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Hunting & Fishing Bear Hunting info needed

athanasios23

athanasios23

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Dec 28, 2009
733
178
38
New York, USA
#1
Looking to book a bear hunt. Never hunted a bear so was wondering if a heavy 308 bullet will do the trick. Also is there an good bear outfitters in NY? I have seen a couple for the adirandack MTS but looking to see if any members on here have hunted upstate NY. Any other tips on gear and equipment will be much appreciated.
 
#3
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

168 gr vld(target).308 as said above bears arent hard to kill. They arent as "huge" as everyone seems to think either. Be careful caping yours out hides are paper thin.
255i99e.jpg
 
#5
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

I want to go after bear and moose in the next few year, not trying to hijack your thread but anyone hunt with a 30.06 or a 280 ackley improved?

recommend any good (yet reasonable priced)outfitters for a poor southern boy?
 
#6
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

you put a hole in the boiler room and it lights out
its more about shoot placement than how big the hole is?
i have shot bear with archery,243,300wm,44mag,7mm08,6.5jap. they all died one shot one kill. the one with the 44 was 3 shots
 
#7
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

Bear seem to die easy. I've killed only two, a 325 pounder with a 30/30 and a 450lb one with a 6.5x55, one shot each. I've seen several more killed with 357s and 44s. Shot placement is the key.


ETA: I should qualify that, black bears seem to die easy, I have no experience with griz.

252blackout.jpg


 
#9
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ath23</div><div class="ubbcode-body">that bear looks huge for a black bear....really hope i can get the coin together and book a hunting trip this year....if not i will def have it booked for 2011 </div></div>

Yeah....it was. Luckily I was able to get my truck to about 25 yards away and below him on a steep grassy slope. We used the bed sideboards as a ramp and two of us managed to get him in the truck in one piece. I didn't have a good guess at his weight until we actually weighed him.....WOW. 450lbs on the nose.

250 yards, Sako Finnlite in 6.5x55, Leupold 6x42. Hornady 129gr. SP, one shot through the heart and exited, he travelled about 25 yards after the hit.

What state are planning to hunt? Good Luck.
 
#13
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ath23</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Looking to book a bear hunt. Never hunted a bear so was wondering if a heavy 308 bullet will do the trick. Also is there an good bear outfitters in NY? I have seen a couple for the adirandack MTS but looking to see if any members on here have hunted upstate NY. Any other tips on gear and equipment will be much appreciated.</div></div>
308 would be just fine i would use as heavey of bullet as i could seat proporly and still reliably feed and would not come apart if it hit a big bone mad bears arn't much fun espesialy when there close
 
#14
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

Just a thought, look at some game stats from the Pa. game commission. They post bear kill totals for the prior years and you can get a pretty good idea of the bear population. Go find a bear check in station and talk to the local wardens. They can point you in the right direction to find bear. The hunts are sometimes tough in the areas of Pa that border Ny, and certainly not a guarentee by any means of finding a bear. But the season is a week and sometimes longer depending on county, sometimes running into deer season, kinda a two for one deal. Just someting to think about if your kicking ideas around.
 
#16
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

dang that is a big bear, hard to find one that big in Idaho! Do you have to have an outfitter?

I know state rules are all different, but we can use bait and hounds here in Idaho, makes it alot easier to just do DIY hunt, and a lot cheaper...well, unless you get a greaser with a fetish for twinkies and only comes in at night, can get spendy...
 
#17
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

I have a couple friends that are headed out for bear this spring, one to Idaho and 2 others to Canada. When they asked about bullet weight I told them the heaviest thing there rifles would shoot accurately. They have all been told shots will be at most 75 yards with most being under 30 as they will be hunting out of stands. I suggensted heavy round nose stuff just to keep chances of fragmentation to a minimum. If I were taking one of my rifles for the same thing right now it would be my 375H&H with 300gr RN's. Stout bullet at moderate velocity nice in and out with no big holes.
 
#20
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

thanks for the great info and awesome pics guys..want to go bear hunting even more...found a few outfitters in new york and pa...found 4 day hunts in pa foor $350 which includes 3 meals a day, a cabin to sleep in and thousands of acres of public and private land. no guide and i have to pay for pa license and tag which is about $250 together. Also found guided hunts which are about $950-1500 in PA and NY. Seems like the non-guided hunt in PA would be great but with the fact I have no bear hunting experience i find myself with delema of wanting to go with a guide so i can learn the in's and out's of bear hunting. i will be using my 308 and the bullet i will probably use is the federal 180 grain nosler partition... reason for my choie it that i had great experience with the 100 grain nosler partition in my 243
 
#22
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

scan0004-10.jpg


Action pic a friend took of me in Idaho a few years back..

DIY black bear hunts are pretty doable. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming I believe are all three over the counter tags and no guide required(except wilderness areas in Wyoming).
 
#24
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

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Three pics from an Alaskan DIY black bear hunt I made back in the 90's. Had a float plane drop a buddy and I off for 10 days...we saw 30+ bears during that time...really fun hunt!
 
#26
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

The best part was the cost...Think I had less than $1200 spent for the whole thing, including tags, airline ticket,float plane and grub. I hunted with a pard from Anchorage....need to get back up there one of these days..
 
#32
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mdesign</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I know they can come to bait but how else can you find them? Do they have patterns or live in a certain hangout? </div></div>

In the spring they go to the best and most green grass they can find. And thats almost always on a barred off south facing slope. Spot and stalk type hunting...its the only way I've ever hunted them. I'm not against guys that hunt them with bait, I just like finding them and trying to close the gap before dark...Big black bears are a very worthy adversary anyway you choose to hunt them. I put a big mature black bear near the top of my list...
 
#34
Re: Bear Hunting info needed

dont waste your time or MONEY in pa. hunted more than a few blacks in the allagash of maine. met a lot of guys from pa sayin how they wasted time and money.
 
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