Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Black Bear and 20 gauge slugs?

My son and I were invited to go on a Black Bear hunt using hounds. The houndsman is very successful and is in on 20 - 30 kills a year. Most bears are big >300 pounds and the little guys usually get a pass. The bears are bayed and the shooter has to get close to make the shot in very heavy cover.

We have killed 3 bears hunting from a stand but using scoped rifles.

My son has a youth model 20 gauge Browning pump that I thought would be ideal to chase the dogs with since it is light and short with the 20" barrel.

Opinion on using 20 gauge slugs? Shots are usually about 20 yards.

A 20 ga. slug gun would work. Having said that, I would much prefer Marlin Guide Gun in 45-70 with hard cast 400 grain flat nosed bullets at 1350 fps. Have a good hunt.

I am thinking the 1 oz. slug will about duplicate that, but maybe a touch slower?

The 20 gauge will indeed work but I'd just as soon have a bowling ball dropped on my tongue than use a shotgun with slugs if I have a host of rifles to choose from.

If you're thinking the slugger will be more effective, it absolutely will not.

The issue with bears isn't so much what you hit them with, its hitting them right. The black ones( especially in low light) seem to turn into black holes without good aiming points. But with a few under his belt the OP probably knows this.

Slugs can do strange things in critters. A 12 gauge slug ricochetted through a black bear in Seward Alaska a few years ago and hit a bystander in the center chest! It was a cop shooting a problem bear in downtown...

Smaller faster projectiles will not have the mass required to do much after they go through a bear. Close as you get running bears it is a real concern IME.

Even at the very short ranges a slug can be hard to place EXACTLY where you want it, too.

Yep, not looking for the slug to out-perform a rifle bullet, but thinking the little 20 ga pump would be handy to tote sans scope. It does have a red dot on it.

Thinking a neck or head shot at close range.

No way on a head shot with a slug! Besides ruining skull and hide it will be a smallish, difficult target with much potential for creating a very bad scene with the dogs.

Determining where the spine is in a bears neck under ideal lighting and broadside is not difficult, but change things around a bit and you are likely guessing... they are elastic...

Been playing that game in eastern nc for quite some time. A properly placed 20 ga slug will work up close. Now getting them to stand and pose for a head shot is a different story. Especially with a big bear walking and multiple dogs running around while u are crawling thru briars and such. What a rush to be ten feet from a bull.

Had a great hunt up there last week and can't wait for second season. I prefer a bar in 30-06 with 180 core locks. It shuts them down fast and usually does not exit so dogs don't get hurt. Either way the lil pop gun will work if the shooter can stay calm.. Good luck

OK guys, I may rethink this. I was thinking handy to carry through the jungle.

JB, you use open sights? All our rifles have scopes / no sights except for a mid-70's BDL .30-06. I can remove the scope from that.

2 of the 3 bears we took were neck shots and the 3rd was a double lung hit. He went the farthest at 50 yards. The 2 others dropped. We do like keeping skulls and hides.

I use open sights on a browning bar lightweight stalker because my shots are usually very close in thick cover. The scope is best for treed or longer shots. I used a model 94 lever in 30-30 last year and it works but don't shut them down as quick as 30-06. More dogs get hurt after the first shot if you don't end it quickly. A wounded bear in a wet ditch could be the worst situation When the dogs jump on top. What a mess

after the bear is down don't hesitate to stick the muzzle in his neck for the finisher if you have any doubt

You had it fine the first time and all the "advice" has you questioning yourself. A 20 gauge slug in a platform he/you are comfy with will handle any black bear without issue....as will anything 223 to 416 that you can shoot well. Not a guess

They have worked fine when we have used them. Just plain old WW Super-X.

Thanks

There are slugs and then there are slugs. Foster-type are hollow lead shells that can be deadly when directed through the heart-lung area,,but can and will break up on relatively light bones. Brenneke Black Magic and the like are more robustly constructed and should be more reliable.

There are a lot of sabot slugs using various jacketed bullets, but they are pretty much designed for fully rifled barrels.

I would be more comfortable with any .30 caliber or above using a good, tough, bullet, even a .30/30 with NPs or X bullets. A .35 Remington should b excellent (if you can find ammo). The last thing anyone in the vicinity wants is pissed-off bear landing amongst the crew so make sure the shooter gets some practice.

Good luck.

We have taken 3 and although that is a small sample size, they don't seem any harder to kill than a deer. My biggest concern is mobility over distances and being able to maneuver in very tight quarters. In other words I want to go light and be close. Neither of us is proficient enough with a handgun or we would consider a .45 colt or .44 mag using cast bullets.

I shoot them with my 378 no problem with a few branches in the way. Shot lots with my 30-06 never even concidered shotguns???? I always figured they were for birds.

8" dixi plate every time? Sorry I forgot the question.

I guided in Maine and ran bear hounds for 17 years. My biggest treed bear (364 lbs dressed) shot 25 years ago was taken with a 20 gauge Brenneke slug. 1 shot and he hit the ground stone dead.

It doesn't take a lot to drop a treed bear but when they drop they better be dead. Seasoned bear hounds are hard to come by and pretty expensive and very few houndsmen or guides appreciate their dogs getting mauled by a wounded bear. Many that I know in the NorthEast prefer that clients use big calibers like 45-70s or slugs.

There are foster type slugs, sabot type slugs and Brenneke slugs. Big difference between them.

If African PHs trust Brenneke slugs to stop wounded cats I think I'd trust them to drop a treed bear.

These are the slugs I have on hand. MV is 1476, 1 oz slugs / 480 gr.

So that trumps the 45-70 load mentioned above or at the least duplicates it.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/54...gauge-3-1-oz-silver-rifled-slug-box-of-5