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Old June 27, 2014, 09:31 AM   #26
Art Eatman
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Everything I've read or seen talks of hunting from a stand or maybe sneaky-snaking. Generally, fairly thick vegetation. So, most folks talk about close range. 30 or 40 yards or less; up to maybe 100 or so at most.

But I'm not a bear hunter.
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Old June 27, 2014, 01:07 PM   #27
tahunua001
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when I hunt bears I do so over bait. I've jumped them a few times with the truck but for the most part you'd never know where they were until you're right on top of them.

I've only ever spotted one bear from a distance and he was on the opposite side of a VERY deep, VERY Steep chasm. I doubt I'd have taken the shot even if it had been in season at the time.
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Old June 27, 2014, 06:58 PM   #28
HuntingLikeABadHabit
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As a fellow NC member, and one that hunts bear I gotta tell you that I would consider another mount. I would venture to say that most bears here are taken with a 30-30. We hunt with dogs rather than stand hunt (most dog bears in NC) so a short lever gun with relatively light recoil gives a lot of advantages when it comes to follow up shots or quick loading/shouldering after walking in or hopping out of a truck. I would recommend picking up a cheap lever gun in 30-30, .35 or .44, toss a scope on with see through mounts and put a bear in the freezer. Sounds like a good excuse to buy a new rifle! That 300 will do job but for our small bears it may be a little unnecessary when you can shoot cheaper and more comfortably. Not to mention the abuse that a bear rifle can take when you are climbing through the thick junk they tend to take you through. Just my .02
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Old July 2, 2014, 09:13 PM   #29
Longshot4
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Back in 1978 I shot a small black bear and blew his lungs clean out of a wide open chest With a 300 Wby. He still went 50 Yds. I never took That rifle for Bear again. Its over kill. A 30 or 35cal. Lever rifle or even a 12 Gage slug will do just fine. A good blood trail helps for tracking. My top choice is a 12 Gage rifled slug gun with Remington Slug Hammers.

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Old July 23, 2014, 11:54 AM   #30
SansSouci
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Your friend is right. Even at that, a .375 H&H is on the cusp of black bear rifle classification.

Now here's the reality: long before belts appeared on cartridges, North American hunters killed everything on our continent including polar bear with 7x57's, .30-40 Krags, .30-30 Win's, '06's, and with the .303 British, among others.

My friend killed an Alaskan griz with a .300 Wby.

I fish where black bears grow huge, and I mean huge. I have seen several 400 pounders in the Eastern Sierra. 500 pounders ain't uncommon. I have used a 1911A1 with 230 grain +P ammo, a Sig P-229 in .40 S&W with 180 grainers, and this season I'll use a GP-100 with 180 grains bullets while fishing in black bear habitat. I have never felt vulnerable carrying a .45 ACP or a .40 S&W in black bear country. Were I to hunt them, I'd use a .308 Win. But I have no desire to kill a bear. I do have desire to prevent a bear from killing me.
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Old July 23, 2014, 07:35 PM   #31
steveNChunter
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Another NC resident here, planning on hunting bear this season. I'll be still hunting, no dogs(bear hunting with dogs isn't quite as popular up here in the mountains).

I'll be taking a .308 with a 16" barrel, loaded with 150 gr Sierras. I think that's plenty of gun for anything that's walked through NC since the last ice age.
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Old July 23, 2014, 08:34 PM   #32
reynolds357
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They opened up bear season for this year in my county in Georgia. Doubt I will waste money on a tag considering I saw one bear 4 years ago and have only seen one bear track this year.
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Old July 24, 2014, 09:13 AM   #33
SansSouci
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reynolds357,

Take a fishing trip in the Eastern Sierra up around Mammoth Lakes or Bridgeport. You ought to see about one a day, maybe far more than that. I'm not sure what a nonresident bear tag costs. But if I were going to hunt them, that's where I'd go, or maybe the Angeles National Forest. Black bears roam the streets of villages in the Angeles at night. And a game warden told me that black bears in the Angeles are among the fattest in the state because they don't hibernate much because of warm weather and the ski resort dumpsters are fast food restaurants for them.

A lady I know who lives in a village in the Angeles saw one about ten years ago. Her description of it would place it firmly in the huge category. And they're mostly liberals up there that don't hunt them. My game warden friend wanted me to buy a tag a kill one. I told him definitively, "No way." I've hunted and fished the High Sierra and I've hunted throughout the Rockies. I've never hunted mountains as rugged as the San Gabriels. Besides that, the San Andreas fault runs through the San Gabriels.

http://www.americansouthwest.net/cal...iel_mountains/

This guy lived in the Angeles: http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/16/local/me-64078
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Old January 10, 2019, 05:05 AM   #34
campfire bwana
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Sans soucis,

Regarding the "liberals" who don't hunt bear in California. I am not a liberal but I can assure you that many liberals do hunt. It's funny when people make hunting a political stance which it is not. Making a case based political affiliation concerning outdoors in a state that has tens of millions of acres of spectacular, pristine and extremely varied outdoors venues seems flawed to me. Perhaps another state may be more like what you describe. There are over 38 million inhabitants in California, a majority is liberal, unfortunately. The tide changed in 1982 when the majority was republican. All those people who hunted then and their children, still hunt now.

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Old January 10, 2019, 08:46 AM   #35
Art Eatman
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Ah, necrothreadia! But just four years, so no record.
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