Bangstick For Bears

[bluetick78]

Hi everyone. Now that most spring bear seasons have wound down, I'd like to hear from all of you about your weapon choice. Black Bear or Grizzly, I'm really interested to discuss various weapons, and the pros or cons. Don't be afraid to post about a bow setup or gun load that let you down. I know we like to talk about our setups that work well, but let's hear about some that didn't work as well. My current favorite bear medicine is a .280 rem (non-AI) shooting a 154 Hornady SST at around 2950 fps. Shoots flat, accurate, and hits hard. The SST seems to hold together well, even though it's a non-premium bullet. My biggest failure with a bear load was a 7mm08 shooting 150 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips. They shot plenty accurate with good velocity, but the terminal performance was lackluster. Ended up chasing a really big bear into some thick nasty Western Montana jungle and trashing a beautiful rug to get him killed. It turned into a dangerous situation quick, and I never used that load again on bears (works good on deer though). I haven't had a major failure with any particular bow/arrow setup.....yet. I've always shot high FOC arrows and been picky about shot placement. Solid Broadheads have probably helped as well.

 

[fightthenoise]

I sadly don’t yet have bear experience but I hope to change that this fall in central Colorado. I just wanted to chime in because your .280 load resonated with me. My golden child rifle is a .280 Model 70 featherweight that shoots a similar load of 150gr Partitions at 2950 from a 22” barrel at well under MOA. It’s the gun and load I will be taking for black bear this fall. I just wanted to provide an anecdote in case you ever decide to switch to a tougher bullet, but it sounds like your SST load doesn’t need any fixing. Looking forward to hearing the folks with rear bear experience chime in. .280’s represent!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AK Troutbum]

I don’t consider myself a bear hunter and although I have hunted bears, it’s not something that I really enjoy hunting. This is probably because I don’t really like bears, either to eat or just in general. So, that said, I’ve been on one black bear hunt and killed one with a .300wm and 180gr. Nosler Partitions. I’ve been on a few grizzly/brown bear hunts and have killed a couple with a .375 H&H mag. using 300gr. Nosler Partitions. So for my very limited bear hunting experience, the single common factor for me has been Nosler Partitions, and I prefer my .375 over everything else. Every bear that I’ve shot while hunting them, were single shot kills and all died very quickly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[VernAK]

I had to read this as I thought you were really wanting to take a bear with a bang stick.

I've killed several halibut with a bangstick but haven't tried bears.......much prefer a rifle.

 

[Nick Muche]

I've never killed a bear with a rifle, or any gun for that matter. But I've taken a pile with an arrow and a sharp broadhead, mostly mechanical heads but several with COC as well. Shot placement is key when shooting anything. The bears I've lost (3), have all been due to piss poor shot placement on account of me rushing the situation instead of letting it unfold naturally. I've watched my wife shoot black bears with a 40lb bow and a grizzly bear with a 50lb bow, never an issue with penetration which only reinforces the fact that shot placement is one of, if not the most important factor in taking a bear. They are pretty soft targets when shot behind the shoulder, even the big ones.

 

[black dawg]

For us, hornady interlocks, regardless of caliber (243 through 45/70)have worked the best. Good wound channel, and usually fist sized exit. Have used partitions quite a bit also, good wound channel, but they just usually leave a caliber sized exit, not good for trying to follow blood.....if you need to. Shot one this year with a 178 eldx out of a 3006 at about 20 yards. Bear was quarted to, almost right at me, shot right in front of the left front shoulder, and something exited between last ribs on off side, thumb sized jagged exit hole and never found any bullet fragments. bullet obviously exploded at that close distance, huge internal damage. Bear never took a step or made a sound.

all of our experience is with black bears

 

[bluetick78]

I've shot a pile of different bullets at bears from calibers from .243 to .375. I settled on the SST because it acts like an Interlock at close ranges, but can still take a long poke if needed. With a 154 gr bullet leaving the muzzle around 2950, it's gonna shoot flat and hit hard. I liked the Partition, but it sank a little faster at longer ranges than what I liked. But realistically, most bears I shoot are under 100 yards even if I'm hunting spot n stalk. I've just never been the guy that shoots 600 yds at em. I like to get close.

 

[micus]

308 @ 430 yds with a 178 eldx








30-06 with 150 TSX unknown yardage 70-110?

Other bears I've shot were with another 06 with 180 NPTS, and 300RUM 200NAB. All bears died very quickly, In my experience its all just about where you hit them. The above chocolate bear with the 308 died in about 5 seconds- if that- he is by far by biggest bear.


EDIT** having read the below posts I should add this, I did loose my first bear this year. I shot the bear with a 300 RUM through the shoulder at 580 yds. The shot put him down, however, he immediately got back up and scampered off into the jungle. Myself and buddies went out on 3 different occasions, once with a dog and we couldn't recover the bear. It was an awful experience.

 

[TauPhi111]

I have a crew that do bear drives in PA and most of us just carry whatever we use for deer, and all of them kill bears just fine. One of us swears by his 243, and he has the bear skulls to prove it. Granted this is all short range shooting, but all his bears die very quickly because he can place his shot well with it, which is the key with any game shooting. if you surveyed our party you'd see cartridges all over the spectrum including 30-06, 45-70, 32 Special, 300 Win Mag, 30-30, 270 Win, 308, 7mm-08, 444 Marlin, 450 marlin, 350 Rem Mag, 300 Savage, 338 Win Mag, 12 gauge slugs, 44 mag...I'm sure I'm probably missing a few but you get the picture. I've seen a lot of bears die and no cartridge seems to do it better than others. My personal bear rifle is a Savage short action in 358 Win with an 18 inch barrel for navigating the thick stuff where we hunt. I shoot 225 grain Barnes TSX at about 2300 FPS. While nearly any cartride will kill a black bear just fine, I believe that for tracking purposes, a little bigger is better on bears. The thick hair, thick fat, and dense muscle that bears have are a recipe for crappy blood trails, and I want to put a bear down as quickly as possible so that it doesn't get far from where it's shot and make 2 larger holes so that I can follow a blood trail easily if need be.

 

[SLDMTN]

Had a grizzly get away from me one year using a .338 WM and was backed up by a .30-06. My first shot spun him, second shot dropped him. The second he hit the ground he bounced right back up and took off. My backup shooter got one round from the .30-06 into him at a dead run which rolled him. From his forward somersault he never missed a beat and kept running. We trailed blood as best we could through alders until it got dark and never found him. The following day we went back out and followed our flagging tape and tried to find him still with no luck. It apparently wasn't that bears day to die.

This year, my daughter dropped her bear with one shot from her .270. She's apparently a better shot than I am...

 

[idahomuleys]

I shoot a 300 weatherby with a 175 grain barnes lrx. It has taken 5 black bears in the last 12 months. None of them dropped in their tracks but they all died within 30 yards from where they were shot.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[FLAK]

I may be going to North Ga. this fall for Black bear. I will be totin my
Marlin 1894 in .44 mag and 240 gr. Winchester White Box soft points.

 

[Oregon]

I had a Kodiak Grizzly at 15 yards one time on a blacktail hunt. He wouldn’t budge, just kept staring. I was carrying a .338 with 250gr accubonds.
I wish it didn’t have a scope. I kept thinking how much it would hurt when the Doc pulled it out my ass.
Kodiaks are different. I’ve killed a couple blacks with a .270 and 150 nosler partitions. They died violently.

 

[BRWNBR]

Kudos to nick for admitting to lost bears. It happens if you do it long enough, lots of folks aren’t upfront about it. I respect that honesty.
He’s on the money with placement. Bears bodies behind the shoulders aren’t very tough, thin skinned and weak ribs.
I’ve been blessed to be on quite a few bear kills of brown/grizzly/black variety what I’ve learned aside from the obvious placement, is that good bullets matter. Ballistic tips, Berger, have been less than impressive. I’d rather shoot a solid than a weak bullet.

 

[Rs3003]

I’ve shot 2 black bears in Pennsylvania. Both with the same 30.06. I was shooting 180 grain factory federal accubond. Both dropped in their tracks 130 yds and 60yds.

 

[ReddingArcher]

I’ll start with a lost bear, 7mm mag shooting bergers. Obviously I don’t know exactly where I hit him but I found decent blood and a chunk of what looked like rib bone shortly after starting the blood trail. I followed tiny blood drops for a long damn ways down a canyon until I lost the trail and it got dark.

I’ve only killed 2 others, the first was when we could run hounds here and he soaked up 4 rounds from a 30-30 before dropping out of the tree. Second bear was this year just minutes after shooting my buck, he actually came out of the brush and was sniffing my buck when I got to the deer. I put a 200 grain eld-x from a 300 wm behind his ear from about 30 yards and he never took a step just flipped over backwards and slid down the hill. I think I’ll stay with the 30 caliber rounds for bears but I’m really hoping to kill one with my bow this year.

 

[rlmmarine]

I partner with 40 other guys in North Carolina using dogs, best gun for nc conditions is a lever action 30-30, 45lc, 44 mag. We walk up to them, less than 5 yards and shoot them in the head. The bear is to busy dealing with the dogs. All bears are shot in the head so it's lights out and less chance of them hurting the dogs, we get close to make sure there isn't a dog on the other side,View attachment 74851View attachment 74852

 

[TauPhi111]

I'll add that the one thing I would NOT recommend for bear is a foster slug out of a smooth bore shotgun. We did loose a bear a few years ago when someone shot a bear in the shoulder with one. As far as we could tell, the soft lead slug flattened out and didn't pennetrate the shoulderblade. We went out looking for that bear the next day and there was no sign of it. I felt bad about that one even though I didn't shoot it. I bring an extra rifle to camp now for anyone that brings a shotgun for bear. If you're going to use slugs, use sabot slugs of good construction.

 

[BeastOfTheTrees]

Just watched old Timmy Wells hunting in Grizz country for either bear with a spear lol the guys back must hurt having to carry those giant balls around lol

 

[Mosby]

I grew up in Central PA and we have killed bears with 30-06 to 300 Win Mag. IMO regardless of the caliber, the key factor is the bullet. We tend to use 30 caliber rifles but we always use heavy duty bullets. Speer Grand Slams, Nosler Partitions and Barnes in 165 to 180 grain, all work well for black bear and normally go right through the bear, so we have two holes. We don't like to track bears in the laurel. I love ballistic tips or sst's on deer but would not use them for elk or bear. When I hunt black bear in Montana, I use a 200 gr Partition in a 300 Win Mag. Not really needed for the black bear there but just in case I run into something else.