WHERE TO SHOOT'EM!

[Gowge]

Everyone talks about it...   Here's some useful diagrams you might like to copy to a file & print out...

http://www.remington.com/magazine/preview/2003_0512_where2hit.htm



If a bear is unaware of your presence, try a heart or shoulder shot. Shoulder may be best, as it’s likely to drop the bruin. (Shoulder shots also sometimes sever the arteries coming out of the top of the heart, going to the brain.)



A brain shot should be taken only when a bear is charging. The shoulder is a better and larger target area.


http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/hunt_trap/hunting/huntak/huntak16.cfm



GOOD LUCK!   [/b]

[Lawdog]

Any bear, from the smallest Black Bear to the biggest Polar/Grizzley that ever walked, deserves the respect given to any animal that can bite back.  They are all tough and can soak up a lot of punishment.  I always try for the shoulder to break down the bear.  Second shots may be required but that’s O.K..  Lawdog
 

[Gowge]

I agree 100%.   Too often, it seems I detect a certain degree of contempt for BEARS and HOGS that defies logic.    When talkin' about GUNS to kill bears or other dangerous game animals, someone always brings up one or several small caliber rifle rounds and claims of how many bears have been killed with them over the decades or generations....  

That's fine for others, but I want all the power I can handle when confronting a BEAR in the wilderness or just in the back forty!  

Take Care & always use enough gun!   :wink:

[oso45-70]

Gowge,
You can take it from a feller who has killed a fair share of black bears that you don't want to be under gunned. You talk about time warp. When a bear turns to face his tormentors,,, Time Flys. There can be more action in the next two seconds than you can imagine. Its Better to be over gunned than not have enough to do the job right. Thats just my opinion.
.........Joe........

[dabigmoose]

all bears
 There is only one time you could be over gunned and
thats when you cant hit anything with it and cant fire a second shot.
The shoulder shot is the best shot for hunters .
I shot a rather large sow 20 years ago that had 3 year old cubs
that a guy had wounded her and one of the cubs the sow stood up
and i shot her mid sternum with a 450 Alaskan it went through and broke her back she fell were she was. The 3year old cub already had a broken back and i shot him in the head to end the horrendous noise he was making the other cub I saw a year later and was doing well.
The guy that did the wounding well let say he had a little more than hurt pride after it was all done fish and game made him skin and haul the hides. He was someone  who thought he was shooting a black bear when he shot the cub in the back  and then had to shoot the sow in the gut.
with a 270 win. You have to practice with the large calibers but find
one a least appropriate for the animal not just slide by because you
get it in your head that by reading books and charts that you can get by with it. I used 30-30 to take many a moose and bear but that was in a remote alaska village as a kid but i can say most dropped because i was only 20 ft away and i could put 2 round a second in them if needed.
dabigmoose