Bear Load for 30-06

[rtroycheck86]

Looking for a good bear load for my 30-06 with the 180gr partitions I have a savage with a 22" barrel with a 1 in 10" twist rate

 

[1Shot]

56 grs IMR 4350 always worked well for me with 180 gr bullets in the 30-06.

 

[Guy Miner]

Yup, in recent years I've been using H4350 - it does a fine job in the ol' .30-06 rifle. Hard to beat the 180 Nosler Partition, a mighty fine game bullet.

 

[JD338]

I used 55.0 grs IMR 4350 with the 180 gr PT in a M700 BDL 30-06. Excellent accuracy for me.

I shot a black bear with the 150 gr PT years ago. Took out the shoulders and the bullet exited.

JD338

 

[rtroycheck86]

thanks guys I've only ever shot factory ammo out of the fun and have it dialed to just under an inch with 150gr remington core lokt

 

[6mm Remington]

IMR4350 always worked for me. I also believe that H4350 would be a good one. The Partition is excellent, but the 180 gr. AccuBond would work nicely as well. I'd use whichever shot best in your rifle.

 

[FOTIS]

56 grs IMR 4350 always worked well for me with 180 gr bullets in the 30-06.

+1 always worked for me

 

[Richracer1]

55.5gn of H414 worked great for me with the 180AB

 

[Murphdog]

My bear/elk/general purpose load is: 180 grain Nosler Partitions, Win cases, Fed 210 primers,Reloader 22-60 grains OAL of 3.335. I have not checked the velocity in this rifle but in my old rifle it was just over 2800 ft/s. I just shot a 3 shot group with my new Winchester Extreme Weather at .45".

Reloading guide #6 (as with # 4 and #3) list the max load of Reloader 22 and 180 bullets at 61 grains. On a very hot day that load would flatten some primers in my old rifle, nothing serious but a bit of an indicator.

This load and/or any other load that pushes the 180 grain PT to near 2800 ft/s will put down any bear that walks provided that you do your part. Not that It would be my first choice if I were hunting Bown Bears.

No problem breaking the shoulders on black bears resulting in Dead Right There (DRT). The last bear a shot, dropped on impact and never so much as twitched.

 

[Anonymous]

How big of a bear are you thinking? :grin:
http://www.noslerreloading.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=76882&sid=cd3826ddf6a94729070aa9d61160f06b

 

[3006savage]

I like 56 grains (max load) RL17 with the 180 grain AccuBond at 2800 FPS. Or better yet 54 grains RL17 max with a 200 grainer at 2720 fps.

 

[Elkman]

I always used 60 gr. H-4831, Winchester cases, and 180 PT. Several elk can attest to the effeciency of that load.

 

[rtroycheck86]

Ill be hunting Pennsylvania black bear they don't get real big but I still wouldn't want to tick one off

 

[Larry in SD]

I actually load 180gr. Nosler Partitions for a couple buddies .30-06's. Both rifles shoot the best of the loads I have tried so far with 56.0grs. of IMR-4350. I haven't tried H-4350 with the 180's but use it for their .30-06's with 150gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips with great results.

Larry

 

[Murphdog]

A bit of a bear hunting point; a bear's shoulder blade is narrower and farther forward then the shoulder blade of a deer. Lots of hunters, me included, have missed the shoulder blade becasue of the that. Granted even if you do miss the blade the bear is still going to be dead, it just means that it may be able to travel a short distance before going down. If your luck is like mine that means they have just enough left to get into some nasty tangled dead fall infested creek bottom, where they become a real nightmare to retrieve. Also if you have ever drug a bear out you will know that it is not easy even in snow. One trick I learned was to put a "S" hook in the bottom jaw and drag from that point. It keeps the head up, the hair going in the right direction and generally makes life a lot easier. If you have some snow it will not rub any hair off if you are careful about working around snags, fallen limbs, big rocks etc.

 

[JD338]

I agree, dragging a bear is much tougher than a deer. Its like dragging a 250 pound sack of potatoes. Black Bears are easy to kill, you just have to hit them right.
Here is a good reference link to Black Bear anatomy.
http://www.inberg.ca/hunting_essentials ... natomy.htm

JD338

 

[rtroycheck86]

This will be my first of hopefully many more bear hunts. I'm going to try a few of the loads that were posted here and will get back with results

 

[DrMike]

I agree, dragging a bear is much tougher than a deer. Its like dragging a 250 pound sack of potatoes. Black Bears are easy to kill, you just have to hit them right.
Here is a good reference link to Black Bear anatomy.
http://www.inberg.ca/hunting_essentials ... natomy.htm

JD338

That is a great site, Jim. Thanks for sharing the link.

 

[Murphdog]

When my daughter took hunters safty a few years back the instructor encouraged the parents to attend with the students. It was fun (had been a few years since I had taken the class; ok quite a few) while the basic message was the same the teaching aids were really cool. One of the aids was a bullet placement flip card for big game animals. The person doing the exercise placed an X on where they would shoot a given animal. Then a template of the anatomy was superimposed showing what orgins the bullet would impact. It was fun and I learned a lot including why I was missing the shoulder blade of black bears. If your point of aim is where you would shoot an elk or deer, you will miss the blade on a bear. Dead bear either way it is just that they can still travel some if the bone structure is not taken out. Also when you hit the scapula (shoulder blade) the bone fragments become their own projectiles creating a bullet mulitplier.

I learned this the hard way, having had to drag critters out of some very nasty places because they could still travel, always down hill and further from the truck. One particular small muley buck made it about 25 yards to the edge of a very steep hill and then proceeded to roll, slide, and tumbel about 400 yards to the bottom. He left pieces of lung all the way down. Took half a day to get him out. Had he died where I shot him we could have drove to within 25 yards and drug him out on the level. I thought my hunting buddy was going to kill me. He still whines about it and that was 30 years ago.

 

[3006savage]

Ill be hunting Pennsylvania black bear they don't get real big but I still wouldn't want to tick one off

Wow that is news to me! I always considered 700 + pound black bears pretty big. They typically take several that size each year. In fact several years ago two bear pushing 800 lbs were killed in the same township only a couple miles apart.