Bear Hunting Guns & Loads

Guns & Loads for Black Bears

Using quality ammunition with a premium-type bullet is the ticket for black bear hunting.

Your first bear hunt is always a memorable experience. Of course, you hear all the stories about bears and bear attacks, about how black bears are these giant, savage, rough-and-tumble animals that can take your best shot and keep coming. Being young and inexperienced as well as somewhat lacking in funds, new bear hunters usually have few rifles from which to choose and no option for buying a new one. A typical newbee setup is a battered old pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in .30-06. One hunter got technical with some thirty aught handloads featuring the 180-grain Nosler Partition bullet. This would prove to be a wise decision.

He was on a spot & stalk hunt in western Montana, a trip on which he saw far more elk and mule deer than bears. When he finally got his chance, he shot a medium-sized bear (about a 200-pounder) at 150 yards. The beast didn’t go 75 yards before piling up.

Since that time he has seen nearly 75 black bears taken with firearms of all shapes, sizes and descriptions. The two largest calibers he has seen used are the .375 H&H Mag. -- not an uncommon occurrence in Alaska or British Columbia when on a combination brown bear/black bear hunt -- and .338/.378 Weatherby Magnum, an incredibly powerful, flat-shooting cartridge as suitable for hunting small automobiles as big game animals. The smallest is the .243 Win., used by a Rocky Mountain deer hunter who happened to have a bear tag in his pocket when we glassed up a bear one crisp fall afternoon. After all that, he has come to believe that black bears are not an indestructible tank that can take shot after shot and keep going. Certainly there are tougher big game animals out there. But bears are bears, and a poorly-hit bear that escapes into thick cover and must be tracked can be bad news. It is a scenario to be avoided.

Match the Cartridge to the Hunt

Standard deer cartridges like the .30-06, which used on this Quebec black bear, make excellent bear medicine.

Generally speaking, black bears can be cleanly taken with most standard deer-hunting cartridges. The prudent sportsman will make his final cartridge choice based on the specific hunt he will be taking. Considerations include the type of hunt, the terrain, and the size of the bears expected to be encountered.

As we’ve seen, all black bears are not created equal. The average bear taken on many central and eastern Canadian bait hunts weighs maybe 150-200 pounds. That bear is nothing like the 300- to 500-pound tanks taken on the Alaskan and British Columbia coast, or the huge-bodied bears found in more southerly states like California and North Carolina, where 800-pound bears have been weighed on certified scales. Bigger bodies are better challenged with larger bullets and more kinetic energy.

Bears hunted on spot & stalk hunts or from tree stands and ground blinds overlooking large cornfields should be hunted with flat-shooting cartridge that permit precise bullet placement at extended distances. This is especially true in areas where the escape cover is thick as a coastal fog. On the other hand, where shots will be short – this includes most bait hunts and when you are following hounds, where shots will probably be less than 30 yards -- using a medium-velocity cartridge featuring a large-caliber bullet with a wide frontal section that makes a big hole makes more sense.

Specific Cartridge Choices

Accurate .30 caliber rifles make superb bear medicine. Bolt actions today much like this one shown above are actually based off the venerable German made 8mm K98.

Regardless of the size of the bears being hunted, the minimum cartridge should be some sort of .25 caliber, like the .25-06 or .257 Wby. Mag., using bullets weighing between 117- and 120-grains. Cartridges in the .270/.30-06/7mm Mag. class are better, and excellent for black bear hunting coast to coast. However, most hunters prefer a good ol' 30 cal or higher for the larger wound channel these rounds create. These include the .308, .30-06 (the all American rifle round), and the various .300 magnums. There’s really no reason to use more powerful cartridges such as the .338 Win. Mag., .340 Wby. Mag., and the like, unless you simply want to.

Perhaps the best overall black bear cartridges are considered “tame” by some experts. These are .348 and .358 caliber cartridges like the .348 Win., .358 Win., and .35 Whelen, rounds that use relatively heavy bullets with a large frontal section traveling at medium velocity. At the ranges where most bears are taken – 200 yards and under -- this combination produces a wallop that really gets their attention while creating a big hole that facilitates blood trailing. One of the most knowledgeable ballisticians around and an extremely experienced big game hunter uses an old repeater in .348 Win. with a classic peep sight that he absolutely loves to take bear hunting. He has proven its effectiveness many times over.

On hunts where you have to move quickly, and the shots will be short – hound hunts come immediately to mind – a light rifle that’s easy to carry makes sense. Many rifle hunters choose light lever action rifles chambered for classic cartridges like the .30-30, .300 Savage, .348 Win. and .358 Win. These rifle/cartridge combinations are also excellent choices for most bait hunts.

Rifle Action Types

For close-range bear hunting, bullets driven at medium velocities with a large front section are perhaps the best overall choice for the black bear hunter.

All rifle action types are suitable for black bear hunting. In this it is more important to use a rifle you are both familiar and comfortable with than picking up a new rifle just for the action.

Bolt action rifles are far and away the most popular in North America for all big game hunting. On hunts where shots might be long, bolt actions are highly accurate, extremely reliable, and offer a relatively quick follow-up shot. Single-shots are also good choices for open-country hunting. Deer hunters who have a pet pump action or autoloader in .30-06, .308, and the like need look no further when planning a bear hunt. And lever action rifles will get it done, too. In fact, a popular “pet” black bear rifle is a Browning BLR lever-action rifle chambered for the .358 Winchester cartridge topped with a Nikon Monarch 2.5-8X scope. When loaded with bullets weighing between 200- and 250-grains, this rifle is highly accurate out to 250 yards, and really lays it on them. They've used it on dog hunts, over baits, and some spot & stalk hunts with great results.

What About Bullets?

Regardless of the type of bear hunt you are on, use stout bullets. “Premium” bullets like the Nosler Partition and Partition Gold, Barnes X-Bullet, Hornady Interbond, SST and GMX, Winchester AccuBond, Speer Grand Slam, Swift A-Frame, and others of similar ilk are designed for both controlled expansion and deep penetration. Black bears have legs like steel pipes and thick, dense shoulder, back and leg muscles. These bullets are designed for maximum penetration while retaining a high percentage of their original weight, a superb combination for this type of physique as well as shot angles that are less than ideal. The last thing you want is to use a “soft” bullet that expands too quickly, fragmenting on the hide or just inside the shoulder muscles before getting inside the boiler room. And if you have to take a follow-up shot at the south end of a northbound bear, you’ll really appreciate the deep-penetrating design of premium bullets.

Popular bear rounds are some of the “classic” bullets designed for deer hunting and elk hunting. These include Winchester Power Point, Remington Core-Lokt, Federal Hi-Shok, Speer Spitzer, Hornady Interlock, and others in this class. These bullets penetrate well, expand rapidly, and retain a goodly amount of their original weight. Bullets to be avoided are those designed for extremely rapid expansion on smaller, light-skinned animals like pronghorn and small deer.

Finally …

Keep in mind that, as is the case in all big game hunting, shot placement is much more critical to your success than the caliber rifle you’re using. It is far better to go bear hunting with a rifle/cartridge combination with which you are familiar and shoot well than go out and buy a new rifle in a larger caliber that you end up being scared of or do not take enough time on the practice range to become competent with. If possible, make sure your rifle is "fun" in the way that you enjoy taking it out and putting holes in targets and cans with it. If you are terrified and wincing every time you pull the trigger, you probably shouldn't be using that rifle at all.

Cartridge Bullet		Velocity (fps)					Kinetic Energy (ft/lb's)
Name	Wt.	muzzle	100	200	300	400	muzzle	100	200	300	400
.260 Rem.	140	2750	2540	2340	2150	1970	2350	2010	1705	1440	1210
.270 Rem.	150	2850	2504	2183	1886	1618	2705	2087	1587	1185	872
.280 Rem.	150	2890	2624	2373	2135	1912	2781	2293	1875	1518	1217
.280 Rem.	160	2840	2637	2442	2256	2078	2866	2471	2120	1809	1535
7x57	175	2440	2140	1860	1600	1380	2315	1775	1340	1000	740
7mm-08	140	2800	2523	2268	2027	1802	2429	1980	1599	1277	1010
7mmm Rem. Mag.	160	2950	2745	2550	2363	2184	3093	2679	2311	1984	1694
7mm Rem. Mag.	175	2860	2645	2440	2244	2057	3178	2718	2313	1956	1644
.30-30	170	2200	1900	1620	1380	1190	1830	1355	990	720	535
.308	180	2620	2274	1955	1666	1414	2743	2066	1527	1109	799
.30-06	180	2700	2348	2023	1727	1466	2913	2203	1635	1192	859
.300 Savage	180	2350	2025	1728	1467	1252	2207	1639	1193	860	626
.300 Win. Mag.	180	2960	2745	2540	2344	2157	3501	3011	2578	2196	1859
.300 Win. Mag.	200	2800	2570	2350	2150	1950	3480	2935	2460	2050	1690
.300 Wby. Mag.	180	3120	2866	2627	2400	2184	3890	3284	2758	2301	1905
.300 Wby. Mag.	200	2925	2690	2467	2254	2052	3799	3213	2701	2256	1870
8mm Rem. Mag.	200	2900	2623	2361	2115	1885	3734	3054	2476	1987	1577
.338 Win. Mag.	225	2800	2560	2330	2110	1900	3915	3265	2700	2220	1800
.338 Win. Mag.	250	2660	2400	2150	1910	1690	3925	3185	2555	2055	1590
.348 Win.	200	2520	2215	1931	1672	1443	2820	2178	1656	1241	925
.358 Win.	200	2490	2171	1876	1610	1379	2753	2093	1563	1151	844
.35 Whelen	250	2400	2197	2005	1823	1652	3197	2680	2230	1844	1515
.375 H&H Mag	270	2690	2420	2166	1928	1707	4337	3510	2812	228	1747