How to kill a bear quickly?

[joshb]

In 45-70 or 500 S&W !!

I’d carry this Siamese Mauser in 45/70. It can handle pretty hot loads and is magazine fed. I don’t think I’d feel the recoil if I was being charged by a bear.

 

[wbm]

 

[ebb]

Browning BAR in 338 win mag

 

[dave@aDave]

I have exactly zero experience with bears.

But if I remember correctly, there was a story some years ago about a great white hunter who lived with Eskimos for a while. They seemed to prefer a small caliber rifle. Smaller than .30.

Shot placement probably had some effect.

Any one hear of this?

 

[wwbrown]

I have exactly zero experience with bears.

But if I remember correctly, there was a story some years ago about a great white hunter who lived with Eskimos for a while. They seemed to prefer a small caliber rifle. Smaller than .30.

Shot placement probably had some effect.

Any one hear of this?

Years ago I was helping a trapper pull some nets for fish just inland of Hudson Bay on the Hayes River and was given the choice of a SxS 12 gauge with slugs and buck or a 303 Enfield, I chose the 12 gauge he the 303. Polar bears were the only flavor of bear in the area and I wanted to punch a bigger hole should the need arrive. I do know that Inuit (what eskimos call themselves) carry a lot of 243 and use them for everything from seals to Polar bears. I think it is an issue with go with what ya' got rather than choice.

I have a very healthy amount of respect for Polar bears, all you have to do is see the size of tracks and know they are preferably carnivores and you are just another choice on the menu.

 

[DGP4]

humm..inherited gun and no knowledge of hunting or shooting? My advice is a short barreled shotgun with slugs. Don't try any long distance shots. Go to a range and practice shots at 25 yards.

 

[LA50SHOOTER]

This with a Lyman #2 cast 440 gr WFN and a decent charge of Lil-Gun

 

[jaybray]

Jaybray..... I wonder if the results with your buddy's bear being shot at 13 yards would have been different if shot with the 00 buckshot... probably not... unless shot in the head...maybe. It seems like the big question should be..."what will stop a bear in it's tracks" because if it does not do that... you become food. The reason to shoot it is to make it stop it's charge on you. The bullet and the blast is suppose to make it change it's mind. I'm sure that most shots on charging bears are ONLY doing that... making it change it's mind... making it turn away. It can be shot full of holes, yet still have the ability to make your lunch... or at least tear you into bread slices. It seems that just using a caliber that will eventually kill it... if it changes it's mind... but NOT really stopping it in it's tracks is a gamble... and those are HIGH stakes at 13 yds. Good thing it worked out for his buddy. It not sure a load of buckshot in the chest would have produced different results. So if you want to gamble on changing it's mind only, then shoot whatever is in your hands... even a shotgun.... but if you want to stop it, then a head shot is your only option... and that option had better be with a weapon that you can place accurate shots at on a charging bear, while your panties are filling up...LOL.

So i vote for a riot shotgun full of buck shot that can be QUICKLY put into action.

When I bowhunting for Sikka Deer on Kodiak Island with Wade Nolan several years ago.... we all had riot shotguns within quick reach from our backpacks.

It's amazing how many big brown bears on are that Island.

I was glad I came off that Island with clean shorts...LOL.

PS... even David learned that if you want to bring down a Giant... you better hit'em in the head.

Yes 13 yards is high stakes big time. It was a total fluke that he run into this bear at all let alone at such close distance. We have lots of Grizz in my area but not many of the size that he shot and they are hard to find on a good day. Him and I discussed what if you were just a hiker that day going for a nice walk and this bear came out of the bush sniffing the ground 13 yards from you? Well I am pretty sure it would have turned out to be a very bad day. As far as 00 buck shot of a slug it's hard to say if it would have dropped it in it's tracks. 300 Win mag at that distance it quite a wallop and I'm sure a head shot would have dropped in in its tracks.

 

[Steve Blair]

The quickest way to kill a bear is to put the Federal Government in charge of saving it.

 

[dave@aDave]

White King (a Polar Bear) is stuffed and mounted in the entry of the Commercial Hotel in Elko, Nevada.
At least he was in 1965 when I last stopped there. I believe he is/was about 10 feet tall and weighed about 2,000 lbs. I think there was a information plaque that said that he was shot with a 30-30.

 

[rjtfroggy]

The easiest way is an 18 wheeler doing 75mph on I-80 going through the Poconos.
I saw it happen about 12 years ago and it was instant death.

 

[searcher]

I suggest a .500 Nitro Express double rifle - if you miss, the concussion will ease the pain of the bear chewing on your leg.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Pshhhh...

Claymores.

THIS SIDE TOWARD ENEMY

(includes bears)

 

[MagnumManiac]

I know of a couple Inuit hunters when I was in Churchill Canada 30 years ago that hunted seal, Polar bear and Reindeer with Sako L461 rifles in .222 Rem. That’s all they ever hunted with. The only modern thing they used at the time were snowmobiles instead of sleighs and dogs.
Very interesting way of life they have.

To the OP, easiest and fastest way to KILL anything is a head shot. To ANCHOR a bear a spine hit through the high shoulders works well, as does a frontal shot under the chin if coming straight on.
In a charge, what you want is a hit that either turns the bear or drops it right there.
Even my 375 Weatherby with 300gr pills at 2800fps rarely ever dropped a bear right there. They run unless the CNS is directly broken.
It’s all about WHERE you hit ‘em, not what you hit ‘em WITH.

Cheers.

 

[KY_Windage]

It’s all about WHERE you hit ‘em, not what you hit ‘em WITH.

Well, yes and no.

The "we" in this 1940's book was Connie and Bud Helmericks. Connie moved back to civilization early on but Bud stayed, remarried and raised kids on the north coast of Alaska. One of those kids told me the story of how he and his dad were grouse hunting one day when he was very young and they got charged by a grizzly. All Bud had was his .22 so he shot the rapidly closing bear with it, one shot, and dropped it dead in its tracks. The skull with the tiny hole in the front laid around the yard for years and was quite a topic for conversation among the polar bear hunters Bud guided in the 60's.

On the other hand I once had a big brown down on Kodiak Is. and shot it in the neck from the side at about 40 yards to try to finish it off. I missed the spine, however, and the perfectly mushroomed 250-gr. Silvertip from my .338 WM was lodged under the skin on the far side.

I hunted deer on that island with my old .30-06 for many years after that, but I never felt real good about it when I ran into a bear. A big brown has incredibly large and dense muscles. Even if you manage to miss all the bones they are hard to penetrate. Fortunately I never had to do more than talk to the ones I ran into while deer hunting, if that. Most got out of Dodge as soon as they saw or winded me. The others ambled off without causing trouble.

There were some other guys, like Gene Moe, who were not so lucky. He got jumped while boning out a deer alone on Raspberry, the island just north of Kodiak. He got chewed up pretty bad. Some others got killed. It is a good idea to keep a well-armed partner within earshot, in case your theory on what it takes to kill them proves to have holes in it.

 

[Intheshop]

Offer him a cpl of my wife's biscuits......

Where's Henny?

 

[DGP4]

According to the accounts of the 1953 record grizzly kill by Bella Twin with a single shot .22, she shot it on the side of its skull between the eye and the ear. A head on shot with a .22 would probably just bounce off the skull of a grizzly. I probably would have soiled my pants and become brunch. There are pictures of the bear's skull here:

Bella Twin, the .22 Used to Take the 1953 World Record Grizzly, and More

On 10 May, 1953, Bella Twin was hunting small game with her partner, Dave Auger, along an oil exploration cutline south of Slave Lake. She was 63 years old.

www.ammoland.com

 

[Superjet]

Shoulda bought the beach house instead!

 

[perazziguy]

How fast can you skin a griz pilgrim?!?

 

[Knotwild]

Read the posts and it seems like they are too hard to kill. Maybe the question is "how to get a bear to do an instantaneous 180". Of course I've never seen one in the wild.