Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Rifle Caliber for Black Bear

Anybody that tells you any whitetail deer cartridge is good enough for a bear has never been close to a big bear. 350 pounds plus, dressed of course.

They are big with large dense skeletal structure.

I own an accurate 25-06 Model 70. It is accurate using 100 grain Barnes X and 115 grain Nosler Partitions. I really like the gun. I would never use it bear hunting. If it is all you own, hunting with hounds or over bait one could head/neck shoot with it.

My bear rifle is a Savage Model 99 in the 308 caliber. It is very accurate and offers a quick second or third shot. 165 grain Accubond factory loads. You have to be aware of pass through. That bullet will blow right through a smaller bear. You have to be aware of what is behind your target.

A 270 Winchester with a premium 150 grain bullet is a good starting place to start. 7mm-08 on the short action side.

If you get the chance at a truly large bear you will be glad your 30-30 is at the house.

You are an instigator! You want me to pull out the pictures of the 8'6" Kodiak bear with the see-through bones? Is that it? You are just looking for trouble!

Why, yes I am!

I haven't seen those pics in a while and actually would like to see them again. For reference, mostly. To put things in perspective, so to speak.

A good deceased friend of mine put 5 .22 slugs into a big black bears head before he found the ear hole with the 6th. Point blank. The 6th collapsed the bear, first five showed little effect.

I put a JHP slug into the ribs of a 270 pound dressed bear at point blank range. 41 Remington mag, 210 gr JHP. Never broke a rib, never got inside the rib cage.

I have been around Black Bears way too long to read the BS repeated about how easy they are to kill. There are plenty of unrecovered dead bears that someone shot with a 243, or 257. If you cannot afford a rifle of sufficient size to humanely kill a black bear, head for Walmart and be a greeter until you have the 300 bucks for a new Stevens 200, I will lend you a scope.

Me TOO.

A good deceased friend of mine put 5 .22 slugs into a big black bears head before he found the ear hole with the 6th. Point blank. The 6th collapsed the bear, first five showed little effect.

I put a JHP slug into the ribs of a 270 pound dressed bear at point blank range. 41 Remington mag, 210 gr JHP. Never broke a rib, never got inside the rib cage.

I have been around Black Bears way too long to read the BS repeated about how easy they are to kill. There are plenty of unrecovered dead bears that someone shot with a 243, or 257. If you cannot afford a rifle of sufficient size to humanely kill a black bear, head for Walmart and be a greeter until you have the 300 bucks for a new Stevens 200, I will lend you a scope.

I put a JHP slug into the ribs of a 270 pound dressed bear at point blank range. 41 Remington mag, 210 gr JHP. Never broke a rib, never got inside the rib cage.

We also read in the Alaska forum about 8 months ago of a black bear that was "hit hard" with a 165 partition out of a 300 RUM. That bear shrugged it off and kept on going.

bigger is better.

Hard to believe when a 30-30 with core-lokts kills them deader than a door nail.

I always thought that hunting Black Bear over bait or in thick cover would be a great reason to buy a 35 Whelen.

Anybody that tells you any whitetail deer cartridge is good enough for a bear has never been close to a big bear. 350 pounds plus, dressed of course.