Posting this here as per request:

"You should post your story on Alaskan hunter forum. Let the 06 boys see what a real rifle will do in [ 1 ] shot.. "

Monday was the opener of Pennsylvania's 3-day bear season.
The first drive of the morning was in 3 parts, working our way up a valley. Mostly looked more like pheasant country except for a really thick hillside and a couple spruce patches. The first leg of the drive was a super steep hillside that had been pines but was clearcut about 8-10 years ago. It's only about 75 yards from top to bottom with a beanfield on top and mostly pasture below. Three of us took the hillside around with my brother flanking the top in the beanfield. Total length of the thick hillside is maybe 300 yards. We came through and about 60 yards from the end of the grown-up clearcut I walked across a huge bed that was well established. Did not look to me like it had been freshly used, though. I yelled up to the other two guys what I'd seen and just kept pushing forward. I had gone about 30 yards from there when I look out in front about 40 yards and see a black thing rolling from side to side. Immediately I thought "bear!!" and threw the rifle to shoulder, stopped and double-checked myself. Yep. Bear......BIG bear.........walking straight away from me. I looked through the scope and a tree was in the way so I sidestepped one step and could get the hairs clearly on the middle of what I could see of the back of the bear. When I fired, he disappeared. I turned to run down the hill and got caught in grapevines and multiflora. So I twisted/rolled about 10 yards down and got out on to a grass road that followed the bottom of the hill. I ran toward where I thought he should be but saw nothing. When I stopped, I could hear brush cracking in front. I threw the rifle up again but still saw nothing. Then I saw some goldenrod moving at the base of the hill and over a small hump. So I circled wide right and down the hill a bit. From there I could see him laying all piled up. The bullet hit his butt about 4 inches right of the tail and a couple inches lower. It drove through 7 inches of fat, 18 inches of hind quarter (smashing the top of the femur), and travelled on up into the cavity somewhere. I did not find the bullet. But it went through a minimum of 5 feet of black bear. Now, I'm not suggesting that anyone actually needs a .375 Wby. for black bear. But I would bet the farm that my .300 Win Mags. would not have been up to the task at hand in that particular instance. I imagine I'd have had less than a 50/50 chance to get a follow-up shot due to the terrain. The .375" 250 grainer planted 677 lbs of bear on the spot.........not counting the 15 yard downhill roll.

My brother and the other two drivers came down and the celebration followed. Then the other guys finished out the 2nd and 3rd legs of the drive (which netted a 285 lb. bear) while I went to get my Jeep and hitch-hauler. It took 9 men to lift the field dressed bear 12 inches from the ground up on to the hitch hauler!! Of the 2185 bears checked in the first two days in PA, mine was 2nd heaviest. The skull green scores 21 3/4".



I was also asked:

"What are the load specs? which bullet? .. And thanks for your testimonial concerning your 300 mags in comparison.. Is your rifle a factory Weatherby?.."

Load spec as follows:
Sierra 250 gr. GameKing
92.0 gr. H-414
Fed 210M primer
Weatherby brass
3050 fps/5165 ft.lbs at the muzzle

The rifle is an (sorry fellers) A-Bolt Stainless Stalker.

My go-to .300 Win Mag load is a 180 gr. Grand Slam at a bit over 3000 fps. It is a very capeable load. But it is my gut feeling it just would not have cut the mustard this time.

Wow that is 2.5 Kenai Black Bears in one package I made a .375AI on a MK-X for that same reason. Nice animal
Then again Brownies twice that size have been killed here in the real world with the trusty one shot 30-06 & 220g corlocks

Great bear...congrats!

Outstanding. Don't you love it when a plan comes together! Nice bear.

Thats a nice bear, but I am not so sure I'd be bragging about the Texas Heart shot thing, and yes that bear could have been killed my many smaller calibers than a 375 Weatherby. A black bear is a black bear is a black bear, they arent hard to kill. Might just be me, but a little patience probably would have provided you with a clean vital shot and I surely wouldn't have taken off running after I shot, not sure what thats all about. But Congrats on a good bear and I am glad you got him Texas Heart Shot and all.

Cub........

Thanks for the congrats. The THS was it. The bear was a couple of seconds from being permanently gone when I saw him first due to the rolling terrain and the thickness of the brush. I went back on Sunday to look for my spent casing. I stepped it off at 48 yards. Yes...I am a front shoulder shot sorta guy. But at less than 50 yards, when a THS is all I'm going to be presented, I'm taking it. There was still plenty of good eating around the hole. I'm sure a lesser round could also have killed the bear......but not anchored him on the spot. No way. I've shot lots & lots of stuff with .300 Mags and have seen it firsthand.