What weapon are you Bear hunting with this year? Anything with iron sights?

[teddy12b]

I leave Friday morning and I'm getting ansy.  All the last minute minor details floating around in my head.  My two hunting buddies are taking bolt action 30-06's.  I'm taking a Remington 750 30-06 and just in case something were to happen to any of the rifles, I'm going to bring along my puma 92 44mag.

I'm curious about what weapons people are taking with them for this years hunt. 

I'm also curious if anyone is planning on using something with iron sights only and not a scope.  The reason I'm asking is that I'm thinking of painting the front and rear sights on my puma 92 44mag white with some of the wifes nail polish.  Anyone else do that?  My current iron sights are black as night and lining them up on a black bear may be a little too hard.

[Redhawk1]

My primary is going to be my Slug gun, with my Marlin 45-70 Guide guns as a back up to the shotgun, just in case anything happens to the shotgun.. I will also have my 510 GNR in the holster.

[S.E.Ak]

My bear guns are all single shot and have peeps.Most used is a Ruger #3 45/70,H&R 45/70,H&R 454 casull.Pistol is Ruger Alaskan 454casull

[melsdad]

I plan to take my Marlin 336 30-30 with a skinner peep sight set-up shooting 170g winchesters super x ammo.

My back-up to this will be my Winchester 1300 Black Shadow 12 gage, rifled barrel, open sights shooting 3" Remington Copper Solids.

[barber]

  Ruger SRH .44  mag

[Siskiyou]

I am twisting in the wind on this one.  But one thing for sure is that I have a bear tag this year, I bought mine Monday. 
At this point the take of a bear will be incidental to deer hunting, but we are hunting in an area with a bear population.  I had to pass on a nice one last year because I did not have a tag.  The day I went by the fish and game office it was closed because the governor had furloughed them. 

The year prior a bear had cleaned up the gut pile from my deer taken the day before.

My # one rifle will be a Savage 110CL loaded with 130-grain Barnes TTSX. 

My # two rifle is still tossing in the wind.  I have been practicing with a 243 and a Marlin 30-30.  The Marlin has been problem free and I like the 2-7X35mm Burris scope on the 30-30.  I was shooting both at the range Monday morning and both are good.  I had brain fade when I left my target on a backing at home so I had to use one at the range.  I placed Birchwood Casey target on top of a used target and taped the old holes.  I fired the 243 and patched the holes and then I switched to the 30-30.

The upper group is from Hornady 160-grain factory ammo.  The high flyer was the first round and I adjusted the point of impact down for the next three.  The group is satisfactory and I did not want to shoot a lot because that ammo is a little pricy. Point of aim was the center orange dot using the top BDC crosshair.  Knowing that my 150-grain Hornady RN handload shoots lower at 100-yards I used the ballistic mark next down from the main crosshair.  The aiming point was the lower orange dot on the target.  According to the reloading manual this load puts the 150-grain bullet out at about 2300 fps.  One of these days I need to fire it across the Chrony.



http://www.burrisoptics.com/fullfield1.html#2x7x

My hunting partner will be carrying his long favored Winchester 30-06.  He has others but when hunting season comes around I will put money on him taking his favorite rifle.

I have sighted in the iron sights of both of my rifles, but I will use scopes.

I have taken a bear using iron sights, but I had much younger eyes and everything was black and white.

[Empty Quiver]

Dropped my bear sunday afternoon with a 1895 Marlin, loaded with LeverEvolution ammo. 30 short yards later lay my bear with two broken shoulders and gellied lungs.  She was a good 250+ sow, and voiced no complaints about gun or bullet either one!

[Ron Miller]

I'm using my 375 h&h @ 75 yards my group looks like a 4 leaf clover

[Bigeasy]

I picked up a Bushnell 3200 scope with the Fire Fly cross hairs last year, and I'm thinking it might be the perfect bear scope.  A clear, low powered scope is hands down better when the light in the deep woods is fading then iron sights, especially for those with middle aged eyes. The glow in the dark cross hairs are the icing on the cake, especially against a dark target, with no batteries or electronics to worry about.  Just charge it with a flashlight about an hour before it starts to get dark.  If you intend to use iron sights, fibre optic sights work well in poor light.

Larry

[1911crazy]

I'll be using my '94 remington 700 BDL in 338win mag w/scope and winchester super x 225gr ammo which i can put two bullets thru the same hole at 100yds.  I only need a scope for a low light shot otherwise irons would be ok.  I have a bushnell scope with BDC/AO out to 500yds with no error, hold over or guessing needed. For some reason they go up in the air and drop dead on the spot in the dead cocaroach position(upside down) we never had to look for one yet.

[chefjeff]

If we are dogging I carry a rem.760  '06 with a buck buster peep(larger hole) 180 gr. rem. soft point. It has a skinny sling with a two cartridge /compass /lighter/ holster attached. For stand hunting I use a '06 BAR w/boss. Camo taped,Leupold topped.Same bullet. I've shot five with it ,none traveled far.

[Sourdough]

NEF Handi rifle in 30-06.  Pentax 3X9 scope.