Best 7.62x39 load for Bear

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Gunnerboy

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Alright so my bear season is coming up... 60 days to be exact. so im needing some recommendations on the best ammo out there for shooting black bear in 7.62x39. None of this nonsense of pick another caliber or some silly stuff like that, For im set in my ways of using my sks for the wide variety of critters that i can come upon on my hunting trip.
 
I see brown bear, silver bear, and golden bear but I dont see black bear anywhere:) I would think some good old fmj would work best since penetration would be a concern.
 
"A good soft point or expanding bullet should work just fine on a black bear."

Yup. Don't be overly-optimistic about the distance for an effective shot, and be ready for any needed follow-up.
 
drsfmd, thats what i was thinking, ive seen how badly the fmjs, and HPs fragment and wasnt exactly too... faithful in them. Can you speak for how well the winchester ammo works in 7.62x39? because ive had nothing but bad results from winchester ammunition. And ART i tend to be within 50yds on bear where i hunt them.
 
Federal, Remington and Winchester all have softpoints, check the link to Natchez in post #4, they're all listed. I'd see which shoots best for you in your rifle and go hunt Yogi.
 
FMJ will kill as well as you shoot... but may not incapacitate quickly, which is bad if you p!ss it off or scare it into charging... and also unneccessarily inhumane.

My personal thought is, if you didn't trust a JSP to penetrate adequately, you wouldn't need a FMJ... you'd need a heavier caliber. That said, since black bear can be taken with a .30-30, I would think a heavy (150-grainish) soft point 7.62x39 would do fine. I personally would not hunt them by choice (because I wouldn't EAT them by choice, and it's illegal in TX in any event), but some people in other places do, clearly.
 
Gunnerboy said:
drsfmd, thats what i was thinking, ive seen how badly the fmjs, and HPs fragment and wasnt exactly too... faithful in them. Can you speak for how well the winchester ammo works in 7.62x39? because ive had nothing but bad results from winchester ammunition. And ART i tend to be within 50yds on bear where i hunt them.
Click to expand...

It's not a caliber I hunt critters with (you asked that you not get feedback on that particular point, so I refrained), but the bullet design itself is a good one. There are probably some more accurate options out there, but at the distances you're talking about you want expansion over super accuracy, right?
 
Go with whatever ammo is accurate, and legal.


No matter what bullet you use, all bullets must be shot through a vital organ or destroy the Central Nervous system.
 
Tula has a 154gr SP I use on pigs. Great round out to 125 yards. Hard hitting and heavy recoil...ooops sorry just saw your post!

For cheap, non-handload, I'll always default to Russian made 154 SP, Tula or Wolf. It's pretty danged good huntin' ammo and should work just fine on black bear and in MY SKS, it shoots about 2.5" at 100 yards, a little more accurate than the 123 grain stuff.

http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/produc...oft-point-ammo
Click to expand...
 
At close range, a heavy soft-point 7.62x39mm should be fine for black bear, until you get up to the Alaskan giants.

Folks, if someone asks a question, and you don't know the answer, "guessing in an authoritative manner" is probably not real helpful. And it makes you look stupid. The way large-caliber handguns kill is very different than the wounding mechanism of modern rifles. Larger caliber handguns rely on the same dynamics as the old, slow, non-expanding black powder muskets, throwing a heavy large-bore projectile at relatively slow velocity.

Put another way, expansion is less important in a .43 or larger caliber than a .309 one.

John
 
use russian mil spec ammo

because of slam fire,Winchester ammo is soft primed and can go off on closing the action or dropping the sks ,Steele primers are safer or install a after market firing pin, but mil spec ammo will work,as it does for african game wardens.
 
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I've handloaded mine and NEVER had a slam fire. Theoretically it could happen, but I've yet to see it, ever. Problem is the SKS doesn't have a firing pin spring, just floats.

I really like the Wolf and Tula 154 SP, though, so cheap I don't have to bother with handloading the caliber and since it's steel cased and berdan primed, I don't have to chase brass.:D It's some good stuff and the SKS eats the steel case stuff all day long.
 
@wardenwolf and OP : Those PRVI Softpoints do indeed look fairly nasty. Very similar to .30-30 indeed. If I was gonna go after some thin skinned angry yogi, I'd prolly vote for that.

Whatever you lose in speed, you will more than make up for in smooshy, pushy wound cavity. I did not know those existed........ (outside of a handroll)
 
Winchester Power Point ammo makes big holes through deer so it should be a good killer for bears as well. That speedy and lethal 123 grain bullet will not bounce off despite what the critics might think.

Good hunting to you.

TR

bear.jpg
 
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