So I spent yesterday reloading for and shooting off the back porch a Mauser 30/06 that I hadn't had time to play with. Real nice rifle. I got a 130 grain Barnes load worked up that shoots 3/4" at 3100 fps, 1 1/2" high at 100. Life is peaches, maybe even with cream.

Fast forward to just after day light today as I'm carrying said rifle (rather than one of my trusted 99's, there's my first mistake!) when I come across Mr. Big Bear. 100 yards. Complete miss.

No bear. No hair. No blood. Hours later, scoured entire mountaintop, no bear. Up, down and sideways, no bear. I bumped another bear, actually a small sow and cub while searching the other side of the mountain, but no Big Bear. Cursing under my breath that I wasn't carrying the 99F 358, I move down the ridge.

A mile later I watch one trot sideways at 125 yards across a burned and partially regrown hillside after he spots me. He's a shooter size-wise, a little smaller than the first one, but I'm still smarting from my earlier miss, so I watch him go all the way to the timber without firing. If I woulda had a 99...

After doing some glassing downhill, I decide to go on up and see if I can kick him out of his bed. 2 hours later as I approach the top of the ridge, he stands up at 40 yards to see who interrupted his sleep. Aimed for the base of the neck/top of chest to break his spine. Have taken 2 or 3 with this shot. Mauser barks, bear drops down and trots off, untouched. 40 yards. No bear. No hair. No blood. Scoured the mountaintop, down the other side, down this side, no bear.

You can all say whatever you want about my shooting now, I've earned it. I'm guessing I hit hair each time, rather than meat, but I never found a thing.

The lesson for me is to keep using the Savage 99's I'm so familiar with until I can get some bolt action time. Even then, why bother. The 99F 284 reaches way out there, why do I even mess with bolt guns?

It was a bad good day hunting.

I fired this rifle 48 times yesterday working up a load for it. Everything was tight and worked like it should. I haven't fired it since I've been back today, but I don't expect anything to be wrong with it.

Roy,With that many bear around you need a mortar !!!! i'm sure you will grab one of your 99's and make amends !!!!!

How much would'ja take for that Mauser, right now?!

Sounds like the scope got whacked somehow. Have you re-fired on paper since then? It would be a b*tch if subsequent test firing shows it to still be perfectly zero'ed in...

You're shooting bear with a 130 grain 30 caliber bullet??!!??

Prolly a copper bullet which are lighter than lead when length is equal.

Roy:

Sometimes you just flat out miss.

My grandfather told me once when I were just a youngin'.

"Anybody that tells you they never missed a deer: hasn't shot at very many"

There's a lot of space around a bear.

I missed three standing shots at 90 yards at a big spring bear in Canada about 30 years ago (long before I discovered the 99). But by now I'm sure I've outlived that bear, so I count it as a victory.

Rod

let us know how she shoots on paper again. buck fever sometimes rears its ugly head with a gun you aren't confident in.
I got a model 8 Remington in .35 one year after trading my long time go to m70. prior to this I had never used more then one round per deer in my life starting at 12 yrs old with a 410 slug.
the year using the Remington I fired 11 rounds without even hair.
paper it was 1.75inch at 100. in the brush even at 20 yrds I missed. my bil sat me down and told me I was trying to hard. thought about that for a while and remembered each shot. I was trying to throw the bullet at the deer because I had no confidence in that gun/round. after that I used that gun for 6 whitetail. 6 rounds

I guess it happens. I think you guys are on to something about confidence in the gun. I've never been any good with any bolt gun but the Fireball.

I missed another big bear about 12 years ago with a 300 mag, and shortly after that I moved from the area. Before I left I told a kid working at Les Schwab Tires where to go look for him. Darned if he didn't get him with a Marlin 45-70. That bear was 27 years old! Still the biggest bear I've ever seen. So Rod, you're probably right, that bear you shot at is dead, but maybe not by much!

I think for the rest of the season I'll be packing a Savage. Deer season opens next Saturday too.

Funny guy!

I don't expect the scope's been whacked or came loose. I finished shooting about 4pm Friday and had it all dialed in for Saturdays hunt. I baby my guns, especially the purty ones! But I'll shoot it when I get a chance and report back.

I think I tanked to be honest. Not excited, but not confident. I think I may have brought the gun down a little rather than follow thru after the shot.

I've killed two with 100 grain bullets, 250 Savage and 257 Weatherby. The 130 Barnes is a good design, no worries here.

I would have killed with a 250 Savage today huh? Stinking 30/06's...

Roy Im sure you know shooting from the bench and out in the field are two different things! and shooting a strange rifle to boot! Iv never been much of a bolt gun guy either, rt handed and left eye dom. but shoot guns left handed. but and shoot right too , just not as well. you need to play with the 06 in the off season, now go kill a bear with one of your 99s! good Hunting!

Yeah, too bad you weren't carrying a 99...I'll give you $300 just to get that thing outta your sight.

Add a zero!

FIRE SALE !!!!!!
I'da wrapped it around the first tree I came across


plab

$0300?

What's a gun that can't hit a bear worth?

Thanks for letting me vent. Don't feel better about it today.

Dude:

Move on.

There will be another bear.

Every experienced hunter has been their...

i'll bump that to $310.75 . nice looking and I dooooooo like mausers.

Worth noting as far as handloading the 130 Barnes ttsx in this 30/06-

Barnes load data lists H414 start load as 61 gr and max as 66 grains. When I got to 64 my bolt handle stuck but good, and the primer pocket was 20% oversized and the primer was GONE. Gave myself my first scope eye, headache for the last two days. WTH? Went to the other manuals and they hover around 60 grains MAXIMUM for their brand 125 grain bullets. I should have cross referenced BEFORE I trusted Barnes data. May have contributed to my poor shooting. Got bit pretty good.
I ended up using RL15 with higher velocity and lower pressure.

Be careful reloading, don't trust everything you read, even from the manufacturers.

Way off topic now, but who doesn't like pretty wood on any rifle? It's a keeper.

Glad to hear you caught the overload situation before it did any damage to you or such a fine rifle as your Mauser. I have been handloading since the early 70's and have always stayed in the middle of range on powder charges. Never owned a chronograph nor was I interested in achieving top velocity, my concern has always been finding a load that shot accurately in my rifle. My middle of the range loads have never failed to take the game I was hunting. After all dead is dead right? Why beat yourself or your rifle up with excessive recoil? I have been up and down the scale sizewise with the caliber of rifle I've hunted with. For years my go to elk rifle was a .338 WM shooting a 275gr. bullet over IMR4350, that was always enough killing power for me and never failed to produce a bang flop. As regards a 130gr. for bear, I have always used a heavier bullet. When I first started loading I used a 180gr. RN bullet, after shooting metallic silhoute with 168gr. bullet in a .308 I switched to a 165gr. bullet in the .30-06 and had great success with that bullet. Never had much experience with the Hodgden powders, in the last ten years or so I have been shooting mainly .257 Roberts and .35 Whelen. After extensive research, load development and range time I have settled on IMR4064 for these two calibers. RL-15 is another powder that I am currently doing some load development with, I think that you will find it is a good powder for your .30-06. I hope that my suggestions are helpful, Keep working with that Mauser. It is a fine rifle and I think you'll have the success you're looking for with it.

I think I see rotten wood in that butt stock, Roy. Perhaps you better throw it away. You know, in the green garbage can out back, at exactly 10PM tonight. Pay no heed to the big guy lurking in the shadows...

you gonna see some ally rassleing going on if you do! I will be there!

Gun's fine. It's on me.

Bear fever...
It's not easy to hit the boiler room of a black shadow.

Fear not, Roy. Anybody who says they never missed a game animal is either a liar or he's never been hunting before.

Heck, all the times I hunted black bears, I never even got a shot. (Well not really all that many trips, but still.) More than a couple bear rifles bought/built for Pennsylvania's three day bear seasons, and never dirtied a bore. (Thought I was going to once, but the "bear" that materialized out of the fog was an Amish guy who unwisely chose that day to go into the woods hunting for teaberries. Yep- black hat, beard, black coat, etc. Got my heart pumping when I saw him. Thank god I decided to watch him through binoculars until he was close enough for a sure shot. The idiot actually took umbrage when I yelled at him, and offered him the use of an orange vest to wear back out of the woods. Then he thanked me when the full impact of his stupidity dawned on him.)

You were using the wrong bullet, have to use a Rem. core-loct 150 grain 30-06!

Man what a butterball of a bear Ken.