Just wondering who's doin it the natural way & what your plans are, and of course I'd like to report that 30 min. after dawn on opening day of bear season, my 71/84 mauser belched fire & smoke & for me bear season ended & the work began. I was ready to spend a fair amount of time @ it, but as sometimes we work our butts off for very little, this morning the opposite was true. 5:00pm opening day & it's cut & wrapped & in the freezer. I think the gods must be happier when we use cast boolits. I didn't render down the fat from my last bear, but the next time I need to make a batch of BP lube, it'll be with bear renderins, the way nature intended. My god how we converts become zealots. Ron.D

.........So ya gonna tell us about it or not? Is, "I shot a bear with my 11mm Mauser", supposed to suffuce? :-)

.......Buckshot

whit-shot you have to remember hunting stories are like fine wine, they get better with age. I've seen black bears become charging Griz after a few years. <G>

huzzah! i'm sure that was a great moment. my 71/84, despite trying , has only killed paper. but yes, "B" is right. you must produce the details, bullet, load, lube, certainly the hunt itself. how else can the way to the hall of the hunters be opened for you. again bravo! bravo! ned

I don't think the book will ever become a movie, but the details are. A friend & employee invited me to help him with a bear problem around his place. Since they cancelled the spring bear hunt here they've become a problem in some areas. I had him set some bait out about 200yds. behind his house a few times. His wife reported that she had heard bears early in the morning, otherwise I would have waited till the late afternoon to hunt through dusk, as usual. Thirty minutes after sitting out there, a female about 200lbs. slowly appeared from the bush, walking down a trail. When I fired she was facing away from me, The bullet entered the back just ahead of the hind quarters, traveled just under the spine for a little over 2 ft. & came to rest in the neck, just under the skin. I believe penetration would have been greater but a fair bit of bone was encountered, & unfortunately some of the filet. The boolit was the RCBS .466 that casts right on 400grs. in 30-1 lead tin alloy. 8grs. SR4759 under FFg to light compression. lube was home made & a knock off of Emmerts, with some input from Felix. I remember it contained crisco & neatsfoot oil. The load cronys & 1370'/s. The end was instant, something I always do my best to accomplish. The front of the boolit mushroomd to an almost perfectly flat .480 & weighs 394grs. I'm amazed how well nearly pure lead holds together under such stress, although I've certainly read that it does. I truly have become a cast boolit convert. I currently have 20 guns, but I notice a trend developing. My savage 99 in .308Win has become a .358. I think one of my 30-06s will become 35 Whelen or 375-06 imp. I would also consider something like .405Win. I simply no longer see the need for anything other than cast boolits within 200yrds. & possibly more under the right circumstances. As I've said, you guys sure do have me hooked. Ron.D

........RonD, there ya go! Real world hunting :-). I shot a boar pig once. Broadside at about 60 yards with a 405gr Lee cast very soft and paper patched. I used my MAS36 conversion to 45-70 with a load producing about 1600 fps at the muzzle.

The bullet may still be going :-). The skin was a bit detached around the exit hole which told me the bullet had slowed and expanded enough to push it away, yet momentum was sufficient to carry it on through.

........Buckshot

Ron D.,
Congratulations, I just love stories with happy endings !! Those big ol' boolits just don't know when to stop and they always seem to work. Kinda wonder why I ever use anything else?
I've shot some elk with a .45-70 using a 510 grain paper patch boolit, and pushed to 1650 fps using 3031. Puts them down within a few feet and you never have to wonder if it was a dud in the chamber !!!-JDL

How much FFG ?

Wills. I don't remember exactly. I think it's around 70, or 71 grs. I just stuffed enough that it gave 1/16 - 1/8 compression, Then made them all the same. It was done by weight at the time, but next time I reload these cases, I'll have to figure it out again. (not very scientific) but this gun loves to shoot, so I've never spent as much time on load developement with it as usual. Ron.D