Just back from a Black Bear hunt in Ontario Canada. The hunt was near Nestor Falls at Larssons Camp. I cannot remmember when I have had a more fun trip. There was 3 brothers from Michigan as well as 2 of my friends. The folks that ran the Camp are first rate and treated us like family. The cabins were nice and the food was great. I even fished a little, I kept 3 Northern Pike that fed 10 hungry people.
In the second evening of my hunt I shot a Black Bear at 18 yards that weighed 383 lbs. I hit him in the shoulder with a 286 Nosler Partition from mt 9,3x74R Chapuis Double Rifle.
The Partition exited the off shoulder leaving a small exit wound. The Bear dropped to the shot, and only scrabbled around for a couple of seconds. I was using Iron Sights. Once again the 9,3x74R demonstrates what a great cartridge it is. His hide is in perfect shape. We ate some of his meat [the heart and tenderloins]
and it was excellent. I brought the rest of the meat and the hide home frozen on the plane. Two other hunters [archery] also took bears. Everybody saw bears, just some of them could not get a shot, it is very thick with trees and brush. We ate some meat from the other bears too and it was excellent.
David and Darrell Dutka took very good care of the hide and meat. I have skinned and butchered a lot of game animals and they are first rate. There wives, Christine and Brenda are first rate cooks, I think I gained weight on this trip.
I will be going back next year for sure.
I did not have any problems with the airlines, I opened the bags for TSA at DFW and they opened them up some time on the return trip [I had TSA locks on all bags but the Tuffpak which they did not open] as they left the inspection notes inside. I had no problems with Canadian Customs and my rifles,[I also had a Blaser R-93 with the 308 Tracker bbl as a spare], and no problems with US customs on the way back. Just some paper work on bringing the Bear back. We drove across at International Falls.
It was a great trip.
I leave in a couple of days for a repeat of my John the Greek Black Bear hunt in Idaho.
For this trip my primary rifle will be my Blaser K 95 [single shot] in 308 with my Blaser R-93 with the 375 H&H Tracker bbl as a spare. I will take the 28ga bbl for grouse.
I will also take a 223 bbl for prarie dogs in Wyoming, as I will stop and see a friend on the way up if he can get off work.

Great! You going to post any pictures?

I'm heading to Maine next Sunday. Wish me luck.

Doc
I havent figured out how to post pictures yet, but I am working on it. Good luck on your hunt.

bowhuntrrl
The locks I am refering to are made by Voltage Valet. They are combination locks that can also be opened by a special key that has been furnished to the TSA by the lock maker. By using these locks the TSA will not have to cut them off, they will open them and lock them back. They are not on the companies web site. I bought mine at Whole Earth.