Buckshot for black bear...really??

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abrink

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Moyock North Carolina but i go to VA a lot also.
I just picked up a case of Remington magnum buckshot for deer season this year and it has chart on it with shot sizes and what game you can use them for. One was black bear. They suggested 00 or 000. I always thought slugs were the way to go with black bears. Would a 3" 00 buck shotshell really take care of an angry black bear?
 
I was raised in the Green Swamp of NC and can verify that buckshot fed our family many a day during the Great Depression. Yes, it will kill bear and deer. Back in my youth, the only buckshot my father had in our neck of the woods was 00 in 2 3/4" loads. Those old J. Stevens doubles were pretty good guns at close range. We used hounds and if that bear was within 35-45 yards, a couple of quick shots ended his career. Some of our neighbors used those old Columbia single barrels.

I have to admit that buckshot doesn't have the range of a slug but it will absolutely kill a bear. Most bears are very unhappy when chased by hounds. Bear hunters in that part of the world now use 44 magnum pistols and 30-30 rifles when hound hunting bears.

African big game hunters are frequently quoted as stating that armed with a shotgun loaded with buckshot, they are not afraid to face a charging lion. Certainly, it would be up to a much smaller bear, angry or not.
 
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Black bears are not Grizzly or Brown bears. They are not that hard to kill. Some of the eastern Black bears can get pretty big, greater then 500 lbs.
 
I think buckshot is a little underpowered for bear... I would try to be a little humane and use something in the line-up of .30-06 and larger.

:)
 
Use 00 buck on anything at proper distance, and it will awaken a respect for the load. A close friend of mine butchered a large buck he took with 2 3/4" 00 @ 30yds, and he found 6 of 9 pellets, the others passed through. I can't imagine a bear weighing two or three times as much surviving that wound, even briefly. So yeah... really. :)
 
Adrenalized bears at close range?

Brenneke 2 3/4" slugs.

Penetration and breaking shoulder bones is the name of the game for defensive shooting.

A treed bear or a calm bear feeding is a different story.
 
double ought buck will kill a brown bear. Just not humanely. A day or two later it'll be dead. Since it takes that long, it's probably not a good idea to use as defense against a brown bear.
 
Interesting....

Well, it wouldn't have occurred to me to use buckshot as a primary choice for black bear, but as pointed out, they're not Grizzlies... in some ways they're more like big raccoons.

I still like the idea, though, of using 'more gun' on anything larger than I am in the food chain. :scrutiny: There's been an awful lot of black bear put to rest with the 30-30, and with anything like proper shot placement, the 30-06 would suit me fine.

The only problem I have with buckshot is you're really counting on at least one pellet lighter than a .32acp slug finding a vital organ and doing its job quickly. I don't doubt it'd work - but many of us live in states where you can't use buckshot on deer because it's not reliable for clean kills. I'd apply the same logic to bears and go with a slug if I were carrying a shotgun.
 
More gun is almost always better, I'm just saying that it can and will get the job done. Given preference, I'l take a Brenneke KO. In a pinch, buck will do the trick.
 
Slugs would be ideal if you can put them in the right place.

The pucker factor involved with being within spitting distance of a bear in his territory is, from personal experience, enough to make me think I may not be able to shoot as accurately as I'd need to were the bear "out of spitting range".

Given that memory, 00 or 000 buck sounds appealing, possibly in front of some slugs in the tube if you have the option.
 
I don't speak from experince, but I find it hard to believe that any beast would be able to handle a load of 00 buck to the face. Keep in mind I have never been confronted by a Grizzly or Kodiak. Based on the testimony of the guys in the local gun shop I would not want anything smaller tham a missile!:) But for Black Bear I believe that 00 buck will not be a problem. While I believe it will work, I am unwilling to fully rely on it. Consequently, the first shot is 3" Magnum 00 buck and the subsequent rounds are 3" Magnum 1 oz slugs. There is method to my madness. My hope is that the 00 buck will compensate for any accuracy problem that may come out of the high stress moment. Hopefully it will slow him down enough for me to follow up with 6 slugs!

Heavy
 
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The only problem I have with buckshot is you're really counting on at least one pellet lighter than a .32acp slug finding a vital organ and doing its job quickly. I don't doubt it'd work

Thats not how I see it. Myself I am counting on most all the pellets hitting in a group. If I hit with only one pellet then I had no business taking the shot, I was way to far away. Buckshot is a very deadly and devastating load when used properly.
 
I suggest anyone interested in the material shooting ability of a shotgun read the box-o-truth.

Good real-world examples of what a shotgun can do (00 Buck ~ 7 sheets of drywall...not what I would think is humane to kill large game but thats just my opinion).

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot3.htm

Be safe.

:)
 
One other thought, while I have hunted and killed a few Black bears over the years, yesterday I was at the new Scheels that opened in Reno. They have a wildlife mountain in the store with a bunch of mounts on it. If any of you get the chance you have got to go see it. Anyways they have a couple of Black bear mounts and a couple of Grizzly bear mounts and one Brown bear mount.

The Brown was Big but not one of the bigger ones. If going up against a pissed off Brown or Grizzly all I can say is bring enough gun.
 
After watching the video I'm inclinded to believe the gentleman from down south who used buckshot on dear and bear. The video pointed out something important; the buckshot would stay in the bear, and the lead pellets flattened out, pretty much like they would in tissue.

This just means the buckshot load would expend all of it's energy inside the bear. The pellets flattening out should do the same thing with tissue; larger surface area creating more tissue damage as a result. Another fact I believe that was pointed out was the greater chance of hitting the target under duress, something the shotgun was created to do.
 
brown bear only exist in the rockies, and north of the USA. Some people differentiate between brown, grizzly, and kodiak. I do not. To me they are all the same, just regional variations.

Black bear exist in the south and the appalacians.

Both species(black and brown) come in different colors. Black, brown, blond, or grey.
 
Black bear exist in the south and the appalacians.

Among other places.

A black bear is to a brown bear as a ford ranger is to an F350. I have no doubt a load of 00 buckshot could kill a black bear. It is not what I would use however. A brown bear is another story.
 
Loomis, I agree to a point but there is a big difference in the sizes when you compare the three and the Kodiak Brown bears are the biggest of the bunch and live on an island.

Black bears live pretty much through out the United States From the west to the east and also into BC and Canada. I believe some parts of Alaska also.
 
No black bear in nebraska, iowa, kansas, or south dakota. I live in iowa.

Wow, I just looked up black bear on wikipedia. I had no idea they were so widespread in canada. And when did they become so sparse in the old south?
 
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