It has been cold and snowy here in central NY as it has across much of the nation this year. The last two days have been up in the 40 degree range and a lot of the snow and ice has melted. It got me thinking that spring is just around the corner and that means for those who like to hunt bear, it won't be long.
I am going to list some can't go wrong bear calibers and loads for spring bear. I am talking primarily black bear over bait here both in the USA and Canada. A prime location in Canada would be the province of Manitoba which is noted for color phase and larger bears. The run of the mill black bear in many camps is 200 pounds, however if you want to up your odds of taking a bigger bruin in the 350 pound plus class, Manitoba is a good bet to take a look at.
My preference if buying a bear rifle to hunt black bear over bait, would start with the .30 calibers and range up through the 45 calibers as outlined below. I full well realize black bears have been cleanly harvested with everything from the 30-30, the .243 Win, .270 Win, 7mm-08, 7mm mag etc. I own a Ruger .270 Win and dearly love the gun. it is accurate, hard hitting and my son has taken a few whitetails with it. With 150 grain loads which is heavy for caliber and it will do fine for black bear. This list represents my preferred list and if you are buying a caliber for black bear hunting, I would recommend starting with the .30 caliber and working up from there.
A good place to start is with the .308 Winchester and the 30:06 both with 180 grain loads, and there is nothing wrong with the Remington 180 grain Core Lokt.
Next step up would be the various .300 mags including the .300 Win Mag, the .300 WSM, the .300 Remington Ultra Mag etc. Since we are talking higher bullet speeds here, I would choose a 180 grain bonded bullet of some configuration.
Next step would be the .325 Win Short mag.
From there you can look at the .338 Marlin Express in a lever action rifle, the .338 Federal with 210 grain Nosler Partition in a bolt action set up, or the .338 Win mag again with premium bullets.
Next step up would be the various .35 calibers starting with the .35 Remington with Buffalo Bore 220 grain JFN. This load has a reputation of being deadly accurate and is a step up from the 200 grain Core lokt and even the Hornady Leverevolution load.
In there one might add the .358 Winchester if you own one perhaps in a Browning BLR lever action set up.
The .35 Whelen and the .350 Rem mag have a place for the bigger black bears. My .350 Rem mag is a deadly accurate bolt action Ruger and wears a Burris Fullfield II 3X9X40 with an illuminated reticle with various intensity settings.
Lastly one should should look at the .444 marlin, the 45-70 and the .450 Marlin in a lever action set up with an appropriate scope on board. The .458 SOCOM in an AR platform is also a good choice.
Yes one could use a .375 Mag and other heavier calibers and they would make the grade for Brown Bear too. I am talking about a gun more suited to black bear and you simply do not need a .375 Mag to go black bear hunting.
For optics, I would consider only fully multicoated leneses, while leaning towards an illuminated red dot or duplex reticle in 2X7, 1.5X6, 3X9, or 2.5X10. Mid priced quality scopes can be had from Weaver, Burris, Bushnell, Leupold, Muller, Trijicon, Nikon, Zeiss, Millet and Redfield among others
Dan
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