.223 for Black Bear

[DBR]

rock1:

The "friendly" bears get baited and taken out by neighbors who eat them. There is a long tradition of subsistence hunting where I live. Anyone feeding or encouraging the local bears has only succeeded in giving them a death sentence.

Personally, my only concern is going outside at "O'dark thirty" to attend to something like starting my generator and surprising a bear or worse, a moose.

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

Quote:
And in a gun that has a proven history of failing since its inception?
Yet it's been in service for 50+ years? I'm not so sure you've got that straight.

Actually Ben86, he is pretty much spot on correct. While the .223-5.56 definitely has it's uses, it has no true place in big game. That being said, there has been some amazing technology come out in the past 10 years in bullet design and the .223 has been able to reap some of the rewards with this new tech. the 65gr and 75gr bullets with bonded core tech in them and the newest ultra tough designs are making a big splash in the deer hunting community. But again I will say this, A bear is a FAR cry from a deer!. As Kodiak pointed out, VERY well I might add, Black bear charges and "attacks" are not common but do happen and often times will result in death if you are not equipped properly to handle such an instance. If it is for a defensive situation only, then you will need a weapon that is up to the task of STOPPING a charge from an animal that is more than likely twice your weight, 3 to 6 times stronger than you, 100 times tougher than you, and intent on causing you bodily harm. Again, the .223 HAS it's uses and is a fantastic little cartridge. But a Bear stopper is definitely NOT one of those uses.

 

[Jeff F]

The best way to stop a bear, especially if its pissed off or charging is to bust up its shoulder. It takes something big with a big whack to do that. A 12 guage slug is almost ideal. If you can bust the shoulder he is not going anywhere very fast and you can then kill him at will.

 

[d2wing]

While a 400 pound bear was shot on my sisters land, the typical bear shot here in Minnesota is smaller than the deer although the weights are close to the same. Most black bear are not huge agressive animals. I could be wrong about the right choice between those weapons but yoiu seem to have an axe to grind so grind away.

 

[Ben86]

Actually Ben86, he is pretty much spot on correct.

I don't think he is talking about the .223 being a failure at big game hunting, I would have to agree with that, and it was never meant for that purpose. He is saying the the AR-15 is a failure, which is dead wrong.

 

[bhk]

If using a shotgun, slug selection is all important. Soft, foster-type rifled slugs are not a good choice. I have had them flatten on the shoulder of deer. Brenneke Classic hard-cast slugs are the way to go if using a smooth bore.

 

[WTBguns10kOK]

When the M-16 first saw service, it was nothing but problems for the soldiers, from what I've ever heard. Sure 50 years later it's fine now, but what a disaster of a platform to take so many years/variations to fix. It refused to die with the military continuing to use it, which is amazingly suspicious and dumb in itself, and so finally over the past few years most of the sheep decided to buy one too.

 

[Adam123]

A 20mm Lahti should work just fine.

 

[Art Eatman]

Four pages is enough. Go do something Christmasy...