let`s assumme.........

[AgesofDays]

better yet let`s pretend that if you had 1 calibur gun for bear what would it be? the reason I ask is this past weekend I was going to do some shooting with my 50 cal. flintlock with reduced loads. after the first shot I told my girl to go and see where I hit .when she got out there she stardted screeming daddy daddy there`s a bear in the pig pen killing the pigs well I promptly loaded another roundball not thinking about reduced loads just loaded and ran when I got there the bear wasn`t leaving when I screamed at it ...it wanted fresh pig being only 20 yds from this culprit I leveled the gun pulled back the lock and let one fly....centered on his chest the bear promptly left the crime scene .I know I hit him but there was no blood now if that would have been say a 58cal would that have made a diff. ? and reduced load i`m talkin 60 grians of 3f

 

[jtmattison]

Going just on my Lyman's black powder manual I would say your "light" load of 60 grains 3f would have been sufficient at 20 yards to down a bear if hit in the boiler room.
You say you shot it in the chest. I am assuming it was on all four feet facing you.
I would say that not too far off from the pig pen there is a heap of bear steaks.
Did the bear run off as if nothing was wrong or was he staggering, limping, hunched up?
Did you go look for it?

Huntin

 

[AgesofDays]

oh yes he /she was looking straight at me and what was most unnerving was it wasnt afriad of me... when I hit it .it acted like a hive of bees stung it shook and rolled and got up and ran but like I said no blood ...yes I did go looking for it ,I spent the rest of the day looking for it only with my 300 win mag at my side but to no aveil so I dont know someone told me that it would come back if it wasn`t to badly hurt . I`ve never hunted bear so I don`t know how they act or do?

 

[cayugad]

At 20 yards with 60 grains of FFFg and a roundball if you shot dead center chest on the bear I would think there is a dead bear somewhere out there, within 300 yards of your pig pen. I would also think that if you were placing your shot, it was fatal.

I personally like a bigger caliber when shooting roundball. I am so impressed with the .58 caliber that I have been shooting. That's why when I get a custom flinter I want a caliber .58 or bigger....

Because of the fat layer and the hair, bear bleed very little when shot. They have a way of closing up the hole somehow. I have helped track a number of them and they actually bleed very little. The ones I tracked were shot with 30-06 and bigger.....

 

sounds to me that you hit it and but good . they will spin just like you wacked them with a stick . look in the derection it ran off , you will find a trail or a place of thick brush . also check creek bottom and look close even a big bear piled up can be hard to see. in just a few days you will start seeing ravens or magpies, if you have not found it by then they will lead you to it maybe even coyote if you stay up late and listen.
the hide and meat will be no good by then but you will have the claws and skull.
60 grains in a 50 at 20 yards will do the dead if you shot was true as you say its not far

 

[Gary]

58 Minie ball, double barrel as in Kodiak. If I had to have round ball, it'd better be at least .60 or .62 caliber. Big is good.

 

[BrownBear]

From the reaction, it sounds like a lethal hit to me. I'd bet that RB went in a long ways, taking stuff with it as it went. Your experience points out a pretty big misconception about stopping power for bears. Unless you get into the central nervous system, odds are really poor that a shot will drop them on the spot.

Kinda laugh every time someone straps on a pistol for "bear protection." Not many folks can hit well enough to be sure of connecting with the brain or spine, and anything wide of that will leave him on his feet and coming for you. For frame of reference, consider a brain no bigger than a grapefruit coming at you knee-high as fast as a horse. Hit that!

 

[roundball]

For frame of reference, consider a brain no bigger than a grapefruit coming at you knee-high as fast as a horse. Hit that!

.....AND...all the while in that mere second or two, you'd be under severe stress, compared to sitting in a treestand slowly taking aim at a relaxed, standing deer who doesn't know you're there...take a calm, cool, individual...that's why the old saying, if you take a handgun, remove the front sight...
::

 

[Stumpkiller]

I don't know nuttin about hunting bear, but I have run up against the dreaded McKenzie Standing Bear targets on archery 3-D courses. For some reason, I always hit low on this one. Either because I am used to aiming at a deer, where the vitals are in the center of the horizontal area, or my brain misjudges the distance because the target is taller than what I am used to.

My guess is that you have a single hole in the hide, reducing the blood trail by half from the get-go, and probably that hole was plugged when the bear dropped to all fours, changing the hide's position over the underlying muscles (and bullet path), possibly allowing fat to plug it, also. He's probably piled up out there, somewhere, if you hit a lung or nicked the heart.

To be safe, I would contact the DEC or whatever letters they use around you (Dept. Enviro. Cons./Wildlife Officers/etc.) and inform them of a wounded bear. They'll have the contacts to get a dog out there to track it down and finish it off. Better for you & your family & livestock not to have a wounded bear hanging around; and only fair to the bear if it is gut-shot.

 

[Keith]

I think that is plenty of gun for a bear at that range. I doubt it went far if you hit it right. :imo:
Question: did you hear the bear bellow after running off? I have only shot one bear, and it bellowed when it died. I was told this is common. :results:
Getting a tracking dog is a real good idea.

 

[musketman]

As always, my hind sight is about 20-200... :crackup:

What if the bear charged you and your daughter?

Did you grab another shot before you ran towards the pig pen?

Odd, perhaps the bear was rabid, strange it didn't run off from your shooting at the target...

Did it kill or wound any pigs?

 

[AgesofDays]

well I just spent yesteday looking again ....no luck it hasnt rained here for a week or so the trail goes cold when it hit ledge ..there was no noise that came from the bear. and it did tear a hunk of meat from the pigs leg but still alive until I wack them next week anyway ....It just puts a sour sick feeling in my stomach to know that it maybe dead somewhere

 

[Keith]

It might not have been scared off by the firing becasue it was used to the sound.
True story. I once shot a fair amount of metallic silhouttte. One evening about 6 of us were shooting. We had taken a break to reset the targets and BS. When we looked up a doe was feeding on the range. We had been shooting only ten minutes or less before. The doe did n't leave til someone ran down the range and got within 25 yards of it and threw a rock. :haha:
I don't think that deer made it through the next season.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I have a range on the hill behind my house. One fall I set up a target and fired off five 12 gauge slugs at 50 yards. When I walked back to the target I spooked off a buck that had been bedded midrange but 25 yards uphill off to my right! He had been watching me for at least five minutes and stayed put through the shooting. Bucks from well hunted areas learn our ways pretty well. I've watched hunters put on drives where bucks have sat in cover, allowing them to pass. Some are smart enough to know that running is sometimes riskier than sitting put.

I have also fired and had deer turn and run at me. Apparantly they have trouble telling which direction the shot comes from just as humans often do.

My property backs onto a wooded hill, and as long as I stay on my lawn tractor I can get much closer to deer than they will allow when I'm on foot. Could be bears have the same reactions? Bears are also on the top of the food chain and are not wary of humans unless taught to be so.

 

I think that the National Park Service and the Bambi huggers have done the black bear an injustice. I have spent several months with bear, in close study, as in sitting on several limbs as they circled around beneath me.

Black bears are not the timid little fuzzy things we are led to believe. They often react aggressivly when confronted and do not beat it for the brush at the first sign of a human.

I will never forget being on the Appilatian Trail a few years back and watching a good sized cub "tree" a hiker on the roof of a trail shelter! That guy yelling and waving his arms and jumping up and down really peed that little bear off! The little sucker then proceeded to tear up about $1000 dollars worth of hiking equipment looking for trail mix. ( I was already on the roof waiting for him. No guns allowed on the AT. You don't have nothing but a sharpe pointy stick and they don't want you to have that!)

The big ones knew exactly where the trail shelters were and knew that they owned them after dark! In the Great Smokey Mountains you are required to sleep inside the bear caged shelters. No outdoor tenting allowed! It's a reverse zoo! The bears come to "look at the humans" during the night, while we slept in our barred cages. I have watched bear track hikers for hours with the humans unaware that they are being stalked!

All of this was to protect the bears I guess, since the rangers would tell folks to beat on pans and yell and the bears would run off! Yep, they have a bear attack death about every year!

I now live about 15 miles from down town Cincinatti and we are having constant bear sightings and vehicle strikes. It's just a matter of time before some kid gets mauled in their back yard.

Of course the Wildlife resources people they interviewed right after the first sighting were saying there are no bear in our immidiate area. Mabe not right this second! Less than a week later the same officers were loading the dead vehicle killed bear into their pickup.

Bears get big
Bears have teeth
Bears have claws
Bear run very fast
when I am inadiquitely armed I am afraid of bears

If it took a chunk out of the pig think of that same chumk out of you or your daughter!

Have you ever seen what they can do to a stump while looking for grubs?

The only regret you should have is loosing the meat and hide!

:thumbsup:

 

[musketman]

I guess you should be happy the game warden doesn't fine you for shooting bears out of season...

Of course, with no bear carcuss, there's no proof... :winking:

Now, had you been shooting a brown bess... :hmm:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I think 90% of a penned pig is an alibi that any warden would accept.

Not like the yokel here that shot the first moose we've had in the area in 150 years three times in the butt with a .44 Mag "in self defense".

 

[Keith]

I wouldn't get up tight about the warden with a wounded pig as evidence.
I believe every moose shot in modern times in New York in "self defense" was shot in the a$$! :nono: :shake:

 

[AgesofDays]

It is bear season here in vermont that`s the pisser I probably will never have an opportunity like this again so really it didnt matter that the pig was hurt from a wco `s point of veiw, I called them and they told me if I find it just call and they will give me a tag but until then they will concider it a miss but I know better

 

I've seen several blackies kilt but only kilt one myself and that with a 45-70. Kilt it real good too, bellowed, gave two jumps and piled up deader 'n virginity (so did the bear :crackup: :crackup
Anyway I've been on the trail af 3 'wounded' blackies, all with high power maugnum .30's. I was surprised how little they bleed out.
This was NOT so with the 45-70 that was a pass trough shot and it spray blood 10 feet in two directions.
Anyway of the 3 we looked for we found 2, BOTH close to where they had been shot, both nearly invisible in the brush.
I'd say you kilt that bear.