workable plan,243 for a bear ?

J

jetman

New member
Well here it is 6 days to General big game season AKA deer season. As I had originally thought the 6mm build is not complete. In the back of my mind I had hopes but ,you know, Life thing. Plan 1 A, I'll use the 243. This is a gun I have adopted form my Daughter MANY years back. The Plan is the 6mm will replace it and I can relinquish it back to her, I'll still keep it safe in MY safe. Now I have shot 1000's of round through it and killed MANY game animals with it, I've added a top notch scope and tailored rounds that will shoot flees of a mouse's back. I'll hate to see it go I REALY have high hopes for the Mauser 6mm Remington. BUT this year I'll use it again for a wonderful buck , no doubt. We plan on a Snowy mountains deer trip and the place we hunt has a healthy population of black bear, in fact they are having a problem bear coming in to there yard and tearing up things. I could carry the 45/70 in the off chance I trip across a bear but man it's a lot of extra effort, everything is up and down there and I NEED all the help I can muster. The 243 is at least 3 pounds lighter and is a much better deer round. Now I'm thinking...
A well places 243 ,85 gr speer in the head of a bear should be a deadly shot, right? The 243 is very capable of putting it in to the exact brain spot. Either I'd kill it or Miss. I took it out again today just to make sure ,and yes 5 holes in a 200 yard target 'bout an inch and a half. It was kinda windy today ,and I did put my coyote Bipods from the '250 and they made little difference over sticks. Any of you 6mm rem. guys
think this is a mistake or a viable plan?
NO I'll stay with the 85's NO 100 grainers for me...Jetman
 
A healthy black bear will usually prefer to avoid human contact. A WOUNDED black bear is a nasty adversary and will attack you on sight. There is no way I'd rely on a 6mm cartridge to put down a bear. Yeah, a head shot will probably kill it just fine. But if you blow the shot and wound the bear, do you think you can put another round in it's head as it charges you?

I'd suggest you take a bigger gun and make a proper shot to the vitals.
 
I dropped one stone dead with a 223. It was a calf killer caught at the kill. It was the only gun around that day. There are better choices but the 243 will get it done with good shot placement.
 
I would strongly reccomend a monometal expanding bullet. TTSX TSX, GMX, E Tip, GS HV, CEB. . If your low you will wound it in the jaw. Too far forward and broad side wound it in the nose ect. If you do knock it down put in a few more in the body. .
A guy in Sitka got charged by a 6-6.5' brown bear while packing out a deer. He had his 25-06 with him. . He spines it at close range and knocked it down. It bounced right back up and came at him but his hunting buddy that was with him dumped it with his 338 thru the shoulder. That was that. The 25-06 bullet fish tailed on one of the vertibrea and didn't even break it. . I "think" he was shooting some long range cup and core bullet. Had he been shooting a monometal expanding bullet he probably would have busted that vertibrea and that would have anchored the bear.
 
Originally Posted By: HidalgoA healthy black bear will usually prefer to avoid human contact. A WOUNDED black bear is a nasty adversary and will attack you on sight. There is no way I'd rely on a 6mm cartridge to put down a bear. Yeah, a head shot will probably kill it just fine. But if you blow the shot and wound the bear, do you think you can put another round in it's head as it charges you?

I'd suggest you take a bigger gun and make a proper shot to the vitals. Oh come on... Plenty of black bears are taken from very close range with bows and arrows every year. Probably 95% of those bears ran off wounded, normal for game taken via archery. Probably ZERO of them charged the arrow slingers.
 
Large bears can get what is known as a double skull. I would start with a heart shot and not try the brain pan unless he were coming at me after the first shot. 243 is known to be a capable round for black bears in PA just use a good bullet no lighter than 100 gr
 
grab a handful of those big old letters and throw at it. should kill a bear easy.
smile.gif
 
I would avoid Speer bullets and potentially dangerous critters! I would never even think of using a .243 on bear. Add them both together and ole Murphy will come a knocking sooner or later.
 
Why no 100 grain'rs?

If there was no doubt on your part, you wouldn't have asked. So why handicap yourself further by limiting yourself to middle weight projectiles for the caliber? Just posing the question, keeping in mind I've never even seen a bear much less shot one.


Chupa
 
Originally Posted By: DiRTY DOGOriginally Posted By: HidalgoA healthy black bear will usually prefer to avoid human contact. A WOUNDED black bear is a nasty adversary and will attack you on sight. There is no way I'd rely on a 6mm cartridge to put down a bear. Yeah, a head shot will probably kill it just fine. But if you blow the shot and wound the bear, do you think you can put another round in it's head as it charges you?

I'd suggest you take a bigger gun and make a proper shot to the vitals. Oh come on... Plenty of black bears are taken from very close range with bows and arrows every year. Probably 95% of those bears ran off wounded, normal for game taken via archery. Probably ZERO of them charged the arrow slingers.

Still don't make it a good idea to take a small caliber gun after a large potentially dangerous animal. And those bears probably never saw the arrow slingers, either.
 
Originally Posted By: DiRTY DOGOriginally Posted By: HidalgoA healthy black bear will usually prefer to avoid human contact. A WOUNDED black bear is a nasty adversary and will attack you on sight. There is no way I'd rely on a 6mm cartridge to put down a bear. Yeah, a head shot will probably kill it just fine. But if you blow the shot and wound the bear, do you think you can put another round in it's head as it charges you?

I'd suggest you take a bigger gun and make a proper shot to the vitals. Oh come on... Plenty of black bears are taken from very close range with bows and arrows every year. Probably 95% of those bears ran off wounded, normal for game taken via archery. Probably ZERO of them charged the arrow slingers.

95% of archery killed bears run off wounded? really? you must not be an archer.

arrows kill differently than bullets, an arrow through the chest of anything kills quickly and effectively. a 243 with a good bullet through the CHEST will do the same.

head shots are the stuff of b.s stories around the campfire. kill or miss is not really the case, as stated earlier hit low, jaw, hit forward, nose. glance it off the top and pissed off bear. if you are as good a shot as you say, use a heavy good bullet and put it through the heart/ lungs. done deal!
 
Like others have stated, use a good tough bullet such as a mono expanding bullet or the partition types that will expand and penetrate well, shoot the black bear in the chest/lung/heart area, and you'll be fine.

Please do not try to shoot it in the head. That is a very low percentage shot and neither of you will probably fare well if you try that. If you do try a head shot, I actually hope the bear wins one way or another.
 
Archery, good chance a hit target doesn't know where it was hit from so a margin of safety there. The direction of a gunshot kind of kills anonymity unless it's from a good distance.

I find the number of 'missed' headshots correlates pretty closely to the number of dead animals found a few weeks later. Most of the head is not immediately vital. Only a very small portion will do more than torture an animal. A gutshot is a poor shot, and just as eventually fatal. A really bad shot in the [beeep] has a chance to eventually kill by infection also. None are shots that should be taken imo, no matter the final outcome.

Rule of thumb for blackbear is any caliber good for large deer is good for standard blacks. I'm not a fan of .243 for deer (bad experience), less so for something with pointy teeth. I personally would like a little more room for error than a 243 would provide. With proper shot placement it will do the job, assuming you use a good bullet. I'm a big fan of the ttsx for pretty much everything.
 
No headshots for me. I have nothing against the 100gr and I would probably use it in a nosler partition and for sure the vitals.
 
Well I never ever do a head shot for deer, antelope or elk. BUT I just can't but think with a black bear and a 243 it's the best option. I'm fairy confident that I can hit the sweet spot. I know there is a LOT of empty space in an animals head. I've threaded a bullet through trees and brush to hit the heart on a hidden white tail. Coyotes too. The 243 and I have send 1000's of prairie dogs to there final resting spot.
 
I'm not a bear hunter but if I was taking my 243 for bear it would be an 80gr GMX or 80gr TTSX through the lung/heart/shoulder area. Skip that noggin knocker idea
 
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