drawn and the exact same thing happened and he never saw one bear. We could hear dogs miles down the road on certain days running dogs as we sat. That was in rib lake. I’m almost 3.5 hours away from winter.

[white eagle]

where I am hunting there are no dog hunters
mostly on private land is where he put us
he says dog hunters are further south and that is true for the most part
we shouldn't divide hunters into separate groups thats what the anti's want
just have to deal with it

[Tripplebeards]

If your hunting with a guide please PM the details. I need to figure out where to go so I can use my sand bagged points. Cant wait to see your bear!!!