Buddy and I going on a combo bear/grouse hunt tomorrow, Sunday. 23 grains of 3031 with an ancient Sisk 70 grain bullet shoots great in the BRNO O/U. May do some creek-bottom grouse hunting and bear calling. Practicing for an upcoming 9 day bear/deer/grouse hunt. Should be an exciting day in the woods.

Who knows, maybe the bears will try to even the score.

It might get real exciting if you shoot a bear with a 22 Hi-P

Bottom barrel a 458 Win?

I would put more faith in a cool customer with a ton of bear hunting experience, shooting a .22 High Power with an excellent hunting bullet, than a jittery guy armed with a .45-70 who only ever saw a bear on TV.

Still and all, I would put a couple slug loads in my pocket for the shotgun barrel, in case the bear rodeo turned into a goat rope.

Let's see how well Roy does before judging him. He can be a pain in the ass (his own - he knows of whence I speak), but he's our pain in the ass, and quite a lovable one at that!!

Same thought crossed my mind. Know it can and has been done by people who can shoot better than me, but a big bear and a small bullet would give me the booty puckers.

Hopefully it's a more grouse, less bear type trip 😁

If a HP will deck a tiger it should do a black bear likewise.

You can call me a pessimist, but I think if the old reverant had kept potting tigers regularly with the HP he would have eventually ended up cat food instead of Savage marketing material 😛

Neat gun, sounds like a Fun hunt! Shoot the VW bear.

Have a good hunt Roy

Happy hunting old buddy!

Everybody can do whatever they want.

I don't doubt that a 22 HP could kill a bear. It's recovering it that is the issue. There ain't going to be any blood on the ground. Feel like the bear deserves better.

Never made it past the daybreak hunt. You may recognize "The Recoil Recipe" 7mm Mag. My friend and fellow contractor Liam really wanted to get a bear to eat so he tagged this one right after daylight. We had planned to hunt this spot until 10 then hit the creek bottoms and thickets to call for bear but our plans changed for the better. Calling is where I intended to try the HiPower so we only had the 7mm. With the rifle sighted in to ring steel plates at 300 yards it was a dead on hold at 243 yards with a 145 Speer btsp. I can't emphasize enough how wicked that little Speer bullet is. It just flat kills everything it touches.

Liam normally hunts with a 450 Brush-Masher but the range was a little farther than he wanted to go with it. The bear was meandering towards us so we just let it come. Liam couldn't get steady so I got out my shooting sticks and that did the trick. When the bear got up on a log I called out to it in a deer bleat kind of noise and it stopped broadside. Liam was ready and fired after a couple seconds. The bear dropped off the log and rolled once. Dead before he stopped. It was a perfect boar and had no smell at all. It's going to be excellent eating.

Put some more Oregon pinstripe on the truck to get as close as we could then hoofed it the rest of the way.








Liam was a happy guy. He's looking forward to smoking some hams and rack of ribs.












We did see two grouse. I leave next Friday for 9 days for bear, deer, and birds. My first vacation all year. I'm READY! I'll try again with the HiPower then . If I have time to shoot the 99E HP I might try that too.

Think bowhunting, but with a HiPower, not rifle hunting, with a 22.

Shot placement, shot placement, shot placement.

I had some minor surgery Friday and took it easy Saturday but it's September and the bears must be hunted! Dang it it's a good time to be in the woods.

When we skinned the bear it's neck was about 8" thick. Easy peasy.

12 gauge. Figured I'd use buckshot when on stand calling as a backup to the 22HP.

Good job Roy!!

Nice, that's a good day right there! 😁

Hopefully your upcoming trip will be as successful.

Game or not, I'll be camping out, sitting by a campfire, and drinking some whiskey. It'll be perfect.

Rendering any bear lard?

Not me brother, I'm the guide. I get them there, help them get it out,.and then I hit the adult beverages while they work late into the night processing game. I've got the best gig ever.

It's kind of like hiring a hooker, if you know what I mean.

I enjoyed reading the plan earlier in the day and then seeing the harvest tonight. Good stuff. Thanks for posting.

September is bear magic. You gotta go.

Do you have to bait them out there?

Glad your bud scored! My buddy will have a tag next year, I'll be the guide, I should draw a tag in the next 3-4 years. Happy Hunting on your next trip!

No baiting allowed. We have to understand bears. I find baiting offensive.


John I don't think I could stand not being able to hunt every year!

I find it offensive myself but everyone around here keeps telling me there is no other way than dumb luck to get one here. I'd rather sit and not see one than use bait.

I hear that too but it's not true. I've ambushed bears by understanding where they are and where they want to go next. I've called bears using several different sounds. Spot and stalk. Stake outs. Plenty of ways to hunt bears.

Is that good or bad?
I have seen a mid sized sow black bear’s neck stop a 225 grain spire point from a .340 Wby at about 50 yards…

That's not very good penetration. A combination of hyper speed and light bullet construction you think?

Could have been just that, but that same combo had blown clean through caribou and whitetail.
Regardles, it left an impression on me.

Sounds like it must have hit bone for sure.

Where I live, it takes 12-15 points to draw a bear tag! Deer are over the counter. Bait or dogs hunting here as you only have about a week to hunt.my buddy with have 16 pts next year.

We got bear wandering all over the place here, sows with cubs !! a few old boar around. watched one across the street under a apple tree yesterday afternoon. just aying down and chomping apples. This summer i shot a few with rubber game bullets to keep them off the front lawn!

Good job Roy, an other happy camper.

Isn't that a great rig. Mines in the rv right now leaving for CO in a couple hours. I will be hunting coyotes. My goto bullet is the 55gr Buffalo arms. We plan to get a little clay bird shooting in with the family.





Congrats on your successful hunt.

You got that right.
I've arrowed 5 bears here in WI and a hunter must hit the heart/lungs or you will not recover the bear.
The ones I've arrowed in the pump house were down and dead in seconds, most in sight within 75 feet.


To each his own.
If a person understands bears in WI, you'd know that if you hunt Oregon tactics here you would not see a bear let alone harvest one.

When Charles Newton said the 22HP wasn't a moose gun, he did describe the cartridge as acceptable on the odd deer or black bear IF one had the ideal shot.

Obviously it's not the best rifle cartridge for either, but if one is very picky about your shot and can make that shot..

I think I would pass on any shot on a bear with a 22Hi-P other than head on between the eyes.

I did an experiment around 12 years ago where I epoxied a sampling of different .22HP bullets onto a block and then milled half the diameters away in the Bridgeport. Thinnest jackets were on the Buffalo Arms 60 grain bullets and the Prvi. Next up in thickness was the old Speer 70 grain and 70 grain Norma - not a lot of difference as I recall. The thickest were the Hornady 70 grain and the old Sisk 70 grain. Most interesting was the 70 grain RWS H-Mantle, which was almost like a Nosler Partition in design except the "divider" wasn't closed completely in the middle like in a Partition. I'm relying on memory and a couple notes I made in my handloading journal, the pic I took of some of the results was lost in the Photobucket revolt.

A couple observations I took away from the experiment:

A)The phenomenon I see occasionally of certain thinner-jacketed .22HP bullets leaving a "blue trace" in the air while in flight, and suspicious gray "comet tails" on target paper, could possibly be explained by the thin jackets not insulating the soft lead cores from heat generated by screeching down a rifle bore. Leads me to think I wouldn't rely on them too much for deep penetration on heavier game animals, although they've always delivered the best target accuracy for me.

B) Of all the available bullets at the moment (and I use that term with tongue firmly in cheek) I would rely on the Hornady's and Sisk's the most, based solely on jacket thickness. Trouble is that none of them are what I would call "readily available".

C) The star bullet, IMO, is the RWS H-Mantle. But when's the last time you saw any of them? The handful I have are jealously hoarded for a rainy day (such as if I get a call from Roy that he has a cinnamon bear tied to a tree for me)! Being of a sem-spitzer shape with a length short enough for reliable stabilization in our old rifles is another factor in their favor - they do shoot well to boot.

I solved all those .228” bullet problems by having my rat .22 HP lined with a true .224” bbl and rechambered.
1/10 Douglas. Pick your .224” bullet of choice and proceed.

good hunting Roy hope your 9 days are great.

norm

Smart and practical move. (But then it becomes a .219 Zipper, no?)

I'm curious what type of rifle are we talking about?

Just a side note, my BRNO shoots .224 diameter 55 grain Barnes ttsx into good groups as well as the Sisk, but they shoot 5" high at 50 yards. If I wanted to shoot them I would need to raise the front sight since the rear isn't adjustable. If the Sisk hadn't shot so well and only an inch high at 100 yards I would have figured out to get a brass bead on top of the front sight to bring those Barnes down. But the Barnes accuracy was fine. They'll be my Plan B when I run out of Sisk's.

Basically, yes.
A Linda Lovelace like .219 Zipper.

In a .224 bore I would seriously consider the 60 gr NP.

I've seen it out of a 223 Rem and it's effect on deer size animals is devastating.

NP?

Nosler Partition.

Ah, thanks. Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake.

That sounds just about like heaven!

Have a great trip Roy.

I stood beside a guy who shot a chest wounded bear in the head at twenty yards with a 300 sav 180gn. The bear rolled over, sat down with its back against a tree, let out a couple of growls and was finished with another chest shot. The bullet didn’t exit the head. There was a thick stranded wire snare broken off around its neck that had worn the hide to the point where you could rip it apart even though it looked fully healed.
One tough critter!

Home early. Plenty of bears about. We have a few good bear stories for you guys.

The area we hunt is burned off and in 90 degree weather nothing was on the hillsides where we normally hunt. Looks like this.





Unseasonably hot weather pushed everything down into the alder thickets and creek bottoms, and the creek bottoms aren't what I want to hunt so I said screw it, I'll come back when it cools down. Here's where everything is hiding while it's hot.




Saw a few deer including a buck but decided to just come back when the hunting is more pleasant. Season is about 4 weeks long. Couldn't hit a grouse with the BRNO O/U 22HP/12 gauge so I guess I need to go back to my favorite SxS 28 gauge.


Bears just about outnumbered deer this trip.

I set up camp in what I call the swamp. It's about 20 yards from a small mountain creek, completely choked with alders. Zero sun, deep shade, very cool, dead end road. We've always had bears close to or in camp and this year we had one bathing in the creek right next to camp on the first day at 2 oclock. Blue jays and squirrels gave him away then I heard him splashing and bathing. For the life of me I couldn't see him through the alders but he was 20 yards from camp. Moved around trying to get eyeball on him until he scented me and ambled off. Good start to the hunt!

Second day no luck.

Third day I set up covering a dark canyon that I hoped would hold the buck who's track I had found the day before. This area held a good buck last year but I never hunted him. Since I was having no luck up high I figured I'd try him on for size. I glassed from 300-550 yards, all within range of the 7mm mag, for about an hour when I hear something in the brush 75 yards to my right. I look over and see the brush moving and a bear steps out.

Didn't really want to shoot a bear so I called at him with a fawn bleat to see if he'd come in for a better look. He acted pretty disinterested at first but started meandering my way, eating acorns and sniffing around as he came across the small draw separating us. He was what I would describe as "every bear". Not big, not small, mature but just like every other bear you see. Cave entrance black.

At 50 yards he stopped behind a large burned tree. I saw his head sticking out on the right side of the tree. He had his head down and nose to the dirt. I watched him for a couple minutes wondering why he had stopped coming. I pleaded with him, "I'm dying here, come get yourself an easy meal!" Wah wah wah, blah blah blah, woe is me.

I checked him with the binoculars to see what the heck he was doing when I realized it was the flared root of that large burned tree I was looking at, not the bears nose and head as I'd thought. Now I realized I'd lost him in the brush and he was probably still coming.

After a few intense seconds of "Where's Yogi?" as I rubbernecked around the tree I was behind I spot brush moving a few yards away. I gave him the mouse squeaks by mouth and I see him at about 40'. He was coming slowly until he hit my scent. He jolted back a few inches but didn't run off. He was opening and closing his mouth picking up scent trying to pinpoint me. He reached out to an acorn bush near him and put the leaf in his mouth and pulled his head back, stripping whatever scent he could off the leaf, but leaving it intact on the bush. I've never seen a bear do this before. I gave him some of the same popping sounds he was making just to watch his reaction.

As he stood there at 35' I stood up and took a few steps toward him, making a lot of noise and climbing up on a log so he could see me clearly. I expected him to bolt as I stood full height and waved my arms and gun above my head. He literally acted like he hadn't seen me even though I was in full view. As he moved his head back and forth trying to pick me up, while I'm jumping around like a rodeo clown on the log, he finally focuses on me as if to say, "Hey, there's something on that log, wth?" Clearly this bear was nearly blind as he couldn't make me out at 30'.

He had scented me and now had apparently seen me, but wasn't leaving, until when I said "Hey bear" softly. He about turned inside out getting out of there! He stopped once to look back at about 60 yards, what for I'm not sure since he was obviously blind. I'm glad he didn't get any closer or I would have needed to fill my bear tag. It's always super cool getting close to them but I have a lot of respect for their speed and ability to shred flesh. I figure one maybe 2 shots between us is close enough! Very cool sighting.

Friend Liam showed up in camp on the second day. He already filled his bear tag




and so decided not to get another one due to freezer space limitations, wanting a deer instead. He had real reason to rethink that on day 4.


Leaving camp at daylight he walked the swamp road out hoping to catch a buck leaving the swamp headed to "the butte" for the day. After rounding the top end of the swamp he walks up the road around the other side of the swamp to his right, encircling the swamp. As he walked along he looked for tracks coming off the "south butte" towards the swamp. When he reached the SW corner of the swamp and south butte, he stopped on the edge of the road and looked down the canyon headed south. We've seen alot of bear, deer, and even elk coming from the south canyon and stopping in the swamp for a break.

This time as he stood glassing the canyon he hears noise in front of him and as he lowers his binocs spots a bear just a few yards away headed straight up the draw at him. It was another jet black bear, another "every bear". He was close when Liam first saw him so he immediately started talking to it. The bear ignored him and kept coming, so he began yelling, "Go away bear, you're going to ruin my hunting!"

The bear was 40-50' away and kept coming uninterrupted. He raised his rifle and fired right over the bears head. The bear didn't even react and kept coming. When the bear was about 40' it veered slightly to Liams left and walked around him at 40'. Liam fired another shot just inches from the bear into a tree, hoping the impact would startle the bear. He jumped but walked right around Liam slowly, looking at him as he circled around him. Liam began backing up to the gravel road to give the bear some space. The bear crossed the gravel road and went over the bank towards the swamp, and out of Liams sight.

Liam was shook up that the bear had ignored all his warnings and even two gunshots at 40'! He decided to head back to camp and settle his nerves. As he started down the road the swamp was now on his left. After a few yards he realized the bear was not far off the road, maybe 30 yards, and was looking at him. As he walked along the bear paralleled him from 20-40 yards out, watching him the entire time.

Liam was cautious but not really nervous. The bear continued following him for over 1/3 of a mile around the south road around the swamp to the intersection that led downhill into the thick brush and camp, about 1/2 mile downhill in the swamp. It was as Liam approached this intersection to camp that he lost sight of the bear in the alders. As he walked downhill towards camp his path would cross the bears if the bear continued his trajectory. Having lost sight of him now Liam was really getting jittery.

He made the turn and kept and eye out for the bear as he headed down the swamp road towards camp. He stopped several times to scour the swamp to try to relocate the bear, but the bear had apparently stopped in the alders, which were literally just a few yards off either road, and only 8-10' high, and few in number. Enough to hide a bear but why in the world would a bear act like that? He wasn't sure where the bear was so he beat feet back to camp through that thick schit as fast as he could, keeping an eye on his backtrail the whole way.


.


When he got to camp and told me the story I told him that was NOT normal bear behavior and that I think that bear was going to be a problem. Sooner or later that bear is going to end up in our camp. We cook on a grill over the fire and there's all kinds of bacon grease, sausage, bear meat, you name on that grill. What if the bear finds our whiskey?!!! I told him I would have shot that bear, tag or not before I'd have had that experience.

After thinking about it, he realized what a potentially dangerous bear that could be and that I was right, he probably should have shot it.

A bear that ignores being yelled at, shot at, and follows a person for a 1/3 of a mile is not a normal bear. This is wild and remote country, this isn't a habituated garbage bear.

After his and my encounter we started hashing alot of information over from past experiences and we both wonder if perhaps bear have a behavioral mode that "triggers" in a bear that shuts off normal behavior and another script kicks in. Hard to explain but something happens in a bear that turns off "normal" and turns on some alternate pattern of acting. One or any number of other modes of behavior.

Anyway, now every time we hunt the area we'll have in the back of our mind that there could be a bear close by that has zero normal fear of humans.


He should have shot that bear.

I forgot to mention in both our cases the bears were so close we both threw rocks at them. I threw two and Liam threw three. Neither of us were able to hit the bear but I came close, landing just past the bears butt in a bush. He looked back to see what the noise was.

Excellent tale, Roy!! I would've laid in my sleeping bag wide awake all night, clutching my rifle.

On second thought, no. I would've slept in the truck!

My neighbor Robert is so scared of this campsite he slept in the back seat of my wifes Toyota truck! Windows up, doors locked! LOL

I added a woodstove to a retired work trailer and set it up for hunting.

I did carry the 22HP a lot while hunting but only used it to miss grouse.

Need a day off then I'll be back at it.

Well, I'm sure the grouse were scared at least 🤣

That's a lot of bears... I'm not overly of them, either, so I'd also be in the car sleeping group 😮

Hopefully you get a good shot at something soon.

Carved on a tree somewhere in the Oregon Outback: "D.Fireball kilt a b'ar on this tree, 2022 AD"

Among bear, like people, have a lot of different personalities. That one needs to be eliminated.

Myth Busters proved bears know how to open car and truck doors.