I have shot a few black bear and seen a few shot by other hunters. Calibers used were the 300 Mag [spot and stalk] and the 308, 9,3x74R [over bait]and my 450/400 on a bear I "stumbled" onto in a snow storm. The 358 should do a great job with either 225 or 250 grain bullets. Use the one you have the most confidence in. The 358, 35 Whelen, 350 Rem Mag [had one of these for a while] are great hunting cartridges.

Re: 358owner. . . I was stationed at Fort Yukon, AK in 1969-70. As military site game warden I got to spend a lot of time outdoors and accompanied a few hunters up the Porcupine on bear hunts. I carried a 30-06 and was on a hunt with a fellow carrying a new Winchester .338. He shot a very large black bear dead center in the chest at less than 50 yards. The bear did a back flip and got up running. I hit him with my 30-06 but he didn't even flinch. We nervously searched the woods for hours, but never found him.

From that experience I insisted that any hunts I participated in would consist of broadside shoulder shots only. We never lost another bear after that. With a broken front shoulder a bear cannot get up. Sometimes it took two or three minutes for them to die and they tore up everything around them in the process - even with the heart and lungs shot up. But I never saw a bear drop stone dead.

Just remember that a bear has a great tenacity for life and, even if heart shot, is too dumb to know he is dead. It is safest to immobilize him first. A wounded black bear will usually try to get away, but not always true with the larger species.

Thanks for sharing your experience Talleyman.

As much as I hate to hear of wounded and un-recovered game I am comforted to know that I am not the only one that has had this experience. I guess we learn as we go, and sometimes we learn the hard way.

Tallyman:

I agree with you, and everytime I read a post that a black bear is no tougher to kill than a whitetail I wonder just how many bears the poster has killed.

I shot a grizzly broadside with a .338 Win and a black bear head on with a .308. Guess which one ran the farthest?

Bears have a lot of muscle in their chests. I have only shot 6, but they those six convinced me they are tougher than deer. Of course, poke the lungs, and they die quickly. But so does everything.

I've used a 35 Whelen for many years and my experience in Africa was quite telling. I used 250 gr Nosler Partitions at 2500 fps for everything and shot through all but a couple of animals. Two eland at 150 and 50 broadside, complete penitration. I've taken a couple of Texas heart shots at bear and elk here in Montana and on the bear got complete lengthwise penitration, elk almost so. The shot on the elk was a follow-up. I've started using 250 gr Speers, better acuracy, but I'd like to give Hawks a try. I think you'd be happy with any "after-market" bullet at 2500 fps or less.

I have used a .358 Norma I built on a "98" action with a Magowan berrel in 1969. I have used it on black bears in Mont. and for 12 years in Alaska. I have a very nice mount of an alaska bear that died within one foot of where the sholder shoot took him. I never lost an animal with this rifle. My best story is around a running moose that drove his antlers into the tundra when hit high at the base of the neck totaly removing two vertebrae. I now live in Idaho again where this rifle took 6 elk in the early 70's and is being prepared for the fall of 05.

450

Over the years of elk hunting I've seen a lot. The bears usually dropped at the shot, but were back up trying to get a way from a heart lung shot, crying like I just took the tv remote from them. The didnt go far, til they expired.

In the 1980s, I used a .356 win with a factroy 250 grain soft point, while I was hunting elk in the dark timber. Where a long shot would be 75 yards.

There were fresh tracks everywhere and we could hear the elk running around on top the mtn and running before us. The wind was swirling, Making it difficult to complete a stalk. I figured I take a rest on top of the mountain in an open meadow and eat lunch.

Well, it wasn't long before the wind started to blow from a steady direction out of the north.

Then off in the distence (west) I hear some crazy fool out there blowning an elk call...Bugeling and molesting my hunt. Damn hunters! Straining my eyes to see who the clown was making the noise with the elk whistle,I saw movement coming stright toward my position from about 300yards and coming through the trees in single file. I'll tell him a thing or two about elk whistles..... when all of sudden my wife who was also hunting with me say, "Elks". Well blow me down. and they are coming right up to our position.

Caught flat footed, tired, no concealment, on top on the ridge, exactly where all the books say don't be there. Well, if I take one step, they will see us and become alarm and be gone. I froze. I made like a tree all the time I'm slowly getting my Winchester 94 Big Bore .356 Win 250grain bullet in position to fire.

They are getting closer, less than a 70 yards, 6 cows in the lead and a beautiful 5 point bull, bring up the rear. "Stinky, what do we do," says Mrs Stinky. "Don't you twitch an eye ball, not a hair on your head, until they'ar within 20' of us," growls Stinky.
Let the lead cow go through, and we'll take the cows that are further back. She's on her first elk hunt and is ready to piss her pants in all the excitement. (We didn't have a bull tag so he got a walk pass)

Next, At the shots, all hell broke loose. We had two cows down. They didn't go twenty feet or about 3 steps each, with the heart/lung shots on both.

Wifey used a .375 Win with a 250 bullet. She shot her's through the heart. Clean Kill but not much tissue damage or blood shot meat. The second shot was mine, at the second elk. I was using a 356 Win with a 250 grain factory bullet. Both animals were broadside shots at 20'.

When I opened up the chest cavity of the cow elk I had hit with the .356 Win, everything inside was destroyed. Though the heart hadn't been directly hit, it had been exploded. The lung material was schredded goo. I was pretty impress with the killing power of the 356 Win. The jury's out on the .375 Win. It didn't kill with the authority of the other one, but made a single .375 diameter hole through the heart.
The rifle hasn't come on another elk hunting trip since then.(Nor the wife) I alway carry the .356 when I hunt the black timber or my .35 Whelen or my .350 Rem Mag.

They are killers on elks which are hard to put down sometime. They'll do the same to a bear.