Originally Posted by 78CJ
Originally Posted by Fireball2
Have you noticed the length of hair on the very biggest bears where it hangs down below the chest? I know of one lucky 27 year old boar that I shot too low because of it. The long hair made the body look deeper than it really was. I told a young kid about him when I moved from the area and darned if he didn't go find him and shoot him with a lever action 45-70.


The hair length is a big deal. Had I not happen to stumble upon a thread about shooting bears the night before I shot my first I would have no doubt shot low. The thread basically talked about the thickness of hair and fat on the chest leading to low shots. The following evening my first ever was killed with a midway between the top and bottom right behind the leg hold. He went 15 yards.


I have seen some bears with long shaggy coats but can't say I would necessarily correlate it with very big bears or any particular size for that matter. I have noticed the hair on our bears here is generally much longer on spring bears than on fall bears and I can see where especially in the spring it could cause a shot to be low. Just another example of how shot placement can be difficult on a black blob that doesn't display much for prominent features. The one thing I do know about the biggest of black bears relative to the subject is that they will test the penetrating ability of a bullet much more than deer sized game.

As far as the original question of are bears really hard to kill, well any wild animal can be hard to kill given the right circumstances and a bear is no exception. I have seen a lot of bears shot with about everything imaginable and I will say you can take a bear quickly and cleanly with almost any firearm or bow provided you select a proper projectile and take an appropriate shot for the weapon you are using. When it was time for my daughter to start hunting big game the only gun I could find that fit her was a 243 Win, she shot her first bear in the head with an 85 gr. Nosler Partition killing him instantly.

I prefer a larger caliber that allows more shot options and my personal bear guns for close range situations are a 444 Marlin rifle and a 454 Casull handgun but it is not because I think bears are necessarily tougher than other game animals but rather that I have a desire to be able to put them down immediately from any angle necessary, which can usually be done with either of those cartridges with the right shot placement.

Better to do it when you're young so you can talk about it when you're too old than talk about it when you're young and do it when you're too old.

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