Slug for bear?

[Nick9130White]

I go up to my girlfriends cabin once in awhile, and the bears get a little to close for comfort at night. I was wondering if my
Remington 2 3/4" 12 gauge slugger slugs would take one down?
Or should I go 3" slugs? Both rifled slugs.

[rickyrick]

If it was me I'd select another cabin....JK

The performance of slugs varies with the type of barrel and choke. The rifling of the slugs allows them to squeeze through chokes.

I have a lot of slugs, but I have never put them to the meat, so I have know Idea how they perform. However I know that accuracy varies.

[Nick9130White]

Hahahah but I love the cabin. A nice lake down the street, a nice view.

That's true. I'm pushing it through a Remington 870 express. I don't know about the barrel length but it's stock. And I'm using an IC.

I do love shooting slugs, shot them for the first time the day before yesterday. I love them almost as much as my Saiga.

[Buzzcook]

The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is you better be able to prove that you absolutely had to kill the bear. The alternative answer is use bear spray.

[markj]

The bear pamplets say not to shoot the bear cause they usually live long enough to maul the shooter bear spray will do the job just fine.

[SurplusShooter]

Should be fine.

[Tuzo]

How close is "too close for comfort" when a bear approaches? Are bears passing through or are they knocking on the cabin door? Black bears or grizzlies? Do you have a hunting license and are bears in season? You must ask these questions before you try to kill bears that may not pose a true threat. I have been within 30' of black bears as they cruised through the campsite with no harm. As long as you are aware of and practice proper bear precautions you should not have a problem with bears.

[Nick9130White]

I don't mean imma just shoot em because. If they are a threat, I didn't wanna say it's gonna attack me cause I don't want it to be closed for no "SHTF" posts. They're usually just walkin around the driveway at night but ya never know. I'm pretty sure theyre black bears.

[youp]

I killed a Black Bear one year that had a 12 gauge foster style slug in his shoulder. The slug broke the upper leg bone and stopped prior to entering the chest cavity. I doubt he would have survived the winter. I got after him with hounds and he was in a bit of a tizzy.

I would not hesitate to use a 12 gauge 2 3/4 inch slug on a Black Bear. I would not use a foster style one, though.

[jrothWA]

They are a solid piece of lead and the wad column give better ballistics.

CA still allow lead shells to be used? I thought the protection of the condor was priority.

[chuckscap]

Treat her nice and she won't make you sleep outside ...

[fatwhiteboy]

Only certain areas along the coastal hills are condor areas. I hunt pigs out of King City and nonlead ammo is the law. The real problem with condor reintroduction is their food source. Back in the old days, there were plenty of marine mammal carcasses on the beach. Now days, as soon as a whale, dolphin or pinniped beaches itself to die, every tree hugger within a 500 mile radius shows up and shoves it back out to sea. They won't let them die in peace and provide a meal for the condors. And grizzlies, for that matter. The things were starved into extinction by PETA!

[markj]

as soon as a whale, dolphin or pinniped beaches itself to die, every tree hugger within a 500 mile radius shows up and shoves it back out to sea. They won't let them die in peace and provide a meal for the condors. And grizzlies, for that matter. The things were starved into extinction by PETA!

Yep, them uneducated idiots do more harm then good. Disney effect? lol

[efield]

We get bears quite often at my cabin in the Sequoia's. The cabin has been in the family all of my life and we have used it as a summer home for my 50 plus years on the planet.

Bears are just a fact of nature up there and IMHO we are in their world. I keep a sidearm just in case but pepper spray has worked quite well so far in the rare instances that they got too curious for their own good.

I will say that they seem to have gotten a little bolder in the last couple years and I have had close encounters more often now than I can remember in the past. I will also say my dog hates it when I used the spray and won't come near me for awhile afterwards.

[Old Grump]

I would not hesitate to use a 12 gauge 2 3/4 inch slug on a Black Bear. I would not use a foster style one, though.

Foster or Brenneke is exactly what I would use, especially if I had a smoothbore shotgun. The slugger no, unless it was all I had and I was using a rifled slug gun.

[stevelyn]

My department of which I'm the firearms instructor and armorer of, issues Brenneke slugs. We do a few brown bear DLP kills every year. In the last 10 years I have 6 DLP kills plus one that I killed with a rifle and was able to lock a tag onto.

Three of them were killed with Brennekes at ranges from a few feet out to 40 paces. In each one none of the slugs stayed in the bears. They've all been pass-throughs. They act like a hardcast pistol bullet and the bears just flop over.

Mind you these are just the bears that I've shot. The other guys on the department have killed their share too using Brennekes with similar results. We have not had a failure in any case. Sometimes we have citizens wound one every now and then and when I have to gear up and go crawling around in the alders looking for the bassit, I take my department issue 870 loaded with the Brennekes in with me. I can't think of anything that I'd feel more comfortable and confident with.

We use the 2 3/4" Classic Magnum.

http://www.brennekeusa.com/cms/h_classic_magnum.html

[jmr40]

Black bears are not hard to kill. A cheap 2.75" slug will do just fine if you make a good shot. With a bad shot nothing else is going to make any difference.