Looking for good bear medicine. Rifle will be a 7600 pump. Looking for close to or max loads. I can figure out the rest. I was getting around 2600fps with 250s out of my .35 7600 I have a hard time believing 2500 is the max for 220s
220gr .30-06 loads
- Thread starter B
- Start date
I don't think you will get 2500 fps, 220 grain 30-06, with a pump gun. That's a pretty skookum load, even in a good bolt rifle. The only way I could get that years ago, was with H4831, but there is likely newer powders that would duplicate it.
If your are talking about black bears, and I believe in Alberta that is the only specie you can hunt, just go with a normal load for the 220 grain, which will work well through your pump gun, without jamming the action.
Another alternate would be to use a 30-30, they work great on black bears!
If your are talking about black bears, and I believe in Alberta that is the only specie you can hunt, just go with a normal load for the 220 grain, which will work well through your pump gun, without jamming the action.
Another alternate would be to use a 30-30, they work great on black bears!
- Location
- Vancouver Island BC
Looking for good bear medicine. Rifle will be a 7600 pump. Looking for close to or max loads. I can figure out the rest. I was getting around 2600fps with 250s out of my .35 7600 I have a hard time believing 2500 is the max for 220s
I loaded my Rem 700 30-06 with 56 grains of IMR 4831,it launched the 220 Hornady's at 2511 fps out of a 22 inch barrel. This data was safe in my rifle,it may not be in yours.
That sure sounds like a hot expectation.
Your request suggest that there is such a thing as a receipe for a max load. Not so. A max load must be developed in your rifle. What works in my 7600 might cause extraction problems in yours.
I doubt any bear could tell the difference between 2400 fps and 2500 fps. Don't start a fight with a bear you can't win - and a rifle malfunction could tip the balance in the fight. You don't want the max load. You want the reliable, accurate load with a full case of IMR 4350 or IMR4831.
2400 is a reasonable hope for your rifle, but only development will tell. I often find differences of 100 fps or more betweeen "identical" rifles.
Your request suggest that there is such a thing as a receipe for a max load. Not so. A max load must be developed in your rifle. What works in my 7600 might cause extraction problems in yours.
I doubt any bear could tell the difference between 2400 fps and 2500 fps. Don't start a fight with a bear you can't win - and a rifle malfunction could tip the balance in the fight. You don't want the max load. You want the reliable, accurate load with a full case of IMR 4350 or IMR4831.
2400 is a reasonable hope for your rifle, but only development will tell. I often find differences of 100 fps or more betweeen "identical" rifles.
"...Looking for close to or max loads..." You want the most accurate load in your rifle, not the fastest or heaviest. Not that you need a 220 grain bullet for Yogi(a 165 to 180 will do nicely), but max velocities run about 2400fps. IMR4350 or IMR4831 max loads just hit 2500fps. They don't on Hodgdon's site, but do in my old Lyman book.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Not necessary. USe a Nosler Partition in 200 grain and you'll be just fine. 220 grain 30 caliber bullets are throwbacks to the days when weight was the deciding factor in bullet efficacy. Now that Construction has usurped weight as the critical factor in bullet design, you need not "over-bullet" yourself.
I've never loaded 220gr bullets for any 30cal rifle, but I have loaded for more than a few 760/7600s and have been surprised time and time again at how heavy a load I could use in them and still have reliable function.
That said ...... I wouldn't get too hung up on velocity while using a bullet like that at close range. You may want to get a good recoil pad.
.
Some of the most accurate loads I have ever fired in my well tuned old Husqvarna with the Swedish Mauser action and Timney trigger, have been 220 grain bullets with a heavy charge of H4831 behind them.
I almost hate to say so, but in the days when we used to hang on every word Jack O'Connor wrote, he had some snippets on this. jack wrote that he was so fascinated by the accuracy of the big bullets with lots of H4831, that he shot off all he had of them on accuracy testing. Of course, I had to try it, and sure enough, my targets were exactly what Jack had described!
I almost hate to say so, but in the days when we used to hang on every word Jack O'Connor wrote, he had some snippets on this. jack wrote that he was so fascinated by the accuracy of the big bullets with lots of H4831, that he shot off all he had of them on accuracy testing. Of course, I had to try it, and sure enough, my targets were exactly what Jack had described!
ganderite said "----- Don't start a fight with a bear you can't win - and a rifle malfunction could tip the balance in the fight."
Mr. Ganderite, I wouldn't dream of questioning your knowledge of powders, pressures, shooting, etc. However, I may have to pick apart your talk of a fight with a bear!
In all my years of association with hunters, trappers, prospectors, bushmen of every type, and homesteaders who lived on wild game, I have never heard of one single case of a wounded black bear trying to attack the shooter. Winning a "fight" with a black bear just means killing it before it gets away.
When they get hurt, they just want to get away. They have very poor eyesight, so often don't know where the shooter is and they often make a running dash, usually in a straight line. And if that straight line happens to be in the general direction of the shooter, an inexperienced hunter may think he is being attacked. But he isn't, the bear is only trying to get away.
I have had this happen. I was standing on a brush pile of logging debris. Saw a bear and with my favourite 30-06 loaded with 220 grain bullets, I took a standing shot at it and made a poor hit. The bear made the usual mad dash, that happened to be in my direction. It actually came to my brush pile, didn't know I was there, and hid in the debris! I got down, went after the bear in the thick brush. When I was about three feet from his bum, he turned his head around and looked at me, before I finished him off.
I suppose some one will tell me their bears are different, but I know about the bears in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
Mr. Ganderite, I wouldn't dream of questioning your knowledge of powders, pressures, shooting, etc. However, I may have to pick apart your talk of a fight with a bear!
In all my years of association with hunters, trappers, prospectors, bushmen of every type, and homesteaders who lived on wild game, I have never heard of one single case of a wounded black bear trying to attack the shooter. Winning a "fight" with a black bear just means killing it before it gets away.
When they get hurt, they just want to get away. They have very poor eyesight, so often don't know where the shooter is and they often make a running dash, usually in a straight line. And if that straight line happens to be in the general direction of the shooter, an inexperienced hunter may think he is being attacked. But he isn't, the bear is only trying to get away.
I have had this happen. I was standing on a brush pile of logging debris. Saw a bear and with my favourite 30-06 loaded with 220 grain bullets, I took a standing shot at it and made a poor hit. The bear made the usual mad dash, that happened to be in my direction. It actually came to my brush pile, didn't know I was there, and hid in the debris! I got down, went after the bear in the thick brush. When I was about three feet from his bum, he turned his head around and looked at me, before I finished him off.
I suppose some one will tell me their bears are different, but I know about the bears in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
I do all my camping and hiking in Northern B.C. so Grizzlies are a concern as well. I think I will go with the partition and get some practice instead of pushing a 220 faster than I should. Thanks for the advice.
What I know about bears comes from an Ontario gov't project involving arming bush workers and pilots. Bush workers needed bear defense. Some of the project workers had survived bear attacks. Some attacks came as surprise attacks from the back.
Survival rate of surprise attacks on armed workers was about 50%.
You were thinking of hunting situations. I defer to your experience about wounded bears running away in hunting situations.
I was thinking of the close quarter defense fights I heard about and was thinking of what a bad time it would be to have a head separation (of the case).
Survival rate of surprise attacks on armed workers was about 50%.
You were thinking of hunting situations. I defer to your experience about wounded bears running away in hunting situations.
I was thinking of the close quarter defense fights I heard about and was thinking of what a bad time it would be to have a head separation (of the case).
It's the bears that have become used to people that are the dangerous ones. Predator attacks, otherwise known as bears attempting to eat you, is the great danger.
Until into the 1970s, or thereabouts, black bears had no legal protection in BC, and I think some other provinces. Until then they were considered either predators, bad killers of moose calves, or just plain vermin. Thus, we shot at any bear we felt like shooting at. Accordingly, the bears knew that any human represented a severe danger to their well being and wouldn't get anywhere near a human.
Virtually zero danger of any bear attack at that time, except from the protected bears in parks.
Until into the 1970s, or thereabouts, black bears had no legal protection in BC, and I think some other provinces. Until then they were considered either predators, bad killers of moose calves, or just plain vermin. Thus, we shot at any bear we felt like shooting at. Accordingly, the bears knew that any human represented a severe danger to their well being and wouldn't get anywhere near a human.
Virtually zero danger of any bear attack at that time, except from the protected bears in parks.
