My favorite BB rifle is a M7600 in 35W. Second favorite is a M700 Classic in .350RMag.

However, I just had a M760 35Rem. carbine rechambered to .358 Win so...I might have to give it a try this fall.

WN

I have shot over 100 black bears.I like a 375 H&H or 9.3x74R. I have shot them with 30-06,270,243,450 NE,375FL and 22Hornet. With the large Cal. there is no follow up when you break the shoulders.

I hunted bears in Canada with my 300 Win Mag. Shooting 220gr bullets. For bigger bears I'd take my 375 H&H.

I have taken 7 black bear, I have no desire to hunt any types bears for the time being anyway. All but 2 came by way of a bow and arrow, distances up to 30 yards, all bears were recovered within 100 yards of being shot in the pines of our northern forests. Without question my favorite hunting equipment for blackie's is my martin bow with 100 gr steelforce BH's.

Of the 2 I have shot with a firearm. 270 win 150 NP, oat field shot was 150 yards through both lungs and into the opposite shoulder. I stalked the entire field and was faced with a sow and her cubs in my way. Field was still mostly standing, so I opted to head to the edge which was cut and made my way along the treed side of the field, the bear I had been stalking was well into the field an impossible to shoot, so I sat and decided to wait. With about 1/2 hour left a boar stepped out of the bush and I decided to take him. He never made it back to the bush after being hit.
2nd was a 50 cal Mler loaded with 105 gr pyrodex and 300 gr Hornady XTP mag sabot, shot was 50 yards on 7 foot black in a berry patch. Bullet entered right behind the shoulder and exited in the front portion of the opposite shoulder, bear travelled 50 yards before death moaning.

I have hunted black bears exactly once. We were hunting them with dogs in Ontario. I carried a Rem 700 30.06. The locals that hunted with us carried Remington 742/7400's in '06 and .270 and one carried a mini-14 with a red dot! The Americans I went with carried Remington autoloaders (and one BAR) in '06 with 200 gr bullets. Theses guys have killed hundreds of bears between them and swear by open sighted '06's. Oh yeah, 2 other newbies carried a ruger .44 autoloader carbine and a marlin 45-70 guide gun.

M70 Classic stainless, .375 H&H with barnes 270 xlc's for brown's and grizzly in Alaska.Works like a champ. A lot of locals use .338's with good results, but I feel it's too light,even more so when you are in an alder tangle with 5' visiblity. The first time you walk up on a dead brown bear, it looks big, real big, way big. Significant rifle/cartridge/bullet re-evaluation occurs at that time.
Sort of like the guy in the movie "Jaws" "We gotta get a bigger boat!" after they see the shark for the first time.

I took my only bear on my only bear hunt over bait in Maine at 40yds or so with my Ruger in 35 Whelen with 250 gr Nosler Partitions. After I shot him, he went another 40-50 yds, let out the death moan and died. Got the idea for the Whelen from Craig Boddington's articles and hanging out in the wrong places on the net

If shooting is done under 150 yards:

9.3x74r Double rifle with 286gr Woodleigh round nose soft points.

For blackbears from a tree stand or ground blind over bait, my short.308win with 20" barrel with 180 NP or 165 bonded bearclaws. However a 30/30 with 170 grainers would be just fine at that range.
Have not been lucky enough for a grizzly tag. For that I would use my .338 Win.

DOC,

Guys,

Hold your horses for a while and let us discuss what kind of bear you want to be shooting.

There is one hell of a difference in requirements to rug a 185lbs blacky or a 850 lbs brown bear /1000 lbs polar bear.

Are we talking stalking large coastal brown bears or are we sitting in a tree stand over bait and shoot blackies from it?

What gun for all bear is like asking what gun for all hoofed animals like from little whitetails to big alaska moose.

Makes for a poor debate since by default only the most powerfull rifle suitable for the largest bear would fill the requirement.

In which case you should ask what cartridge would you select for the biggest of our bears.

Why do I create this fuss??

In our black bearcamps we too often get customers with grossly overpowered/overscoped and overly long firearms to be used for 50 yard treestand shots. Not because that is the only rifle they own, but because some of those unfortunate citizens really were led to believe that is what they need to savely kill the little blackie.

Just imagine how much fun those are to shoot from a treestand.

I've shot one bear, a black of 400#. I shot him at 80 yards with a .58 cal caplock muzzleloader using a round ball (270 grs, I believe) and 120 grs of FFFg black powder. My next bear will be a Coastal Brown. I'll be using the same gun, same bullet, but 190-220 grs of FFFg powder.

If nearly a hundred Brown/Grizzly bears and a few dozen Blacks have taught me anything it is that correctly placing a suitable bullet means more than caliber. A 30-06 with 200 grain Nosler Partitions works well on any bear but if I had to recommend just one caliber and bullet for all bears I would suggest a .338 with 250 Nosler Partitions or Barnes X. That said, during the majority of my hunting and fishing season in SW Alaska I carry a Browning 1886 45-70 with seven Buffalo Bore 430gr cast bullets @ 1975fps in the magazine or else a short barreled stainless Win. M-70 .375H&H with four 270 gr Barnes X @ 2600fps. When guiding Brown Bear hunters I use a .458 Win. with either 400gr Kodiaks or Barnes X bullets - but guiding is different than hunting them. As for hunting on my own I would feel perfectly safe with my 06.

THIS grizzly died after being shot with a 7MM Rem Mag.



I must say, though, that these days I prefer the 375 H&H or 338 when hunting any bears, simply because bears seem to crawl into shitty little spots when wounded,m and you have to go find them.

Anything form the .270 up will kill bears cleanly,though..