I, for one, cannot fathom shooting a bear unless I was being attacked. I am pretty much the same regarding other animals like cougars and such. I used to hunt deer and always brought along a sidearm in case I might be attacked by a cougar or a brown bear, but the reality was I was more afraid of encountering two legged varmints. Thankfully I never had the need for it.
I actually encountered a cougar on a deer hunt. I believe it was stocking me. I had my trusty bolt action .270 loaded with 5 rounds. My first thought wasn’t to shoot it. As a matter of fact I didn’t have a round in the chamber. I was afraid that jacking a round into the chamber might set the cougar off. And seeing as it was 25’ away from me and the only thing between us was a bush I opted to slowly back my way down the trail I came up and walk away.
This leads me back to the lever action 30-30. From then on I carried my Marlin 336 loaded with 170 grain Winchester Super-X Power Points. Why? Because I can work a lever a heckuva lot faster than a bolt and the country I was hunting in any deer encounter would be within 150 yards and most likely less than 100 yards. I had a lot more confidence in my abilities with my Marlin than I did in my bolt guns.
Want to try a humbling experience with your hunting rifle for that “just in case” bear encounter?
Bears are fast. Really fast. A bear on the move can cover 50 yards in 3. From a standing start maybe 5 seconds FROM WHAT I AM TOLD. I have only seen bears in the move in videos or heard of their speed from other hunters.
THE BEAR TEST:
Take 5 targets on stands at around a 3’ height.
The target you will aim at should be a black circle about 3” in diameter on a paper say 18”x18” or bigger. The black dot represents the nose of a bear and the height of the target is a bear’s nose if a bear is running arc on all fours.
A nose shot on a bear is on a direct path to the brain.
Place the targets at 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 yards.
Have your weapon of choice loaded with 5 rounds.
Have someone time you or set a timer for
3 seconds.
Try and shoot as many targets “in the nose” that you can in 3 seconds starting with the last target out placed at 50 yards.
The first time I tried this with both my 30-30s, my Rossi 94 in 45 Colt, my AR-15 and just for kicks my Henry Single Shot 45-70 (Utter Failure) I found I did my best with my Winchester 94 Carbine. I got 2 next to the noses of the 30 and 20 yard targets. I only got 3 rounds off and that was after lots of practice.
Very humbling experience