338Rules,
If you'd read the original story, you'd know the first shot (at about 60-65 yards) went into the "fold" at the rear of the left shoulder of the 7-1/2 foot grizzly as it stood angling slightly away. This was after a mile-long stalk that obviously went rather well.
The boar had just emerged from the tall grass next to a shallow pond, and at the shot whirled and started running back along the line it had been walking when it emerged from the grass. They apparently do this often after being fatally shot, and it brought the bear closer to me and my guide. We both shot at the same moment--just as the bear whirled to bite at the entrance hole, something they also often do--and as a result we both missed. I shot a third time as the bear started running angling away, and it disappeared in the long grass.
The first shot (a 250-grain 9.3mm Nosler AccuBond at 2650 fps) landed right where I aimed, and exited alongside the bone of the right shoulder, leaving a 1" exit hole. It put a big hole through both lungs just above the heart, so the bear was dying--but not quite dead. My third shot entered the middle of the ribcage on the right side, and traversed the chest cavity before the bullet ended up under the hide on the left side of the neck, a few inches in front of the left shoulder. If I recall correctly, it retained around 80% of its weight.
The entire 3-round sequence probably took less than 5 seconds. I can say this because a couple years before I'd done essentially the same thing, shooting offhand on a target range, at three targets from under 50 to around 100 yards away--with another bolt-action rifle. I hit all three targets, and was timed at a little over 4 seconds from the first shot to the last. This was the fastest time recorded in that event that day, and was witnessed by several people.
I learned to run a bolt-action very quickly a long time ago, with the "slap" method described by John Wootters in an article published in the 1970s. At the time my only two big game rifles were both 700s, and the method worked great--because it absolutely prevents "short-stroking," the supposed reason push-feed actions can fail at critical moments.
I had already used the same rifle (though with another barrel) on over a dozen big game animals. It was originally a factory stainless/synthetic 700 in 7mm SAUM, and after using it considerably (sometimes quite rapidly, as described) the bolt handle hadn't fallen off. (In fact I've never had a bolt handle fall off a 700, though I knew it occasionally happens--usually early on.) After Charlie Sisk rebarreled it to the 9.3 Barsness-Sisk wildcat we developed together around 2005, it worked just as well, if anything feeding even slicker.
If you want confirmation of the above description of the events, my guide on that 2009 hunt (a great guy named Bryce Johnson) still works for the same outfitter, Stoney River Lodge. Oh, and by the way, his rifle on that hunt was a Browning A-Bolt stainless/synthetic in .338 Winchester Magnum. He may be still using it a dozen years later, but dunno. He'd been using it for several years when I hunted with him, and was pleased with its performance.
