What would have happened?

[Kentuckywindage]

I went rabbit hunting this evening,


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And ran into a bear :shocked2:

Im standing at the edge of a field and a BIG reddish/chocolate color bear is looking down at me. Thankfully i brought my big bad ass killer pitbull with me! My dog took off running after him and ran the bear a little before it stopped, grunted and started to turn.

Thats all i needed,

I shouldered the .50 kentucky flinter, took bead and put the ball just right over his head. He wheeled and hauled ass up the side of the mountain. I wouldnt be surprised if that sucker has a bald spot running down the middle of its head LOL.

It was a very interesting experience to run into. I was only loaded up with 40gr 3f goex and the .490 round ball. Great for rabbits out to 50 yards but not what i'd call a good bear load for a bear of that size!

I reloaded with shakey hands and upped it to 60gr 3f goex ( ran out of powder) and went up to the area where the bear was and looked around for blood but there wasnt any. The dog and i found its tracks ( very easy to trail a running bear!!) And i found today that my dog can trail! He had his nose straight to the ground sniffing and we trailed it all the way to the back of our property. We found what looks to be a dead coyote and possibly a turkey. That bear has been eating good it seems.

I never hunted bear before and dont know much about sizing but the head on it was huge and had tiny triangle shaped ears. I put my fist into one of its tracks and had a couple of inches to spare all the way around.

We went back to the area again and i was looking around for blood again just to double check and theres some big flat sandstone outcroppings and i found where my round ball hit. If i had aimed at the center of its head, i would have had some trouble as it would have killed it on the spot(maybe!!). I'll try to get some pics of the paw prints, bullet hole in rock and the scat.

That was more than enough fun for the evening:surrender:

Any idea what that load would have done if i had hit the bear in the head? Distance was mayve 35 to 40 yards.

 

[bdhutier]

lol, whose droppings, yours or his??? They'd have been mine had I run into him! :haha: :surrender:

Glad everything turned out ok!

 

[Travis Gregory]

I would say had you hit the bear in the head with that load you would have had a dead bear. My grandpa, back in the day, killed a bear up a tree with one shot from a .22 short right between the eyes. The bear fell out of the tree and landed on his best coon hound and killed it. I guess the bear had his revenge in the end.

 

[jtmattison]

Any idea what that load would have done if i had hit the bear in the head? Distance was maybe 35 to 40 yards.

Depends on the angle. You might have just given it a headache.

I'm glad you made it through the encounter without injury to you or your dog.

:thumbsup:

HD

 

[gmww]

A quick reference when spotting bear is the distance between the ears. The larger the space the bigger the bear. I've taken two black bears. Both with modern firearms. Spot and stalk in Northern BC.

 

[juancho]

I run into something similar last september while going after squirrels.Had my whippet with me (great squirrel dog, at least mine). I was walking the edge of a field when I saw two "too big to be a dog" animals.Looked thru my scope , and nearly pooped myself: two bears.I had a .177 airgun.Slowly and watching my back, I went to my truck and pulled my .54 flinter, loaded it with 75 gr PRB and went back for squirrels.
About an hour later my dog spots something and points at it in a funny way, sure enough, it was a bear.We were in heavy to moderate cover a good 15 to 20 feet from the edge of the field where the bear was standing.Cocked the gun ,put the bead between the eyes set the trigger and softly call my dog , all in a fraction of a second. I don't know what of all those thing brought the bear's attention, but there it was looking at me.
It all happend so fast that there was no time to be scared ,and all the while thinking (stupid me) I'm going to get in trouble , I don't have a bear tag. I was waiting for the smallest sign of the bear to move 1 thousand of an inch my way , and I would have touched the trigger off.Instead it lowered its head and walked away.a few moments later , so did we...

 

[PreglerD]

Good to hear that you came out well together with your dog.

I think the 40 grs Goex at 40 yds in the head would have killed him. At this close distance even a PRB load has about 800-1000 ftlps. Getting it in the head is deadly, even for a bear.

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[luieb45]

I went rabbit hunting this evening,


.
.
.
.
.



And ran into a bear :shocked2:

Im standing at the edge of a field and a BIG reddish/chocolate color bear is looking down at me. Thankfully i brought my big bad ass killer pitbull with me! My dog took off running after him and ran the bear a little before it stopped, grunted and started to turn.

Thats all i needed,

I shouldered the .50 kentucky flinter, took bead and put the ball just right over his head. He wheeled and hauled ass up the side of the mountain. I wouldnt be surprised if that sucker has a bald spot running down the middle of its head LOL.

It was a very interesting experience to run into. I was only loaded up with 40gr 3f goex and the .490 round ball. Great for rabbits out to 50 yards but not what i'd call a good bear load for a bear of that size!

I reloaded with shakey hands and upped it to 60gr 3f goex ( ran out of powder) and went up to the area where the bear was and looked around for blood but there wasnt any. The dog and i found its tracks ( very easy to trail a running bear!!) And i found today that my dog can trail! He had his nose straight to the ground sniffing and we trailed it all the way to the back of our property. We found what looks to be a dead coyote and possibly a turkey. That bear has been eating good it seems.

I never hunted bear before and dont know much about sizing but the head on it was huge and had tiny triangle shaped ears. I put my fist into one of its tracks and had a couple of inches to spare all the way around.

We went back to the area again and i was looking around for blood again just to double check and theres some big flat sandstone outcroppings and i found where my round ball hit. If i had aimed at the center of its head, i would have had some trouble as it would have killed it on the spot(maybe!!). I'll try to get some pics of the paw prints, bullet hole in rock and the scat.

That was more than enough fun for the evening:surrender:

Any idea what that load would have done if i had hit the bear in the head? Distance was mayve 35 to 40 yards.

How were you rabbit hunting at this time of year? Isn't that out of season?

 

[Kentuckywindage]

Its a term i use when my dog and i go out for a walk. I normally take my muzzy along with us. Rabbits are in season year round when in the garden.

 

[rkmeyer]

Fantastic story with a happy ending. :thumbsup:
Thanks,
Dusty :wink:

 

Neat experience. You'll always remember that one.

cheers,

 

[laufer]

considering the fact that you were armed and hunting out of season, even if the bar had attacked you, it would be yuour fault.
-hunting rabbits out of season, 6 month.
-killing innocent bear without being attacked by it, out of season and without a license- 1 yr.
-endangering public with ancient firearms for hillbillys- 3 yars.
-spreading droppings arround, without epa approval and certificate- 4 years.
have fun next time!

 

[Kentuckywindage]

-spreading droppings arround, without epa approval and certificate- 4 years.
have fun next time!

]]

:haha: :haha: Thats great! I actually havent seen a rabbit here in well over a month. I have noticed a lot more coyotes here lately, along with bobcats. Ive had bad experiences with bobcats too so having more of them around isnt comforting.

 

[laufer]

well, next time you go 'rbt hntng' w your dog, call it coyote hunting and bobcat research, and shoot them coyotes, so we are all clear that no member of this forum is involved in any illegal activities. :thumbsup:

 

[Kentuckywindage]

:haha: very true. The only problem is, i dont have a small game tag for yotes. This state makes you buy everything. Pretty soon they'll start charging you for the view of the mountains and the fresh air that you breathe.

 

[RC]

Great story! :thumbsup: good ending too.. :wink:

as fer a shot at the head,,,head on...with a round ball.....not me, I've seen rb's skid across deer's ribs,never break the skin....I'd bet you'd maybe upset him,an a headache....I'd a saved the shot in case he came TOO me....but dang cool experience! :haha:

 

[longcruise]

The only problem is, i dont have a small game tag for yotes.

Why not. :shocked2: Every hunter and fisherman I know buys a small game or fishing license or the combo before or immediately after the old one expires.

As for bears and bobcats, if they make you nervouse you might consider moving to the city where you (but not your pets :haha: ) are safe.

When I was twelve years old and older my job was to chase bears out of the yard that the tourists had habituated to hand outs. Kicking a beach ball at them turned out to be one of the most effective methods. Blacks of course, no grizz in the area and none in yours.

 

[Kentuckywindage]

shoot i havent even bought a fishing tag yet. To much stuff going on at home. And when youre turkey calling and a bobcat jumps on the back of your head and claws you, you do get shy of them when you see their prints. Not to mention that we also have the bigger bobcats out here.... Lynx.

I was cleaning the car out today and my dog was out with me and he got up and ran to he garbage cage area and started going nuts again. He kept sniffing the air to the west of us so i think that bear is in the area again.