Sometimes things go wrong and get screwed up...
- Thread starter CoryTheCowboy
- Start date
I've shot a lot of Black Bears [most for population control in orchard country]
The vast majority were shot with my 30-06 and either 165 or 180 Partitions.
Most were dead within 40 meters or so, but a few ran a considerable distance,
even with good lethal hits. Bear fat seems to plug up the holes, so a blood trail
is not easily seen.
OP, Glad you were able to recover yours. A lost animal makes you feel sick for
quite some time. Regards, EE
The vast majority were shot with my 30-06 and either 165 or 180 Partitions.
Most were dead within 40 meters or so, but a few ran a considerable distance,
even with good lethal hits. Bear fat seems to plug up the holes, so a blood trail
is not easily seen.
OP, Glad you were able to recover yours. A lost animal makes you feel sick for
quite some time. Regards, EE
I’ve shot a stupid amount of bears, between hunting for myself, problem animals and my trapping. Then there’s the ones for the hunters I guided (12 this year). One belief that I had from the beginning and still believe is that bears aren’t hard to kill but they are F ing hard to find. Your day would have ended differently if you would have took one or both shoulders and anchored it. Lack of a blood trail doesn’t surprise me at all, thats about what I would expect.Bears are blindly fast when they want to be, and 140 yards is just a blink of an eye them.
I know that sick feeling only too well, and I know that sick look on a hunters face. I’m not in a big hurry to experience either again.
I know that sick feeling only too well, and I know that sick look on a hunters face. I’m not in a big hurry to experience either again.
CoryTheCowboy
CGN Regular
I'll fully admit, I think it was a case of over confidence that this was going to be the easiest big game retrieval of my life that I just made a bad choice. I've spent enough time trying to track things in the dark that I should have known enough to try to bust both shoulders (and I had the opportunity) and just drop him.
I've also seen a lot of bears running away from things before, but you are completely correct, they're blazing fast when they want to be.
Cory
- Location
- Saskatoon Saskatchewan
Congrats on the bear. I once shot a Blackie hard quartering away with a 338rcm and he made it a crazy far distance on no lungs. Just an FYI its not legal in some provinces (here in sk for sure) to use a dog for any type of big game recovery. I don't understand the law and I don't love it but it is the law.
I never could understand the law either, thankfully we can legally use blood tracking dogs in Alberta now.
Cat
The last two bears I've shot have been at similar distances, one in a very similar situation, both smallish (okay one was genuinely small).
I shot both between both shoulder blades with bullets going ~2600 fps. 8x57 jrs at ~100 metres with a 196 privi cleared both shoulders, left some jacket on the offside and whistled on.
275 grain speer in 338 at 65 metres went through the neck/joint of both scapula in a straight line, I have never seen so much damage, it did not exit but somehow created a diagonal furrow along the ribs after leaving the offside scapula. The damage was extraordinary.
The bullet acted like a nosler partition on steroids, lost nearly 100 grains of soft point (a lot of it on the offside shoulder) and knocked the bear so thoroughly on its ass that it literally did not take a step. I had been concerned that this load was not moving fast enough, these concerns have evaporated.
Both bears required a finishing shot. The meat damage was not so bad on the 8mm but the 338 damage was extraordinary. I lost a lot of meat from bone shards and bullet fragments. The speer truly "broke" the bones, not just punched holes like the 8mm. There was also.a massive amout of blood in the chest cavity.
In spite of the meat losd, there's something to be said about not having to do any tracking when you're solo hunting bears in the evening. At the risk of sounding snarky I bet we lost a similar amount of meat but I had a lot less stress. Like your bear this was the fattest spring bear I have seen.
I imagine that load in the speer would have similar results at multiple angles, breaking lots of heavy bones, dumping lots of energy and causing catastrophic tissue damage.
I shot both between both shoulder blades with bullets going ~2600 fps. 8x57 jrs at ~100 metres with a 196 privi cleared both shoulders, left some jacket on the offside and whistled on.
275 grain speer in 338 at 65 metres went through the neck/joint of both scapula in a straight line, I have never seen so much damage, it did not exit but somehow created a diagonal furrow along the ribs after leaving the offside scapula. The damage was extraordinary.
The bullet acted like a nosler partition on steroids, lost nearly 100 grains of soft point (a lot of it on the offside shoulder) and knocked the bear so thoroughly on its ass that it literally did not take a step. I had been concerned that this load was not moving fast enough, these concerns have evaporated.
Both bears required a finishing shot. The meat damage was not so bad on the 8mm but the 338 damage was extraordinary. I lost a lot of meat from bone shards and bullet fragments. The speer truly "broke" the bones, not just punched holes like the 8mm. There was also.a massive amout of blood in the chest cavity.
In spite of the meat losd, there's something to be said about not having to do any tracking when you're solo hunting bears in the evening. At the risk of sounding snarky I bet we lost a similar amount of meat but I had a lot less stress. Like your bear this was the fattest spring bear I have seen.
I imagine that load in the speer would have similar results at multiple angles, breaking lots of heavy bones, dumping lots of energy and causing catastrophic tissue damage.
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It dates back to the 20s when banning dogs was seen as a conservation move. There is a strong movement going to change that, SWF advocates for it and so do a couple dog orgs. I think there’s even some pilot projects going on. Serious dog people (aka whacked out crazy dog people) are a different breed and scent trailing is already a sport. If there is one thing the WOCDPs (or the female wocadl, pronounced wocadoodle
) love its taking their game and making it relevant. Since I happen to share a roof with one of those I could have a blood trailing dog in the time it takes for a puppy to grow up a little.
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I've never shot anything with baseball size exit wounds unless it was a tiny animal like a groundhog.
Most big game animals I've shot have been with Hornady Interlocks or Nosler Partitions, .30-06 or .338WM, and I recover the bullets in the animal 85% of the time, usually against the hide on the off side.
I've shot a few whitetail deer, with complete pass-through shots, no huge exit hole. All the expansion happened in the lungs, not on the exit.
Same on moose. There was one exceptional situation where my buddy called a 50" bull right to 40 yards. Broadside shot. I hit it 4 times in the center of the lungs, every bullet went completely through. After each shot the bull took 1 step forward. Afterward there were 4 red streaks on the ground where the bullets had passed through. But no baseball sized exit holes. That was with 225gr Nosler P's,
Even the animals I shot with the .416RM, no exit holes, the bullets were recovered from the animals (400gr Hornady Interlocks). A black bear, at 28 paces, frontal shot, bull moose broadside shot 250 yards, 2 shots in the boiler room.
I also dumped a timber wolf with that bullet ~225 yard shot. That didn't hardly leave a mark on the wolf, bullet barely expanded just zipped right through a VERY DRT wolf.
I have seen baseball size and larger exit wounds on everything from coyote to moose. Check out this website.
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase.html?selected=wound research
One example
Another 45-70
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