Best for Bear

The 3 you listed will all kill bears, however IMHO the .308 is the best of the three. Bears are tough critters & shot placement is critical.
 
lol 7.62x39 your more brave than me. I pack a 45-70 when im worried about bears
 
The bigger the hole the better.

While any of the guns you list will do the job, Fall bears have very thick fur, and are putting on alot of fat, 2 things that make for a poor blood trail, and can make tracking a bear a nightmare.

Of course we all wish for ideal shot placement and an instant dropped bear, but this is not the typical case.

If you are comfortable with the 12 gauge that would be my choice. Climbing out of the stand in the dark after hearing movement in the woods all evening, I feel much better with the biggest gun I have in my hands! ;)
 
Speaking from personal experiance I can say a 2" thru and thru hole made by a 180gr federal .308 from 20' away resulted in having to track a big fat fall bear a whopping 5'... The blood loss easily traceable... Infact it was like someone had turned a garden hose full of blood loose on the surrounding area....

But hey... A shotgun would probably work better.
 
People on here always talk about 12g is the perfect bear defense gun, that should give an idea....yes that's right! I turned this into a bear defense thread LMFAO! :)
 
A rifle may allow you to make a shot you would have to pass up with a shotgun. One bear I shot was on top of a rock outcrop, at a steep angle above me, and about 150 yards out. Given those conditions, the .308 is easily the best choice of your 3 options. As it was I got the deed done with a .303 loaded with 180s, but any .30 caliber cartridge from the .300 Savage to the .30/06 would have produced similar results if loaded with a similar bullet. Of course the cartridge the rifle is chambered for is only part of the question, the rifle itself must be suitable for this type of hunting. If your rifle is a 12 pound target rifle with a 26" barrel, topped with a 12X scope, there might be better options. But a .308 carbine that weighs between 6 and 8 pounds, and is topped with a small fixed power or a low power variable scope is almost perfect IMHO.

At one time I would have turned my nose up at the 7.62X39, but if you loaded one with a quality 130-150 gr bullet (read TSX/TTSX or the like), that can make 2200 or so, and is used within the effective range of your particular rifle, it would put a hide on your floor.

The short barrel 12 ga repeating shotgun has a fine reputation as a personal defense bear gun. But while self defense and hunting may appear to be similar on the surface of it, there are differences other than the reason to shoot. The primary difference is the range at which you may have the opportunity to shoot from, another is the level of accuracy that is required to make a shot at a partially obscured target. Either of these circumstances can cost you a shot if you're hunting with a slug gun rather than a rifle, but neither would come up in the self defense scenario. Of course the style of hunting you choose has an impact on your choice of gun as well, and from a stand or a blind over bait for example, a 12 ga would do as well as any rifle. While some of the black bears I've seen in the bush have been in thick cover, the vast majority have been along cut lines, power lines, railway tracks, across slews, or on lake shores, suggesting that even in a country where heavy cover is common, a longish shot is possible.
 
The SKS can do it with a 7.60X39mm round, just changed it a bit.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?747717-7-62x39mm-180gn-RN-bullets

So as you can see, this is totally a bear round and can be launched from your SKS at your defined range quite nicely. But you have to reload to get it there. I will see what I can do, there has been a bear around our place for a bit, not wrecking anything, but the dog scares it off. Maybe I will keep the dog in and I stay out one night. I would be extremely comfortable with my SKS loaded with these rounds.
 
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The area I'm in is kinda thick and hilly. The absolute longest shot would be probably less than 50 yards and more than likely I would be on the ground as opposed to a tree stand. The only reason I am considering going for bear is that there is one that has been coming to our camp and clawing on the cabin, the freshest marks are upwards of 7 feet from the ground and this has been happening for a few years now.

The guns I have available to me are; Mossberg 500 with 24" rifled barrel, SKS and Winchester 100 .308. The Winchester I actually haven't even got in my possession yet as it is still at my dads and I already know I have to do the firing pin recall and I am a little hesitant on using it until that has been done but would if it is the better choice. I do have a .270, however it is scoped and bolt action and I don't think this would be an ideal combination given the ground conditions.
 
.308 for sure.

I've killed maybe 20 black bears with a .308 shooting 180's, and it is a very effective combination. I've gone into thick bush with my little rem 600 in .308 after bear wounded by others and never felt undergunned. A broadside shot high in the front shoulders is extremely effective and has given me more bang-flops than any other shot.
 
Any of the three will put a blackie down without incident. One caveat, you need to use softpoint hunting bullets in the SKS, surplus FMJ is not the way to go.
 
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