Our black bear rifles, 2017

Young John and I have done well on our spot and stalk black bear hunts here in Washington, once we figured bears out, in 2010.

Last year I managed to call a bear in with a mouth-blown predator call, to about 15 or 20 yards, and it was AMAZING! I was so pumped, even though I didn't shoot it. John wants me to call a bear in to that close range for him this year. I'm going to try! He's taken two black bear but they were both longish shots at about 150 and about 320 yards, with his .30-06 rifle.

This time he has selected the .30-30 Glenfield topped by the little 2.5x Leupold and 170 grain ammo. I suspect we may just use Federal factory ammo, as it shoots so well from the little lever action.

If I take a rifle, I'll be back to the ol' black bear slaying .375 H&H Ruger Number One which is now topped by a 3x Leupold. Am looking hard at a pile of 270 grain Hornady Round Nose bullets, and also some ancient 270 grain Nosler Partitions. Probably load either to a modest 2600 fps or so.





Hunting area is maybe a 30 min drive from home. Season opens August 1st. We'll be hitting the range fairly regularly before then.

Guy

I'd like to call a bear in...sounds like fun.

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5shot":2p91pj4l said:

I'd like to call a bear in...sounds like fun.

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It was flippin' incredible.

I've called in coyotes quite a few times. Trying to call in coyotes, I've called in mule deer, and the ranchers great pyreness dog... Glad he remembered me!

The bear... That was new to me! And incredibly cool. Instead of the usual jovial black bear, this one came in with an attitude. He was looking for something to kill and eat and was terribly disappointed to find two armed people... :grin:

It was quite the experience!

Guy

I had a video by Wayne Carlton, and he called lots of them in. It was titled "They come to Eat"! They are pretty aggressive when coming in to a call. They don't come from far away though. They have to be pretty close by and you usually have to call continuously...when you stop calling, they stop coming.

There's some spots here, up North of Spokane, that look like great places to call.

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You will definitely be armed with a couple of fine rifles that will handle bears. Best of luck to you and your son.

Great choice for rifles and to call in a bear is my goal as well Guy. I had a friend call a bear right into the pickup truck they were sitting in the back of. Guess he was looking for something to eat too!

I think that M70 375 is begging to hunt!!!

Sounds like a great bear line up.

The easy thing to do, would be to grab the .30-06 and a magazine full of 200 gr Nosler Partitions. I've still got a box of them loaded to 2600 fps. The rifle is zeroed. I like the way that long bullet worked on the wolf and bear up north...

But I miss hunting with the Number One, it didn't get out last year at all. Besides, I've got to do SOMETHING with those old, blunt-nosed 270 gr bullets.

Guy

SJB358":1x1av3fp said:

I think that M70 375 is begging to hunt!!!

Sounds like a great bear line up.

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If I do that... I might remove the scope and go with the cool express sights...

Guy

Guy, I hope that you and your son have a great time and I image getting up close and personal gives black bear hunting a whole different meaning .
Using a predator call would likely put them into a different mode than just glassing and stocking?


Blessings,
Dan

sask boy":1pmnpgms said:

Using a predator call would likely put them into a different mode than just glassing and stocking?


Blessings,
Dan

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Hey, Dan, it's cheating to "stock" bears. :evil: Here in BC we are forced to stalk them. :?

sask boy":kp3pt8s1 said:

Guy, I hope that you and your son have a great time and I image getting up close and personal gives black bear hunting a whole different meaning .
Using a predator call would likely put them into a different mode than just glassing and stocking?


Blessings,
Dan

Click to expand...

My scant experience in calling a bear, only one ever, last summer... Yes, he came in looking for something to kill and eat.

His whole demeanor was different. He was hunting.

We had a short standoff while I decided if I wanted to shoot him. Or needed to shoot him. Or if I could let him go. He was trying to figure out what happened. He'd come in looking for a hurt deer... And instead there's two people with guns! :grin:

He wasn't as big as I'd hoped for, maybe 200 pounds? And a week or two later I did get a bigger bear on a spot & stalk hunt. I was glad to see him turn tail and go back into the brush, he was only 15 or 20 yards from us!

One thing I learned is that I need to select my calling site better. There should be more clear area around, so I've got more of a chance at a 30 or 50 yard shot, not a 15 yard shot. Though that was exciting!

Another interesting thing. He didn't leave the area. We heard him breaking a twig or two and rustling through the bushes for at least 10 or 20 min after he went back into the brush. Was he continuing to hunt for the "hurt deer" ? Was he trying to figure out how to get closer to us?

I wasn't sure, and not wanting to shoot him, we picked up and left. I played "tail gunner" on our walk out, in case he decided to come. He didn't. I was being quite cautious. I'd never seen a black bear look and act that predatory.

Guy

Took the .375 H&H Ruger Number One to the range today to sight-in the "new" old 3x Leupold.


First shot cracked me up! :grin: The 235 grain Speer soft point landed literally an inch left and high of the bullseye. This is from a scope I just slapped on the rifle with no adjustments, no bore-sighting, nada.

Wow! I hadn't loaded any 270's yet and started thinking "Maybe I oughta just use the 235's" Hmmm...

Took a second, and a third. All was well, grouping nicely. Then I noticed the glossy scope was slipping forward in the rings. Sigh. Didn't have tools with me, so I set it aside. I'll deal with that this afternoon. First time in quite a while that I'd fired the Number One, and it sure felt good.

Next up was the .30-06 Rem 700 CDL that recently accompanied me to Alaska. I had a box of those 200 gr Nosler Partition handloads left over, and decided to check the rifle/scope zero to see if all was well after the 4,500 mile round trip. YES. All was well. Three shots fired in fairly rapid succession landed in a bit over an inch, nicely centered about 3" above the bull at 100 yards. Ya, I'll take that.

So either way, .30-06 or .375, I think I'm looking pretty good for bear season which starts in one month! Won't be any problem at all to rectify the sliding scope problem on the Ruger.

Guy

MY WEATHERBIES ARE ITCHING BUT VERY HARD TO GET A TAG IN SE Wyoming