I went bear hunting Friday, which I believe was the 3rd. I had time to go up after school and check a spot where we usually see bears the last hour of daylight. I took my new .300 RUM with 200g SMK bullets. As I was sitting on top a knoll overlooking a huge canyon, I heard a lot of crashing and breaking going on the other side of the draw from me about 250 yards away. It could only have been 2 things from how big the noises were. Either an elk or a bear. Only problem was, it was SO THICK I could not see it for another 5 minutes. The whole time it was crashing around in there I got my 300 RUM set up and waited for whatever it was to step out in a little opening hopefully. By this time it was 6:30 and when the animal moved this time, I could see the trees and brush move. So I started yelling and throwing rocks in the bottom to get it to keep moving. Finally, the biggest cinnamon black bear I have ever seen emerged like a bad out of hell out of the brush. There was a clearing of maybe 10 yards. Now the whole time that I could finally pick out where he was, I kept my crosshairs on all the brush waiting for him to come out. So right when he ran out of the brush into the opening, I sent a 200g SMK his way. I lost sight of him due to the recoil and he was back in the brush. Damn I was thinking, I was hoping he woulda dropped right on the spot. But to my luck he didnt. I was by myself, 20 minutes before it got dark and I had to get my butt over there and start looking for the bear where I last shot at him. It took me about 10 minutes to get over there and about 10 minutes to find him due to all the brush. He went no more than 5 yards into the brush and he was dead as could be. The 200g SMK worked perfectly, (although it did not fully exit) on a estimate live weight bear of 450-500 pounds. He is 6'3" from nose to tail w/out stretching him. It is the biggest bear anyone of us have ever shot or seen in all my hunting party and my parents work people looked at it. This bear should make the Oregon Youth record book. All it needs to do is score 17 inches. It was all I could do to lift his head. So after congratulating myself and taking a breather, I got to my truck and called my dad and told him what happened and that I needed his help getting the huge bear out. To make a longer story longer, I also had him bring 3 of my friends to help get him out. My dad and I had to skin and cape it out for a bear rug in the dark using only flashlights. It was quite a chore since it was our first time trying to get one ready for a bear rug. All in all, I shot it at roughly 6:30 PM and we finally got to my house at 6:00 AM. It was a very long night, but I say it is very well worth it. Were taking the head and cape/skin/rug to a very well known taxidermist in Montana in 2 weeks, who does very good work on bears. Pictures coming soon!
I did not get any sleep but instead went right into deer season! Opening morning proved to be not so good and all I saw was about 75 does, and 2 little forks. Nothing I was interested in shooting. I came back home for a little bit and took a 4 hour nap to rejuvenate myself from the past night. I had been seeing a decent 4x4 muley in a little draw that had some pretty good cover in it. Only trick is, it has been a full moon so deer are mostly feeding at night. I always saw this deer in the evening so I was sure I would get a shot at him tonight. I set myself on a different canyon that overlooked that draw and a couple others to the side. The shot would be anywhere from 400-550. I got to my spot at 5 pm. Enough time to sit for about 2 hours. I saw some does and small bucks but still no 4x4. And then, like it was happening all over again, a single deer emerged from the draw about 6:30. Just in time to shoot. I had my 300 RUM with 200g SMK's ready. The distance was 460 yards. I clicked my Leupold VX2, 6-18 target up to the 450 yard mark and waited a couple minutes to get into prone and better position myself and take note of how the buck was moving. The deer did not know I was there and he was just feeding minding his own business. After I got all set up, took a couple breaths I got my cross hairs on him and waited untill I thought would be the perfect shot. I waited untill he picked his head up and was broadside. Right about that time I sent a 200g SMK his way and lost sight of him due to recoil. I quickly regained sight of him to see him laying dead as a doornail where he once stood. It looked to be like another long night. When I got over to him, He was a perfectly symetrical 4x4 with eyeguards. He was 20 inches wide and 17 1/2 inches tall. Not the biggest buck I have shot, but I was more interested in seeing what the 300 RUM would do. It is still a very nice 4x4 in my books. The 200g SMK was very destructive. I have not seen anything like it in the past with any other caliber or bullet combination, but this was by far the biggest mess we have encountered. The bullet entered the front shoulder, and exited out the rear shoulder leaving about a baseball size exit hole. Pictures of the deer are coming soon.

So much for matchkings not being a hunting bullet or recommended as one. Neither the huge black bear or 4x4 muley seemed to know the difference. The internal damage on both was devastating leaving very very large wound channels. I am hooked on these SMK's. Just thought I would share my great kills with my new 300 RUM. Good luck to all the rest!

Sounds like a couple great hunts! Looking forward to photos

Doug