45-90 Black Bear Bullet

[levernut]

Veral,
My Dad, son and I are going to hunt Black Bear in British Columbia next June.  I will be shooting a Winchester M71 that has been rebarreled to 45-90.  I plan on ordering an LBT mold but need advise on the bullet weight and correct harndess.  My first thought was a 350 WFNGC cast from W-W and air cooled, shot at about 2000 fps.  Does this combination make good sense?

Thanks for your help and for your great molds.

Brad W.

[Veral]

  It will bring your bear down but not as quick as an LFN started at no faster than 1600 fps, and use it on anything up to big brown bear and moose.  The length of a 350 gr is nice for getting accuracy, but that much weight isn't needed once it gets to the animal, even for moose.  Also, 2000 fps with 350 gr is going to make the rifle come back pretty hard, which is fine if you don't mind.

  Story time?  I loaded a 300 gr LFN to 1800 fps in the Marlin 44 mag, and took one deer with it.  The wound was bigger than I like, so the deer was able to bound around in a complete circle before expiring, whereas at velocites from 1450 to 1600 fps he would have collapsed in his tracks.  Also of interest.  The bullet hit the off side shoulder joint and pushed it out thru the hide, ripping a 2 1/2 to 3 inch hole in the skin, with the bone shards of coarse.  I had to load the 300 gr to 1800 fps to get stability at long range, and it is a sweat shooting rifle, though the stock end seems to bite a bit.  I selected that bullet and load because I can hit deer etc easily out to 400 yards with it, once I get the trajectory 'felt out'.  A better choice for bullet would have been a 280 gr loaded to 1600 fps, a speed where it stabilizes nicely.

  You've got a big cartridge because you thought you needed it, so will perhaps think I'm blowing smoke.  Ask me any questions you have and I'll relieve you on them.  But don't throw out your nice rifle.  Just load it so it's easy to shoot and enjoy it!

[levernut]

Veral,
Well, that answer was not what I was expecting but I wanted your honest opinion.  Kind of disappointed since I was all pumped up to take a bunch of recoil.  I have two concerns now.  One, I don't think my sights will adjust high enough to to shoot at around 1600 fps.  They are set pretty high now and I'm shooting at 1900-2000 fps.  The front sight is as low as can be purchased for the ramp style and heavy barrel.  Two, loading density might be higher (and better) with the 350 grain bullet but will it stabilize at 1600 fps, or are you saying use the 300 LFN and don't even consider the 350?

Why will the LFN kill better than the WFN if the LFN meplat is smaller?

Should I shoot the W-W bullets air cooled or harden them?

Thanks for your time.

[Veral]

  I definately hadn't considered your ability to adjust the sights to poi, but it is a valid concern.  I've found all the lever guns I've played with (except the Savage 99) to be very temperamental to bullet weight, with the poi changing dramatically with both weigth and velocity changes and I'm recommending both weight and velocity reductions!  I'm not sure how to tell you to solve the mistery of where bullet impact will be except that you purchase a few bullets of the weights I named and try them at the low velocity.  Whatever I make will be close enough that you'll be certain of being able to get sight adjustment.

  The reason the LFN will kill better, and at lower velocity, is that the speed I recommend keeps Displacement Velcity within or close to what I and thousands of customers have found to be optimum.  That is 100 to an absolute maximum of 135.  DV is calculated by measuring the meplat diameter in thousandths, multiplying my velocity and dividing by 4.  To make it easy to find optimum velocity quick, for any bullet.  Divide the meplat diameter by 4 and punch this into your caluclator memory.  Now multiply it by several velocities till you get the DV that you want. 

  By al means harden your bullets to at least 20 bhn.  We don't want expansion after calculating everything on the bullet being a solid.

  I don't believe you'd have any problem with stability with a 350 gr at speeds way down to even 1000 fps.  I have Marlin customers shooting 500 gr bullets at only 1400 fps with excellent accuracy.