Big Bores on Bear

[Daniel Cary]

All game is potentially dangerous. Now 500's on Black Bear is unorthodox, but for what it's worth ..

The Jeffery, N.E. does anyone suggest a preferred projectile & why (the basic 101's of projectiles)?

many thanks, if you can.
wbr, Dan.

 

[93marlin]

Interesting thought. I've hunted with several different calibers. A soft nose with a thinner jacket and around 2000fps would work if you can get it regulated to hit what you're shooting at!

 

[BeeMaa]

I think all the “usual” rules would apply, starting with premium expanding bullets.

Barnes TSX, Federal TBBC, Swift A-Frame and Norma oryx at the normal velocities will certainly do the job.

Meat damage would be a different story, but I’ve never had what I would consider “tasty” bear meat. So it wouldn’t be a concern for me personally.

 

[Daniel Cary]

Interesting thought. I've hunted with several different calibers. A soft nose with a thinner jacket and around 2000fps would work if you can get it regulated to hit what you're shooting at!

Even if smaller bores were considered. "Is a Soft Point Ideal for a 450lb Bear?"

 

[Tgood1]

I regularly use my .375 with .270 gr round nose for black bear, large slow projectiles are a good choice as u have no idea what you'll shoot through, limbs, laurel, clearcut growth etc. And little meat damage (I like bear meat)

 

[Uxas]

I have a .450 Marlin and yes, it will take down anything in North America. In order to keep from messing up a deer, you will be making a head or neck shot. It kicks pretty good as well. Rip looked up the recoil on it, and if I remember correctly, my .308 has 12 lbs of felt recoil, versus 37 lbs of felt recoil with the .450. Rip, please correct me if I have those wrong, or whoever.

I have the .450 with the ported barrel, and the newer ones are not ported, which should save you some recoil.

 

[Uxas]

I wouldn't mind getting a 45-70 for historic reasons, especially a Sharps. Those Sharps will run you though.

 

[DPHunter4570]

I've used hornady FTX, nosler partition, remington core lokt, and federal hammer down lever gun ammo on black bears. All with resounding success. Never had a worry that the bullet wouldn't do the job. I think any quality bullet is good for black bear. Brown, another story that I have no experience on.

This year, I cant decide what to shoot my bears with. Dad's old S&W Model 29 44 mag, my bow, my trusty bear gun 45-70, or a 35 whelen pump gun that I fixed up.

We eat a ton of black bear meat in my house, we love it. Steaks, sausage, roast, stew meat, we eat it all.

 

[Boyd Brooks]

I have used my 416 Taylor to take a couple of my black bears. 400gr soft point A-Square lion load bullet I pulled from 416 Hoffman cartridges. No tracking required! Love black bear meat, but it has to come from deep in the bush, where there is no chance it’s been eating any garbage. The old saying garbage in, garbage out.

 

[Daniel Cary]

I think all the “usual” rules would apply, starting with premium expanding bullets.

Barnes TSX, Federal TBBC, Swift A-Frame and Norma oryx at the normal velocities will certainly do the job.

Meat damage would be a different story, but I’ve never had what I would consider “tasty” bear meat. So it wouldn’t be a concern for me personally.

Thank you! even "usual rule" is significant help. "Solid vs SP" (A friend, avid Black Bear Hunter) had me out for 3rd season, was anticipating the 500's results. It provided an opportunity to practice open sights, instinct, etc. 600grn RN/SP.
Others even curious against crop damage deer?

I would imagine the Game/Shot Placement section may provide insight to projectile 101's
There's countless threads here on Soft Point's primarily for Buffalo & I can get confused at times, particularly with modern projectiles.

 

[V.Veritas]

I have used a 450/400 NE 3" Hornady DGX non-bonded for a black bear hunt this spring.

As expected, the jacket separated after impact, disintegrated and became a bunch of shrapnel inside the chest cavity. The inside damage was extensive. I have found pieces of the jacket in the exit shoulder. The core exited without much meat damage.

The bear sprinted 2-3 steps after impact, spun around, dropped and died without a moan. By the time I found the second trigger it was all done. Second shot was not required.

It was a 20 yards quarter away shot.
A buddy of mine took a quarter towards shot at the same distance (or slightly closer) with a slug 20Ga and after a long tracking with a dog, we have failed recovering that bear.

Last year I have used a 9.3x62 Hornady 286gr and it worked just fine, but not as effective. The sprint was significantly longer and included the moan.
That bear was also half the size of this one.

I remember Elmer Keith highly recommending the 450/400 NE for bears and he wasn't talking about black bears. But for me it worked wonderfully and I very much doubt I'll use anything else while I have a 450/400. It's also a good close distance practice.

(For black bears the non-bonded DGX works great, but wouldn't use it for heavy game in Africa. A friend of mine used my rifle in Africa with DGX non-bonded for cape buffalo and almost lost it. That was 2015 before we knew any better. The DGS worked fine though).
View attachment 614031View attachment 614032View attachment 614033

 

[Wyfox]

Black bears at close range and big bores are synonymous. Use a soft point, big holes are better on bears.

Solids are useless for anything other than elephant's and rhino.

 

[Daniel Cary]

I have used a 450/400 NE 3" Hornady DGX non-bonded for a black bear hunt this spring.

As expected, the jacket separated after impact, disintegrated and became a bunch of shrapnel inside the chest cavity. The inside damage was extensive. I have found pieces of the jacket in the exit shoulder. The core exited without much meat damage.

The bear sprinted 2-3 steps after impact, spun around, dropped and died without a moan. By the time I found the second trigger it was all done. Second shot was not required.

It was a 20 yards quarter away shot.
A buddy of mine took a quarter towards shot at the same distance (or slightly closer) with a slug 20Ga and after a long tracking with a dog, we have failed recovering that bear.

Last year I have used a 9.3x62 Hornady 286gr and it worked just fine, but not as effective. The sprint was significantly longer and included the moan.
That bear was also half the size of this one.

I remember Elmer Keith highly recommending the 450/400 NE for bears and he wasn't talking about black bears. But for me it worked wonderfully and I very much doubt I'll use anything else while I have a 450/400. It's also a good close distance practice.

(For black bears the non-bonded DGX works great, but wouldn't use it for heavy game in Africa. A friend of mine used my rifle in Africa with DGX non-bonded for cape buffalo and almost lost it. That was 2015 before we knew any better. The DGS worked fine though).
View attachment 614031View attachment 614032View attachment 614033

Thank you, really good read. I had to look up the DGX, as this is how uninformed I am. I often get confused reading opinions on personal preferred projectiles (particularly concerning Buffalo & all available now), that I lose the basic theory of Softs & Solids

He was astonished with the Jeffery outing; I said take it with ya anytime.

This is not mine.

Between the 458 & the 500: Theirs Jacketed SP, RN/SP or Partitions.
This is a novice question, but would a "Solid" be of any use?

Many Thanks!

 

[Daniel Cary]

Black bears at close range and big bores are synonymous. Use a soft point, big holes are better on bears.

Solids are useless for anything other than elephant's and rhino.

Thank you, that just answered my question!
"Where are solids used"

 

[Tanks]

All game is potentially dangerous. Now 500's on Black Bear is unorthodox, but for what it's worth ..

The Jeffery, N.E. does anyone suggest a preferred projectile & why (the basic 101's of projectiles)?

many thanks, if you can.
wbr, Dan.

When I shot my black bear I used .500 MDM using a cutting edge tipped raptor 335 grains at 2,900 fps. Worked real well as you can see in the video below:

 

[Puddle]

I used the .450/.400 NE 3" in a Ruger #1 with the original Hornady 400 grain RN soft (pre-DGX-non-bonded) factory round just because. About a 300 lb black bear (which is a big bear in my woods) sitting on his haunches pulling down branches of nuts to munch on. Put the round in his chest between the shoulders and knocked him ass over backwards from ~75 yards distance. He slid a bit downhill and that, was that. Put a big 'ol exit hole in him. I rummaged around some, but didn't find the bullet.

Afterwards my hunting partner asked, "what was that cartridge again?"

 

[Cheesehead]

I'm far from an expert bear hunter. A lot of the experienced bear hunters I've talked to seem to favor the 12 gauge with slugs or really anything that throws a big heavy projectile kinda slow. Generally, its seems like for bears at least, two holes are better than one and bigger holes are better than smaller one.

I'd love to hear more first hand experience with big bores on bears.

 

[Green Chile]

Softs are perfect for all bears. Solids aren’t used. I hunted in Saskatchewan recently and took a nice color phase bear with a lever gun in 500 S&W and XTPs. It broke both shoulders on this 7 ft bear and he only went 20 yards. On bears, 2 holes are much preferred as they don’t bleed like regular game.

 

[AES]

500/465 - Woodleigh softs

 

[DPHunter4570]

Softs are perfect for all bears. Solids aren’t used. I hunted in Saskatchewan recently and took a nice color phase bear with a lever gun in 500 S&W and XTPs. It broke both shoulders on this 7 ft bear and he only went 20 yards. On bears, 2 holes are much preferred as they don’t bleed like regular game.

View attachment 614094

Very nice bear!! Is that a Bighorn Armory rifle?