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Any one ever go black bear hunting with a grendel?
How did it do? What bullet/load was used?
I know a lot of black bears was killed with the ole 30-30 so the grendel should work with good shot placement.
Shot are expected to be under 100 yards, 200 yards would be a rare long shot.
Thanks
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I dont quite remember the exact load. Hornaday 129 SPIRE POINT with using >30 gr BLC (2) is probably what I'd use. 130 gr Sicorroco would be a good choice also
Bears are pretty much powder puffs, I've not shot one with a Grendel but I've killed quite a few with my bow. All it takes is a double lung hit and they are down and out in just a few seconds. Study anatomy and then use any well constructed bullet to place your shot properly and any bear is done for. I would use the 129 SST Hornady or 120 TSX Barns or 125 Nosler Partition, or 130 Nosler Accbond or Hornady 120 GMX. Any one of them will get the job done cleanly. You don't need hot loads, just good solid full power loads, 30 Grains BLC, 28 grains 8208 and similar.
Bob
PS, don't you find it strange that guys from Floirida are advising on bear huntin?
Only talking about 1 small West Virginia bear. If I had any real bear expierence, I'd have let it walk.
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Florida has one of the largest bear population in the country and the largest black bears due to bears not hibernating in the winter. I spoke to a game warden some years ago in Ocala and he told me a story of a bear so big it got hit by a semi truck totaled the truck and then later got up and ran away. So it doesn't seem odd to me.
Its my understanding that until the early 1900 bears were so numerous in my part of Fla that the first cattle ranchers were driven out- reports that bears and gators killed > 1500 head of cattle the first year of the first ranching family that moved in. (That was a local newspaper article I dont konow if it was true.) Bears were hunted here to maybe 25 years ago, when they were declared endangered. I is my understanding total state numbers were <700. It is my understanding that now bears number>3000 and their numbers are doubeling every 18 months. Kinda like Moore Law. Soon enough, with good managment Fla will again be a place where hunge bears can lay in the sun and eat berrys in the swamps all year long.
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Didn't know Florida had bears. Learn something every day.
I shot my very first bear in Florida back in 1970, near Lake Placid, at a place called Bears Den Florida. I've encountered maybe two dozen bears in the wild in Florida over my life time. But in comparison to the places I choose to hunt them, Saskatchewan, Alaska, and Arizona, Floirda has no bears. I average seeing 5-7 per day in Saskatchewan. The area north of Phoenix and south of Payson in Arizona has the highest population density of black bears in the contentintal US at one bear per square mile.
If Folrida now has 3,000 bears that's a population density of 0.05 bears per suare mile or 1/20th the population density of the area in Arizona I described.
But I'm glad the bears are coming back in Florida, there are highway bear crossing signs north of my home on US19 near WikiWachee Springs.
I still think it's odd that two guys from Florida were giving advise on bear hunting.
Bob
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stokesrj Wrote:The area north of Phoenix and south of Payson in Arizona has the highest population density of black bears in the contentintal US at one bear per square mile.
If Folrida now has 3,000 bears that's a population density of 0.05 bears per suare mile or 1/20th the population density of the area in Arizona I described.
Bob
I used to hunt deer in that area a very long time ago. I'm thinking the Punkin Center area maybe?
Yes Pumpkin Center is right in the middle of the area I'm describing. I've seen the trails from the mountains to the prickly pear flats painted pink in early October by bear scat from eating the prickly pears. You could see which trails the bears were using with binoculats from miles away.
Bob
Those bears must have very tough tongue and mouth skin to not have a very rude sensation when they chomp on the pears!
Most of us people can just look cross-eyed at a prickly pear and get a hand full of those little needle spines. That is, unless one uses the proper equipment and technique.
But, the stuff makes good jelly so the care and effort of harvesting is worthwile!
