Black bears and slugs

[andrew]

I am trying to decide on what to take on this years bear hunt and have thought of another opyion besides the 30-30 and 45/70. How well would a short barreled slug gun work with the modern sabot slugs available today? I will be using hounds in this hutn so shots will be short.

[RIFLEMAN]

andrew,

### ### Having never taken a bear with a shotgun and slugs, but having extensive experience taking bear with hounds, I can only speculate on your question. ###Though I prefer a .30-30 or .357, I would imagine that this would be an effective choice. ###As you mentioned, the range will be very short so a head or heart/lung shot with a sabot would do the job. ###Of course, head shots would be out of the question if you wish to have the skull scored and/or mounted. ###

### ### One thing that may be a disadvantage is if the bear is bayed on the ground. ###I am not sure if you are going to be guided but I thought that I would put this out there. ###Though many guides will not allow a client to harvest a bear that is on the ground, if you are given the opportunity to do so, the utmost care must be taken to ensure that there are no dogs on the other side of the bear in case the slug passes clean through. ###Like I said, I have no experience using slug guns for bear, but I thought that I would caution you regardless. ### ###

[Hntrjohn]

I have never shot a bear with a slug, but I have shot a hog before. When that 1 oz sabot hit him, it went staight down for the count.

John

[RIFLEMAN]

Hntrjohn,

### ### I am curious...where did you hit him and did it exit?

[davered1]

andrew,

I have killed countless bears with all kinds of guns.I use my blackpowder(.54 cal) with 100 grains of pyrodex and a 240 gr saboted bullet on about 60% of all my bears(30/06 on the big ones). I hunt using the spot and stalk method as it works extremely well in early spring when bears are out on snow slides eating the "greens" available.

That blackpowder load does wonders on a bear,It is reasonably comparable to a shotgun and slug.The key is stalking to within 50-75 yards from the bear and make a clean shot.Be ready for another shot though ,they can be hard to kill.

That is hunting

[Hntrjohn]

The slug went in just behind the shoulder on the near side and came out through the shoulder on the far.
It was probly a little under 50 yard shot.

John

[RIFLEMAN]

andrew,

### ### In light of Hntrjohn's comments about the exiting of the slug, I would use caution if you attempt to shoot a bayed bear.

[hyrider]

I grew up hunting bears with hounds and I have shot serveral bears with slugs and have seen bears shot with a lot of different calibers. The shoutgun slug is/was one of the best for stoping or knocking down a bear. I have seen bears shot with .270s and 30-06s and travel about a 100 yards before going down or fight the dogs for two or three mintues. My first slug gun was an H&R 16ga single shot, I had the barrel cut down to 20". When people saw it they thought I was crazy, I told them it didn't matter where I hit a bear, it would knock them down so hard I always had time to reload. ###I later upgraded to a S&W 12ga pump. Today a lot of the bearhunters are using, 45-70 or .450 Marlin something that puts out a 300+ grain bullets.