Shot placement on black bear

if my caliber was suitable enough, I'd prefer to put one through the shoulders.

Usually it does enough damage to put the animal down for good.
 
On broadside shots, 1/3 up from the bottom of the chest, in line with the shoulder works well.

But if you are using good gear, (good bullets) any shot that can get to the vitals is a good one.

Last bear I shot was facing me, 260gr Accubond from 375 Ruger traveled from chest to end of bear, destroying all vitals on the way. He dropped and was down.:)
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll be using a Husqvarna M98 in 9.3x57 with 250gr TSX's at around 2200-2300fps, probably a bit slower than GH's Ruger, but penetration shouldn't be much of an issue. I hunt mostly in the thick stuff so I think I'm leaning a bit toward the anchoring shot as I've read a lot of stories on here of loosing bears due to lack of blood trail.
 
Workin Man said:
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll be using a Husqvarna M98 in 9.3x57 with 250gr TSX's at around 2200-2300fps, probably a bit slower than GH's Ruger, but penetration shouldn't be much of an issue. I hunt mostly in the thick stuff so I think I'm leaning a bit toward the anchoring shot as I've read a lot of stories on here of loosing bears due to lack of blood trail.
Click to expand...

yeah... I think it is something to do with the fur and fat.
 
Gatehouse said:
Last bear I shot was facing me, 260gr Accubond from 375 Ruger traveled from chest to end of bear, destroying all vitals on the way. He dropped and was down.:)
Click to expand...

Nasty shot placement. How'd you like field dressing that one?

images3.jpg
 
A bear is one animal that can be dropped easily when shot from behind, just aim at the root of the tail and your bullet will break the spine. When the animal is quartering the technique that I've discovered working quite well is to aim at the space between the front legs, come up 1/3 of the way up the body and fire. This hold prevent the bullet from hitting to far back or too far forward. If you are shooting from above - such as in a tree stand or from a rock out crop, aim behind the shoulder rather than on top of the shoulder as the heavy bones might cause a standard bullet to fail, a premium should hold together. From the excellent pic supplied by Goose25, we see that there is little for a bullet to hit in the top half of the chest, unless you luck out and hit the spine. Head on, if the bear's head is low aim forward of the shoulder and shoot him through the top of the neck, if the bullet misses the spine it will continue into the chest. If the bear's head is up, center the chest.

IMHO, it to be a mistake to consider the black bear not dangerous. If you are offered a shot that will drop the bear rather than letting him run into the thick stuff, take it. If you need to follow up be alert! When you approach your "dead " bear, don't make any assumptions, if your not sure, shoot him again. No, never mind that - just shoot him again anyway.
 
If you're hunting a grizzly, and you get to land a good lung shot with let's say a 30-06 180gr bullet that does NOT hit the heart. How far do you guys think I'll have to track him for?
 
Black bears were one thing that I hunted routinely for about 20 years. My preference is a quartering away shot through the lungs and out through the opposite shoulder. I have not had problems with double lung shots either, though. I have done a bang-flop instant-kill on a nice cinnamon with my Model 600 in 308 (180gr partition) from about twenty yards straight through both shoulders; I'm not really sure why it was an instant-kill, but it was. The head shot is good at close range, I've shot one at 15 yards and one at about eight yards, and as expected the head shot is "end of story right" right now. I've never found black bears to be overly hard to kill with good shot placement; but... I have seen one run 150 yards full speed after being blasted broadside with a .375 H&H 300 grain silvertip. That bear had just been spooked right before the shot, and I think that made the difference. The shot was good, butchering revealed the thing had no heart left at all, as well as a fist sized exit wound, but it still ran rediculously far.
 
put any razor sharp broadhead behind a bears shoulder into his lungs means a dead bear.. they aren't hard to kill..furthust I have seen one go was like 45 yrds.. closest was 7 or something

having said that im sure thats got more to do with the sound level between the two(bow rifle) going off
 
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Exellent overlay photo on the bb...I would NEVER advicate a rear shot on any bear..bb although not big can be tenacious and go a long way..break down that shoulder

Grizzlies dont NEED to go far 15 feet into the thick stuff and thats more "excitment" than 90% of new bear hunters could handle..brake down the shoulders

Steven
 
I shot lots of black bear 90% right in the head. If you want to keep a skull pop him in the neck with a hollow point.
 
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Maybe I should explain something . The bears we take are from tree stands.The shots are between 15-50 yards. A bear shot in the lungs or heart travels between 50-250 yards usually. Some of the best bears show up in the last 10 mins. of legal shooting time. The best bear baits are close to some of the thickest woods you can travel through. When Yogi gets shot guess where Yogi heads. If someone is a little inexperience or makes a bad shot, tracking in these g..d.. thickets with a flashlight looking for a dead or wounded bear is not on my top ten list of things to due. So say you don't find him that night, by the next morning the the bear is so bloated you can hardly get your knife in him to clean him and your meat is ruined. Now 1) if you miss a head shot you haven't wasted your tag or a good bear 2) if you can't put a bullet in a 3" circle with a rest from 50 yards you should pratice til you can before you go hunting 3) picture a line between the left ear and the right eye and another line between the right ear and the left eye, where these two lines intersect is where to aim for 4) don't try a neck shot with a slow expanding bullet, I've shot them in the neck with a .308 kor-loc and didn't touch the bone then used another round to finish and shot them in the neck with a hollow point without touching the bone and the bear dropped in his tracks and I would only recomend the neck shot from directly above where you can orient the spine. Thanks
 
A lower chest heart/lung shot is my preference for black bears. It's always worked for me as I hunt for the meat too. The longest distance runner so far was 18yds I think. But I shoot close and hit em pretty hard (with a 250gr. 35cal bullet between 2200 and 2450). So far one bullet is all I've needed per furry customer. From a tree you can aim at the same heart/lung area and sometimes hit the spine as a bonus - that is if the bear is standing looking away from you and you are looking down on it. That happened to me last fall.

I took a head shot once cause thats all I could get to see after waiting a while for better. The bear didn't go an inch after my 250gr Hornady RN said its "howdys". I don't prefer that shot placement though.
 
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