Bear hunting

[RKellogg]

We finaly have a black bear season in our area this year , Western New York . Have a couple questions . We have to use shot gunns , no rifle season yet . Buddy of mine said to use the old lead slugs , I use the Winchester Gold sabot slugs for deer and he said that they wouldn't work on bear . I think he is full of ***** so I am not realy worryed about that . But it did make me start thinking about tracking a wounded bear . Besides being extra carefull , is there anything more I should know .

 

[justice4all]

Any slug that works for deer willl work fine on bear. They're not bulletproof.

 

[Jst1mr]

May sound stupid...

But one thing an inexperienced bear hunter should know....when you peel the hide off ole Bruno, the carcass looks amazingly and disturbingly(to some) human...otherwise, have fun - listen for the "death moan" after the wounded bear runs off, then trail with confidence.

 

[theken206]

I would stick with cast slugs and not sabot rounds myself.

 

[wyocarp]

I too would use cast slugs.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

The answer is:

Saboted slugs are fine if (and only if) you have a RIFLED barrel shotgun (do you?). If you are using a smoothbore, then stick with the "Foster-style" slugs. Pretty much any 20 ga or 12 ga Foster style slug will kill a black bear.

 

[RKellogg]

Yes , I am useing a rifled barrel with sabot slugs , Winchester Partition Gold slugs .

theken206 and wyocarp , why would you still use the cast slugs .

 

[charby]

If you are accurate with your current setup, then by all means use it to harvest your bear.