favorite Black Bear cartridge

.300 savage 150gr Accubonds in front of 41gr of 4895. ah hell I never even shot a bear, I talking out my A$$! I'm sure it would work greaty inside 200 yards though!
 
For Blackies, anything from the 6.5x55 on up will do, but if pinned down, I would choose my 30-06 with the 165 or 180 Partition. Very effective Bear medicine. Many years ago, I was involved in a bear cropping operation, due to orchard damage. I shot a lot of Black Bears over a 3 year period. Practically all were shot with the 30-06, and very few ever needed a second poke. I did shoot a few with a 300 Savage, and a half-dozen with the 6mm Remington, but didn't care for the latter, since it needed a second shot to settle a bigger bruin down permanently. The heavier rifles work well, but are unnecessary for a blackie. Regards, Eagleye
 
My new .416 rem mag I just bought this afternoon. The one in the EE a Mauser M 03 Africa. Up untill today i would use a 340 wby or if I am on the coast I have a Stainless Synthetic in 7mm Wby mag.
 
I've shot 3 with a .308 and 165 gr. Partions. Shot 3 more with a .30-06 and 180 grain Hornady SP. And another 3 using a .444 Marlin and 265 gr. Hornady's. Good things come in threes, it seems. I've also taken one with a bow, so must have two more coming. :D

Of those combinations, it was the .30-06 that impressed me most with its versatility and authority. But the .444 was beyond impressive when used inside 100 yards. For the close stuff, it was the clear winner -- but I did have to pass on a couple opportunities when using that rifle due to longer shots that would have been fairly easy with the '06.

Just further proof, I guess, that an '06 loaded with a 180 grain pill is probably still the most efficient, inexpensive, modest-recoil combination that works on just about everything at just about any reasonable range.
 
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Ive shot the majority of mine with the 7mm Rem Mag, loaded with 160 grain Barnes X bullets. The results of this load needs not be questioned.

Now I use 30-06, and most likely 168 grain X bullets. I suspect I wont be able to tell the difference

:wave:
 
zg47 said:
This year...9.3x57 or 338/06
Click to expand...

ZG you are my best friend!:p

The way my Husky 146 toppled that bull moose with the 270gr Speers, boy would it lay the smack down on a bear running the origonal irons made it so quick to pull up.

I've shot but one Blackie so far. I used a 338-06 with 250gr RN Hornadys.
It was a bang flop, dead before it touched the ground-not even a flinch sort of event. A very clean kill, but also the most anti-climatic kill I've made too.
 
I've used a 338 WM, 45/70, 250 Savage and the most spectacular bang flop I've ever seen on a black bear was a 100 grain B-Tip out of my old 257 Wby at around 150 yards.
Buddy of mine shot a few with a 25 Gibbs, good bear medicine.

Pickles
 
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