Black bear rug

[todayshighlights]

I want to take a black bear and have it made into a rug. I'm not too sure what cal. rifle to use to make a good kill and not ruin the hide/fur. My initial thought is to use a big, slow bullet, .45/70 or .444 Marlin. I hunt in thick mountainous woods, so tracking can be difficult and using something smaller like .270 or 7mm may do less damage to the skin, but will be a bear to track. Maybe .308 is the answer? Has anyone had experience with this?

Thanks.

 

[mbogo]

A taxidermist can repair ANY damage you do to the hide with a bullet, and the bear's long hair will cover the repair. Talk to your taxidermist before you go hunting, so you can know how best to skin the bear.

Any of the rounds you mentioned will cleanly kill a black bear, as will a .30-06 and a couple hundred other cartridges using proper bullets.

mbogo

 

[Water-Man]

I've taken a few with a .35 Remington.

 

[KodiakBeer]

Whatever you use for deer will be fine for black bears.

 

[CoRoMo]

...smaller like .270 or 7mm may do less damage to the skin, but will be a bear to track.

This could only mean that your shot placement would be bad, because those rounds are more than enough for a black bear. Poor shooting with ANY caliber/cartridge, even the big bores you mentioned, will result in a wounded, suffering, and possibly lost animal. Practice shooting first, and when you can hit where you're aiming, go shoot a bear. But only shoot the bear in a vital spot, so that you don't have to track down a wounded bear. See below...



And welcome to THR!!

 

[todayshighlights]

The shooting and killing part I can cover, no problem. I was looking for some good advice based on experience about saving the fur and hide for a sweet looking rug on my 4 season porch I rebuilt.

 

[todayshighlights]

Whatever you use for deer will be fine for black bears.

Not in Taxachusetts. No rifles for deer, no shotguns for bear.

 

[usmc1371]

I had my first bear made into a rug, shot broadside at 20ish yards with a 30-06, remy 180g corlock. The bear only went about ten yards and fell over, the exit hole in the hide was almost imposible to find from the outside as was the intry wound. The thick hair hid the holes completly and there was almost no blood on the ground between where he was hit and where he died. I don'w know it the taxidermist fixed the holes or not but I can't find them on the rug and I have looked. My second bear was shot at 5 or 6 feet with a 45-70, 405 grain hard cast lead buf bore ammo, bullet hit under the chin and exited just above the tail. Ripped a good hole but the taxidermist totally fixed it, can't tell it was ever there. The only reason I took a frontal shot is cause the hounds had the bear bayed up in a hole in some rim rocks and the dogs were dead set on getting him out.
I have seen a few black bears killed and in my experince they don't leave much of a blood trail.



So your state has decided that it's safe to use a rifle for bear but not deer? Lame.