CA BEAR/DEER COMBO

[loneranger916]

Will be heading up the mountains with both a bear and deer tag this fall. As I only plan to take one rifle on this backcountry hunt, I wanted to get your opinion regarding the ideal caliber rifle for this dual hunt? I want an ethical kill for the bear, but also dont want overkill for the deal. At the moment, im leaning towards my 308, with 168 gr. Nosler E-Tip (CA lead-free law ) with muzzle vocality at 2820. What do you guys thing?

 

[270Weatherby]

That should work fine! Shot placement trumps. Good luck

 

[feelinducky]

.308, 270, 30-06, any 300 mag. If you have time and reload check out the hammer bullets.

 

[Deleted member 110997]

308 will be just right. Hopefully you get something with size.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Will be heading up the mountains with both a bear and deer tag this fall. As I only plan to take one rifle on this backcountry hunt, I wanted to get your opinion regarding the ideal caliber rifle for this dual hunt? I want an *Rule 1 Violation*al kill for the bear, but also dont want overkill for the deal. At the moment, im leaning towards my 308, with 168 gr. Nosler E-Tip (CA lead-free law ) with muzzle vocality at 2820. What do you guys thing?

Is that the only rifle you own or are there others to choose from? Just curious...i think your 308 will work awesome. I have never felt like black bears or deer take much gun to kill quickly and cleanly. We kill them both regularly with a 243 and 90gr bullets. I hunt mostly in Idaho, so my ideal cartridge would probably be a 6.5x284 Norma with a 130-140 gr bullet.

 

[Ross1147]

I'll be up there with you too. Still kicking around the idea of a bear tag, but the thought of packing out a bear 6+ miles doesn't seem worth it to me, don't want to kill one that bad..lol

 

[Wedgy]

What zone are you hunting ?

 

[Ross1147]

Eh, just B zone. I have a D16 tag (San Diego) and a B zone. I'll be going into the Marbles of of now. We were leaning towards the Yolla's, but just changed our minds?? It's a crap shoot for any of those areas.lol

 

[Clem Bronkoski]

Not sure how big the bears get there in CA. But I can't understand why you're concerned about "overkill" on deer. Dead is dead. Behind the shoulder won't ruin much meat if any. I've shot a half dozen black bear and find they are not that difficult to kill. A bullet in the boiler room will put them down pretty quickly. But you need to get into the vitals. You didn't say what choices of chamberings you have. but if you have more than the .308, IMO, use it.

 

[loneranger916]

What zone are you hunting ?

i'll be in B zone

 

[Wedgy]

I could help you if you were near me but you're not. Bears aren't big here in general... not to say you never see a 350+ but VERY rarely. A good bear is 225-275 lbs and even a .243 Win is fine, any lead free bullet. They "never" attack humans here, as I type there will be the 1st ever human attack but they are afraid of people and avoid contact.
A 308 is way more than enough !

 

[loneranger916]

I could help you if you were near me but you're not. Bears aren't big here in general... not to say you never see a 350+ but VERY rarely. A good bear is 225-275 lbs and even a .243 Win is fine, any lead free bullet. They "never" attack humans here, as I type there will be the 1st ever human attack but they are afraid of people and avoid contact.
A 308 is way more than enough !

what zone do you hunt?

 

[Wedgy]

We love to hunt X9b but none of us drew a tag this year so just over the counter tags in D13 this year.
A few years ago they banned the use of dogs for bear hunting so there are quite a few more bears. They don't like to advertise it but the DFG(renamed to DFW, W being wildlife) has taken out a lot of problem bears that get to the nuisance stage near homes. Kind of ironic that they make a move to protect them then have to kill them because there's too many.

 

[memtb]

longrange916, What is "overkill"? But, tobetter answer your question, the .308 would be a good choice! memtb