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

I gutted and butchered that bear.

None of the shots were good.

Doesn't 'Stick refer to him as "Judmam"?

Yep. Go back and look at the anatomy chart further up in this thread. Very little chest cavity at the shoulders and basically none in front. If you shoot a bear far enough forward to break the shoulder bone you have a good chance of missing the lungs if the bear is quartering to you a little. I made this mistake on the last day of my hunt in Alberta a couple of years ago. Early in the hunt I killed my first bear with a frontal shot at about 75 yards. The bear was on all fours and I put the 200 gr Partition from my 8mm mag under the chin and straight into the sternum. Instant collapse, not even a twitch.

The last day of the hunt we spotted a nice sized bear and put on a stalk. The shot was about 230 yards from a steady rest and I aimed right on the shoulder on what I assumed was a broadside bear. At the shot the bear tumbled down hill out of sight. My guide was watching through binocs and thought it might have been quartering to a little. We found a piece of shoulder bone and followed a blood trail (no bubbles, just bright red) for about 75 yards before it petered out. We searched for a couple of hours with no luck and finally spotted the bear in some alders. We couldn't be sure it was the same bear and it moved off into the alders. We went over and found some sign. It was indeed the same bear and it didn't look too awfully worse for the wear. That burned in my gut all year. I put the bullet right where I had aimed. I just aimed at the wrong spot.

The next year back in Alberta again I shot one broadside at about 80 yards. I held mid way up and a couple of inches behind the shoulder. After the 30 minute wait we found it stone dead about 75 yards away. My second bear was quartering to in thick cover and I broke the shoulder on that one on the way into the chest. He was DRT.

Bears more closely resemble a human on all fours than they do a deer or elk. Put a bullet where their lungs are and they will die. Put one in the guts and you might have an exciting track job through thick alders like we had on my friend's bear the first year. About 3 hours after the shot the guide spotted the bear still very much alive at 10 yards. My friend finished it off as I filmed over his shoulder. That was pretty crazy for a midwestern guy. A couple of years before that up in Ontario a friend from New York gut shot a bear and had to put a couple more arrows into it in the dark as it tried to come at him after the outfitter tracked it down. His eyes were as big as saucers and he was still shaking when he got back to camp.

Don't wanna horn anyone up...

Too funny...

Guessing you don't have a hair on your ass if don't post a kilt shot...

Usual story. My one and only was taken with a .45 Colt. Don't hunt things I don't like to eat that much but some bear meat has been excellent.

I would shoot one with anything from.243 or above under ideal conditions. If not ideal then something around 7mm or above.

Seen 243's work great, just like almost everything else. Seen rodeos with most everything as well.

JJ is the guy to talk statistics with, he's seen some amazing numbers.

I heard someplace you can even have a rodeo with a .340 Tyrannosaur or some damn thing.

That would be an Avalanche....

With all the talk of getting mauled by black bears, maybe I should stop [bleep] with them, even little ones...

I've killed an azzload of black bears with a .220 swift.....never thought they were any harder to kill than a deer IMHO.

scenar, what was your favorite bullet and point of aim??

I used to know a woman that would get blackies in her trash in Fairbanks. She'd go out with a broom and a mouthful of cuss words to get rid of them.

She better read "A Confederate General From Big Sur"... critters get bored with cussing and grow to ignore it after a while... even deep thinkers like frogs.

I've killed them with just about every bullet there is. Most of them have been shot through the lungs, broadside. The last bear I shot was my biggest, and it was taken with one shot facing me at a slight angle around 300 yards with a .260 and one 130gr Berger VLD. I recovered it near the hip socket on the right side. He ran less than 20 yards after the hit.

55 grain Hornady?

Most of them. Used a few 60's also, hollow point, and spire. Sierra's 63, Barnes 60gr, Nosler's 55 BT.

I just used a couple Sierra 63SMPs on pigs......they worked great. Gonna give the Nosler 60 NBT a try at pigs in a week or so down in Tejas. Head shots with a .223ai... Im pretty confident that anything will work.


Used a bunch of Hornady 60 gr. SP back in the day on deer and antelope.


Thanks Pat.

Scenar, Thanks for the info..

ingwe,you headed back south again?? Have a good one that sure is fun.. Did you bring any pork home with you?? We brought both home and had them processed here.. My gal just loves pork.. I like it, but not like she does..