School me on black bear hunting.

Ardent said:
You’re gonna give yourself a massive advantage with the .303, there’s no question between now and spring you can find a box of ammo. A bead sighted 12 gauge on a spot and stock puts you in the decidedly looking for a challenge camp.

Good odds your shotgun is going to shortchange you on a spot and stalk and send you home empty handed after a ten hour round trip, $45 for a box of ammo for the .303 of x54 is very well spent.
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That’s the thing it’s more like $70 a box now a days and none of it shoots worth a dam in my old MLE. I have some prvi and S&B on hand but not a lot and it’s all boat tail bullets when it should be flat base. I have thought about Mexican matching some hornady interlocks in there. The guns I’d really like to take are the snider or the .458 but I don’t have brass for the snider yet and no primers to develop a load for the .458 and I ain’t finding any North American rated ammo for that.
 
It's not that hard. It seems you just want to use your shotgun.

Every obstacle you listed is easily over come with a little time or a gun show.

Even the EE would supply you with your needs. Just try and find 25-100 primers locally. If you were closer if give you 100 primers and 25 .312 interlocks just to ease your pain.

I'll mail you the interlocks if you pay for shipping.

Snider brass can be made from 24g brass shells. (EE)

And your .458 wm doesnt need a load development. Use a good bullet, a power change just above the min load ( maybe 1/4 between start and max). Anneal the neck of the cases, do everything you can to make them the same ( they will work as good as any factory ammy in the gun, people hunt with factory ammo all the time.)

You could also Mexican match some surplus x54 using the interlocks or any 308-312 hunting bullet


You already limited to 75m ish with the slugs. Any of the rifle rounds listed above will shoot more accurate at 100m then the slugs at 50m
 
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Evanguy said:
It's not that hard. It seems you just want to use your shotgun.

Every obstacle you listed is easily over come with a little time or a gun show.

Even the EE would supply you with your needs. Just try and find 25-100 primers locally. If you were closer if give you 100 primers and 25 .312 interlocks just to ease your pain.

I'll mail you the interlocks if you pay for shipping.

Snider brass can be made from 24g brass shells. (EE)

And your .458 wm doesnt need a load development. Use a good bullet, a power change just above the min load ( maybe 1/4 between start and max). Anneal the neck of the cases, do everything you can to make them the same ( they will work as good as any factory ammy in the gun, people hunt with factory ammo all the time.)
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The factory ammo for the .458 is usually loaded for thicker skinned game than black bear I was going to see how campro 405gr flat points worked in a wet pack test but that was 6 months ago I do have some 350gr interlocks for that but only about 28 primed cases. Getting interlocks is not a problem alot of vendors have them it’s the primers I’m not willing to give into the price gouging that everyone seems to be doing doing so is only continuing the problem. Snider/martini requires a bigger press than I currently have and have been searching high and low for a good deal.
 
The other option I have is my Excalibur but that’s putting me into ranges closer then I’d need for the shotgun and would have to be over bait for bears anyway.

I am to the point where I’d even Mexican match surplus x54r with a soft point.
 
I bought a used lee "c" press of the EE for 40$ that I am going to drill and tap it for the 1" die bodies. So I can use my 500 Jeffery dies with ease. Maybe try the same thing and a cheap tap is about 20$ and will be fine as you are just taping cast aluminum.

And going from 7/8-14 to 1"-14 you won't even have to drill to tap size. The tap will just cut it out as it goes.

Yeah Mexican match the x54 with any soft point 125-180 gr soft point .308-.312" bullet. Make a few to to sight in
 
Evanguy said:
I bought a used lee "c" press of the EE for 40$ that I am going to drill and tap it for the 1" die bodies. So I can use my 500 Jeffery dies with ease. Maybe try the same thing and a cheap tap is about 20$ and will be fine as you are just taping cast aluminum.

And going from 7/8-14 to 1"-14 you won't even have to drill to tap size. The tap will just cut it out as it goes.

Yeah Mexican match the x54 with any soft point 125-180 gr soft point .308-.312" bullet. Make a few to to sight in
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Th .577 needs 1 1/4-12 dies I found a really nice old herters super model 3 cheap but it was threaded for 1 1/4-18. I could get 1 inch dies for both the snider and martini from ch4d but those are 3 times the price of the lee dies. Reloading is supposed to bring down the price of ammo heck for the .458 right now I have a lee loader and that’s it paid $20 for it I never even paid a dime for the rifle had some basket case motorcycles that someone wanted more then the .458.
 
Damn, they are big dies. My 460 weatherby and 43mauser uses 7/8" and my 500 Jeffery uses 1"

Well good luck man. I'm sure by season you will have figured something out.

This is my first year going bear hunting too. Me and my 6 year old son are going for a few, multi day trips over on the sunshine coast through out April and May.

I'll be using one of my Lee Enfield with 150gr interlocks at 2500fps
 
Evanguy said:
Damn, they are big dies. My 460 weatherby and 43mauser uses 7/8" and my 500 Jeffery uses 1"

Well good luck man. I'm sure by season you will have figured something out.

This is my first year going bear hunting too. Me and my 6 year old son are going for a few, multi day trips over on the sunshine coast through out April and May.

I'll be using one of my Lee Enfield with 150gr interlocks at 2500fps
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Nice to see someone else using a lee enfield think I’m going to buy some 174gr round nose pull the rest of my S&b down and give that a shot.
 
antiqueguy said:
The factory ammo for the .458 is usually loaded for thicker skinned game than black bear I was going to see how campro 405gr flat points worked in a wet pack test but that was 6 months ago I do have some 350gr interlocks for that but only about 28 primed cases. Getting interlocks is not a problem alot of vendors have them it’s the primers I’m not willing to give into the price gouging that everyone seems to be doing doing so is only continuing the problem. Snider/martini requires a bigger press than I currently have and have been searching high and low for a good deal.
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1 pack of 100 primers can be had for $30, you don't have to buy a whole brick..... I hear ya on the price gouging bit, but is your hunt not worth an extra $30 investment? I would hold out possibly if it was just a local hunt, but when you're investing a lot of travel, etc. into this, a few primers would be the least of my concerns to give myself the best possible odds of success. JMO
 
antiqueguy said:
Nice to see someone else using a lee enfield think I’m going to buy some 174gr round nose pull the rest of my S&b down and give that a shot.
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I used the same rifle on a fly in goat hunt last summer (8" Billy), I've also taken 2 black tailed deer with it. i also collect them and own quite a few original mlm/mle (long lees) a few LEC's, an original CLLE and am build a classic sporting rifle on a CCH LEC receiver. to make a long story short, I love Lee Metford/Enfields
 
antiqueguy said:
That’s the thing it’s more like $70 a box now a days and none of it shoots worth a dam in my old MLE. I have some prvi and S&B on hand but not a lot and it’s all boat tail bullets when it should be flat base. I have thought about Mexican matching some hornady interlocks in there. The guns I’d really like to take are the snider or the .458 but I don’t have brass for the snider yet and no primers to develop a load for the .458 and I ain’t finding any North American rated ammo for that.
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A .303 that shoots like #### is still several times the firearm a bead sighted shotgun with Foster slugs is. That’s $70 will be very, very well spent.

You’re already stacked with disadvantages in this, short hunt window, unknown place, no bait as per regional norms; I wouldn’t add another unnecessarily personally. :)
 
Evanguy said:
I used the same rifle on a fly in goat hunt last summer (8" Billy), I've also taken 2 black tailed deer with it. i also collect them and own quite a few original mlm/mle (long lees) a few LEC's, an original CLLE and am build a classic sporting rifle on a CCH LEC receiver. to make a long story short, I love Lee Metford/Enfields
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Mines a 1896 MLE that’s been sporterized been thinking long and hard about building it into a lee speed down the road. I’m on the look out for another early lee action for a project I won’t discuss here.
 
Ardent said:
A .303 that shoots like #### is still several times the firearm a bead sighted shotgun with Foster slugs is. That’s $70 will be very, very well spent.

You’re already stacked with disadvantages in this, short hunt window, unknown place, no bait as per regional norms; I wouldn’t add another unnecessarily personally. :)
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A 2 foot group is not something I’d call an advantage especially at $3.50 a pop this Lee is an old girl seen lots of cordite ammo and would be a better cast bullet shooter then a jacketed one. Flat base bullets work ok and should be minute of pie plate at 100 yards. wish we could still get the 215gr woodleigh soft points.
 
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Ardent said:
It’ll be worth every penny, a rifle is a far superior tool on a bear hunt. So much so that when I was guiding bears spot and stalk if I was asked by client to use a bead sighted 12 gauge and Foster slugs… politely I’d have to say use one of my loaners or lets put it off.
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Wondering if the m96 rifles in .30-06 would be safe at factory ammo pressure or not. I mean they have survived this long.
 
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