Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game So, are black bears hard to kill are not?

I've read dozens of comments through the years that they're easy to kill, but I just read Ralph Young's two books, and he says they're extremely hard to kill -- harder than brown bears. Since he was in on the kill of about 1000 black bears during his 30 years of guiding, you would think he'd know what he was talking about.

Ask JJHACK; he's killed or been in on the kill of more than anyone else on this site.

With today's modern bullets they aren't too hard to kill. That could have been a factor, poor bullets in his day. The guy I guided for shot lots of bears over the years and he didn't like shoulder shots since he saw many bears run off with broken shoulders. Another factor is the chest of a bear is quite small compared to the rest of his body so some guys may be hitting them around the edges somewhere. The guy I guided for did also say most of his hunters were poor shots. I guided his European hunters which generally are better shots than the guys from North America.

Yup.

In my grand total of three black bears on spot-and-stalk hunts here in Washington, one went down instantly to the first shot and stayed there.

The other two required multiple shots to anchor.

Good hits are paramount - but they can be tenacious.

Guy

If you can kill deer with it, you can kill black bear with it.

Yep, I know a guy who shot one with a 222, although I would prefer something a little bigger. The 260 and 6.5x55 are a couple of good rounds for blackies.

That's what everybody says, but it's hard to square that with this statement from Young:

If you don't hit a vital area with your shot they can go a long way and often not be recovered. They are tough but a shot through both lungs does them in pretty quick. I know a guy who shot one with a 338 RUM and a 250 gr bullet at 3000 fps, at the shot it dropped (very common with bears)so he walked over towards it with his gun down. As he got closer the bear jumped up and ran away never to be seen again, they even went back with a dog but never found it. Obviously he never hit the lungs and that big cannon did him no good, but he couldn't believe anything could ever stand up to the mighty 338 RUM. It's guys like this that will start telling everyone that you need a 375 or bigger.....

I've heard that they have a very slow respiratory rate - don't know that - but have been told that.

And that this can give them a tremendous ability to continue running, even after taking a shot to one lung...

Concur Gerry, that shot placement is likely the biggest problem - they're kind of a big, dark, furry ball, and look different in the sights than do the deer we normally hunt.

Guy

One bear to my credit, take it for what it's worth.

If you shoot them downhill from the front and put a TTSX through the chest, spine, one lung, and exit through the last ribs on the off side, they roll over and stick their feet up in the air.

From a gay 270 Win no less.

I should also mention if someone wants to use a big gun that's fine, I have even used the 375 Ruger one time on a blackie. But I have also seen the 260, 6.5x55 and 270 Win work just as good.

The respiration/heart rate thing is rolled out pretty often, but that came from hibernating bears. Look at the muscle... very dark meat due to lots of myoglobin which stores oxygen in the muscle for endurance.

Take away blood and they still have enough oxygen to go a long way.

I have watched over a hundred get shot with a strong half being ones I shot. Being raised to shoot ribs, I did, but don't. I prefer to make an exit wound with an X on the far side shoulder... that stops them.

Two of my worst bear experiences came by way of smallish black bears yet Young calls them cowards...

Good bullets from today are far better than yesteryear's and that makes the shoulder shot good.

I suspect Waterrat may have seen a few die, too...

Not going to argue with all the black bear experience on here,and especially Young.

I have not killed a lot of them myself but been around enough dead ones in our bear camps in northern Maine. We used everything from the 257 Roberts to the 375 H&H. We noticed the 30/06 with 165 Partitions were very good and mostly exited on any shot.

The two that gave the toughest time and longest trails were both hit too far back with a 257 Roberts,115 partition, and a 340 Weatherby with 210 NPT.

Of my last two,one was shoulder shot at maybe 20-30 feet with a 270 and 130 NPT;it collapsed and bullet exited. The other was hit through ribs and lungs with a 140 Bitterroot from a 280 Remington. He collapsed at the shot,squirmed a little and died.i am told it's hard to get a bear to die on the spot with lung hits. That one wasn't.

How tough are they? I dunno. They never seemed too tough to me.But if you hit them wrong they can be I guess.

Here in NC we have some pretty big ones down east. On the hunts I have been in on seems the old 30.30 or 35 Rem is the favorite.

I guided bear hunters for 15 years in Maine and have seen QUITE A FEW bear taken over bait and by the use of hounds. I've also tracked quite a few that were lost due to bad shots.

I've seen hunters kill them with rifles of all calibers ranging from a 30-30 to 338 Win mag and everything in between. I've seen several killed with both 20 & 12 gauge shotgun slugs, 4-5 killed with large cal handguns and probably 20+ killed with compound bows, traditional bows and crossbows.
I've killed 8 myself, 5 with rifles and 3 with archery equipment. My wife has taken 3 and my son 1.

Like most big game animals an individual bears reaction to a shot varies by animal and circumstances. I've seen some dropped and "frozen" by a single shot and I've seen others run off with the same shot placement and required additional shots to kill it. In general I'd say they do have a strong desire to live and because of hair and fat often don't leave good blood trails.

I'm not disputing Mr. Young's opinion and can only form and offer my own based on my experiences. The AVERAGE live weight of a black bear in the lower 48 is 200 lbs. I do not consider them any harder to kill than any other big game animal IF shot placement goes where it needs to be.

I have only killed a few and they died easy (all 358 win), My bear guide who sees a couple dozen a year shot doesn't seem to think it takes much to kill one and says that ones that are tough to recover are poorly shot.

I would just say a lot of black bears are shot at last light and the black of the coat makes picking a good aiming point challenging. If were going to tool up for bear I would consider at an illuminated reticle, more than I would obsess over cartridge.

Between my son and I we have taken 5. 1 with a .30-06 (165 gr factory core lokt), 1 with a .308 (130 gr TTSX handload), 1 with a .257 Bee (110 gr Accubond handload)and 2 with a .350 mag (200 gr TSX handload).

The only one that got double lunged was with the .257 Bee and the 110 Accubond. He ran about 50 yards.

The 4 others were shot in the neck and dropped. Recovered 1 bullet and that was from the .350 mag on a 350 pound bear. Bullet went into the neck passed through the chest, broke the ball/socket joint at opposite leg and stopped just under the hide. It was a 200 gr barnes TSX. I realized then just how much heavy muscle a big black bear has. We strive for neck shots when at all possible. If not I would go for a double shoulder shot with a premium bullet and follow up as necessary. Tracking is a chore in the thick stuff where we hunt and a bear hide can soak up a lot of blood before it starts dripping. This just from my very limited experience.

My black bear success is very limited to a single small bear. However I like the advice of the Manitoba outfitters I've used.
Black bear die faster from a well-placed arrow than a bullet. Black bear blood clots almost instantly(they would have killed each other off if it didn't), so if an arrow stays inside the vital zone, it makes another cut whenever the bear's leg moves. A bullet makes a single hole, and if it isn't a perfect hit, the blood doesn't flow for long. If shot by a powerful bow and the arrow passes all the way through, a bow isn't any more effective than a bullet.
On my last try, the only bear that didn't go 30 yards was hit in the heart with an arrow which almost bisected the heart.

Actually, Young only gives a couple-three examples of this hard to killness, and they are nothing especially phenomenal -- I've seen whitetails with more will to live, so I think I'll believe the members here rather than Young.