Which bullet for Idaho spring bear

[christian1]

Need to load for upcoming spring bear hunt. Taking my Christensen 300 Win Mag. Outfitter says he likes big holes because while black bears die fairly easily, they can slide down hill a long ways after shooting them. He says the fur tends to soak up a lot of blood which makes blood trailing more difficult. I am planning to limit shots to under 400 yards.

Given that, I don't think I am needing a really "tough" bullet. Probably looking for a 165 grain bullet that will leave a big exit hole. I have a box of Nosler Partitions left, but that's it. This would probably be the bullet I would go to if I could find them in stock. Any suggestions? Other bullet options?

chris

 

[ZAK13]

I use my 30-06 regularly for bear, and use 168gr. TTSX from Barnes. It truly knocks them down. Bears aren't that hard to kill, unless you make a poor shot. The Nosler Partition, Accubond, any Barnes, or bonded bullet from any of the manufacturers should be more than sufficient for bear. If using factory ammo, personally I like the Federal Trophy Bonded Tip in their premium line, I think that is a fantastic bullet. Good luck.

 

[EdP]

I used 180 gr Gamekings from my 30-06 for two Idaho spring bears. No problem.

 

[Northpark]

I shot my one and only bear with a 199gr hammer hunter out of a .300 win mag. He made it all of 15’. Had a chunk of lung hanging out the exit hole and blood everywhere. Didn’t have to track him but I’m also sure it would have been an easy track job. I prefer two holes for blood trails so my two go to bullets for big game these days are hammers and accubonds.

 

[christian1]

I shot my one and only bear with a 199gr hammer hunter out of a .300 win mag. He made it all of 15’. Had a chunk of lung hanging out the exit hole and blood everywhere. Didn’t have to track him but I’m also sure it would have been an easy track job. I prefer two holes for blood trails so my two go to bullets for big game these days are hammers and accubonds.

Agree. I don't have any kill experience with Hammers so I don't know their offside "reputation" if you will. I was thinking about partitions over Accubonds just because they should mushroom easier. Maybe I should rethink Accubonds. I have a bunch of 180's laying around.

 

[christian1]

I use my 30-06 regularly for bear, and use 168gr. TTSX from Barnes. It truly knocks them down. Bears aren't that hard to kill, unless you make a poor shot. The Nosler Partition, Accubond, any Barnes, or bonded bullet from any of the manufacturers should be more than sufficient for bear. If using factory ammo, personally I like the Federal Trophy Bonded Tip in their premium line, I think that is a fantastic bullet. Good luck.

I have a box of Trophy Bonded projectiles for my 7 Mag. They have gone the way of most other bullets which is out of stock.

chris

 

[Northpark]

Agree. I don't have any kill experience with Hammers so I don't know their offside "reputation" if you will. I was thinking about partitions over Accubonds just because they should mushroom easier. Maybe I should rethink Accubonds. I have a bunch of 180's laying around.

Hammers exit. Usually a caliber entrance hole going in and a silver dollar coming out plus the petals break off and exit most of the time too. I’ve killed over 20 animals with hammers and have been very satisfied.

That being said if you have a pile of 180 accubonds already I’d use those.

 

[christian1]

Hammers exit. Usually a caliber entrance hole going in and a silver dollar coming out plus the petals break off and exit most of the time too. I’ve killed over 20 animals with hammers and have been very satisfied.

That being said if you have a pile of 180 accubonds already I’d use those.

I bought 200 blems. Sorting through them. So far I have only found a couple with tips that won't stay on. I am sorting them by weight as well. I'm only using my little digital Franklin scale, but it is interesting the +/- on bullet weight. I have no idea what is acceptable to different companies, but I am seing different bullets with +/- 4 grains. I guess that is a different subject though.

chris

 

[jerm8352]

I got a bunch of 180 partitions if you wanna go that route.

 

[ZAK13]

I have a box of Trophy Bonded projectiles for my 7 Mag. They have gone the way of most other bullets which is out of stock.

chris

I would continue to check their website, as it appears that they are finally catching up to demand and they should be available for the 7rm at this point.

 

[BAKPAKR]

In your 300, I think you will be fine with any expanding bullet 150 grains on up. I have had exits and bears that didn’t go anywhere with a 95 gr Barnes TTSX out of a 14.5” barreled 6.8mm SPC and with a 130 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip out of a 270 Win.

With bullets less than 150 gr in a 300 Win Mag and decent bullet placement, you would still wind up with a dead bear but the bullet might not exit.

 

[rootacres]

Id look into some hammers. The biggest hangup right now is inventory levels. The Hornady, Berger, Noslers of the world are trying to keep with demand of factory offerings. Hammers are almost always in inventory.

Last year I was getting concerned about finding bullets for my 7 SAUM. In an effort to not burn up all my heavier Bergers for a coues hunt I picked up some hammers. Load development was crazy easy. When the time came on the last morning of my hunt my hammer hit its mark at 425 yds. Not the greatest BCs but very accurate and well constructed.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Which bullet... The one that is up the spout when you find your bear. Put it in the vitals with a that bullet has the ability to get there from shot presentation angles your are going to be shooting.

Which bullet are the blems? I gather 200 AB's as you are talking about tips.

Fine choice. Now, develop the load and don't over analyze.

 

[christian1]

Which bullet... The one that is up the spout when you find your bear. Put it in the vitals with a that bullet has the ability to get there from shot presentation angles your are going to be shooting.

Which bullet are the blems? I gather 200 AB's as you are talking about tips.

Fine choice. Now, develop the load and don't over analyze.

Found some seconds 180 grain AB's. They are shooting around 1/2 inch with max load of IMR4350 running around 3000fps. I think that is what I am going to stay with.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Need to load for upcoming spring bear hunt. Taking my Christensen 300 Win Mag. Outfitter says he likes big holes because while black bears die fairly easily, they can slide down hill a long ways after shooting them. He says the fur tends to soak up a lot of blood which makes blood trailing more difficult. I am planning to limit shots to under 400 yards.

Given that, I don't think I am needing a really "tough" bullet. Probably looking for a 165 grain bullet that will leave a big exit hole. I have a box of Nosler Partitions left, but that's it. This would probably be the bullet I would go to if I could find them in stock. Any suggestions? Other bullet options?

chris

Any cup and core bullet will work. Doesn’t need to be a tough bullet. They are like coyotes and easy to kill. We use bergers and eldms mostly. We shot two really nice 300 plus pound bears this year. One was taken with a 108gr eldm out of a 6CM, the other was taken with 143eldx out of a 6.5 CM. Neither bear went more than 10 yards before they piled up.

You couldnt pay me enough money to shoot hammer bullets. I would avoid them like the plague. There are a million other bullets out there that kill better and the owner is a dbag.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Found some seconds 180 grain AB's. They are shooting around 1/2 inch with max load of IMR4350 running around 3000fps. I think that is what I am going to stay with.

Perfection.

 

[amassi]

Any cup and core bullet will work. Doesn’t need to be a tough bullet. They are like coyotes and easy to kill. We use bergers and eldms mostly. We shot two really nice 300 plus pound bears this year. One was taken with a 108gr eldm out of a 6CM, the other was taken with 143eldx out of a 6.5 CM. Neither bear went more than 10 yards before they piled up.

You couldnt pay me enough money to shoot hammer bullets. I would avoid them like the plague. There are a million other bullets out there that kill better and the owner is a dbag.

Louder for the people in the back.
Black bears are not hard to kill- too long people were proponents of shooting shoulders to "break them down" and completely missed the vitals.
Before the lead ban I shot quite a few bears here in CA with 22-250 and 64 grain power points and 243 with 95 grain ballistic tips. No complaints just dead bears.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Louder for the people in the back.
Black bears are not hard to kill- too long people were proponents of shooting shoulders to "break them down" and completely missed the vitals.
Before the lead ban I shot quite a few bears here in CA with 22-250 and 64 grain power points and 243 with 95 grain ballistic tips. No complaints just dead bears.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

My first bear was shot at 300 yards with a compact 243 shooting Hornady CustomeLite ammo with 87gr ssts. We were taking horses in one morning to set a bait and I left my 300 rum at camp and threw my little 243 truck gun on the horse thinking there was no way we would see something first thing in the morning, but maybe a wolf or coyote. Sure enough, we see a bear in the cliffs across the canyon and that little 87 grain bullet really messed him up. That experience forever changed the way I looked at black bears. Some people Treat them like smaller brown or grizzly bears - they just aren’t tough like that. I always tell people think big coyote. I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them with a 223 or 22-250 or 220 swift.