Say you run into a black bear while deer-hunting with slugs...

C

Clevinger

New member
Are typical deer hunting slugs capable of reliably dispatching an aggressive black bear or do you absolutely need a Black Magic Magnum from Brenneke or some other super heavy slug?

It should go without saying that I don't hunt black bears and hope to never run into one up close, but they frequent the area I hunt and it's better to be safe than sorry. Grizzlies get all the bad press, but black bears carry out far more attacks.
 
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Any slug will have no problem taking a black bear. It is a 73 caliber 1 oz (more or less) projectile traveling usually between 1600 and 2000 ft per second. I'm not going to quote this as fact but I have heard apparantly someone did ballistics gel testing and found that a 12 gauge slug provided a larger wound channel than any handheld rifle including the 50 bmt and 577 tyranasaur. Would I feel more comfortable hitting a black bear with a Dixie Terminator (if rifled barrel) or brenneke black magic (if smooth bore)? Absolutely! But I'm not going to take the time to load these in special for the bear if I feel threatened by it.
 
A neighbor of mine took a treed black bear with a 20 gauge 2.75" slug, which went through and through.

Black bears I'm not worried about.
 
Actually here is what I recommend (at least if ur gun is a smooth bore): use either Brenneke green lightning heavy field slugs or the brenneke classic magnums. I'd opt for the classic magnums, but I've tested a bunch of brenneke s and found those two to be the most accurate and effective. I personally believe foster slugs are superior for just deer since they expend their energy better in thin skinned animals and, believe it or not, they are not deflected by brush as easily as the brennekes. But the brennekes offer better penetration which is important for bear, so I think the brennekes I mentioned earlier are a good compromise between deer hunting and defense against bear.
 
Actually here is what I recommend (at least if ur gun is a smooth bore): use either Brenneke green lightning heavy field slugs or the brenneke classic magnums
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Which ironically is what I use anyway, for short-range deer hunting.

I didn't use to think much about the Black Bears, but the recent issue of Outdoor Life made me wary of running into one.
 
I can't see a situation where you would absolutely need one of those huge slugs to drop a Black Bear. Would I be more comfortable with it? Sure, but unless i'm going to hunt them, i don't see the need.
 
I hunt black bear in West Virginia with my dad and he uses a .308 with 180gr PSPs and its been a one shot drop every time. I carry a .32 Win Special and it does the trick pretty well :cool:

I would have absolutely NO concerns about using a 12ga slug on a black bear. :)
 
We hunt them with buckshot. No furhter than 20 yards or so buckshot does the trick really well. The last 3 or 4 I have taken with buckshot have dropped dead in their tracks. Keep in mind that we are still hunting and take the time to hit them high in the neck/head to make it a quick kill. In an emergency I think I would still prefer buckshot as I have first hand knowledge that it works very well. Copper or lead 00 or 000 for me. Just my opinion.
 
Alaska State Troopers carry them in their shotguns when they are in the woods with Brown Bears. I don't think that there is anything in North America that a well placed 12 ga. slug won't stop. I took two Black Bears with a .243. Neither one went 10 yards after being hit.
 
We hunt them with buckshot. No furhter than 20 yards or so buckshot does the trick really well. The last 3 or 4 I have taken with buckshot have dropped dead in their tracks.
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I often camp in Maine up near the Canadian border and usually carry a 12g loaded up with slugs for black bear, but I am now thinking it might be a good idea to keep the first round a 3" 00 buck and the rest slugs.
 
I don't think that there is anything in North America that a well placed 12 ga. slug won't stop.
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I think this about sums it up. The massive caliber (when compared to most rifle or handguns rounds) travelling at about 1800-1900 fps, will lay down anything in North America.
 
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Actually here is what I recommend (at least if ur gun is a smooth bore): use either Brenneke green lightning heavy field slugs or the brenneke classic magnums
Which ironically is what I use anyway, for short-range deer hunting.
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Well then perfect! Just stick to those loads and know you will have absolutely no problem stopping a bear (or moose which is significantly more dangerous) in its tracks!
 
Conventional soft slugs would be fine for typical black bear.

Alaska State Troopers carry them in their shotguns when they are in the woods with Brown Bears.
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If they are carrying slugs for brown bear, it isn't typical soft lead slugs. They have proven to be very poor performers against really large bear. Almost any centerfire rifle .30 cal or above is a much better choice. The hard Sabot slugs work somewhat better, but are not in the same class as rifles loaded with heavy bullets.

You couldn't pay me enough to go into an area where any bear could potentially weigh more than 200 lbs with buckshot. On smallish animals at close range it works OK, but on a big bear you are only asking for trouble.

The best bear defense is a can of bear spray.

Here is what the NFS says about bear defense

http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/gtr152.pdf
 
#1 avoid the Bear!
I always worry about Cubs and I ain't gonna lift up it's tail and check... I don't want to leave babys to die an awful and cruel death.
If you don't have a choice, blast it! the Slug will kill just fine if you hit it well!
ZVP
 
I can't help but remember what all my buddies laughingly agreed upon in Louisiana, which has bears but no bear season. The agreement was that if fatally threatened by a bear, use the gun and shoot yourself because the fine for shooting a bear is worse than death.:)
 
If you don't have a tag, use pepper spray first - (a) it works *better* than a gun at deterring an attack, and (b) the bear lives and you don't get accused of wrongdoing potentially. But yeah, I'd say any kind of 20 ga slug, or 12 ga slug, from forsters on "up" should penetrate enough to do as well as any.
 
I can't help but remember what all my buddies laughingly agreed upon in Louisiana, which has bears but no bear season. The agreement was that if fatally threatened by a bear, use the gun and shoot yourself because the fine for shooting a bear is worse than death.
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If you shoot anything in self defense out of season / without tags, it had better have powder burns on the fur.
 
just run downhill. The bears front legs being shorter than hind legs make it hard for them to run downhill, they end up rolling down. But... they might roll right by and end up waitin' for ya at the bottom...
 
Coyotes are not bears. However, judging by the coyote I nailed last year with a slug, I don't think I'd want to be a bear on the receiving end of a 1.125 oz foster slug. However, if you're talking sabots, I really have no question that it will do the job. Black bears live where people do. It's statistically more probable to be attacked by a black bear than a grizzly. It's the most common bear in North America. I've seen a few bears in my lifetime, and those that I saw went the other way so fast, you'd think I already shot at them.
 
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