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Black Bear With the 153gr Afterburner - 523 Yards
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<blockquote data-quote="yorke-1" data-source="post: 2622596" data-attributes="member: 11960"><p>Mark covered the important stuff pretty well.</p><p></p><p>This bear was in the same valley as a bear I missed 2 years ago, and it's very likely the same bear. Chocolate color phase bears are common in this area, but the chocolate/cinnamon combo on this bear is not very common. I spotted this bear on the opposite side of the same valley as the bear I missed, from the same spot that I shot from a few years earlier. I missed the bear 2 years ago after my scope was knocked off zero while I was rolling down the berry field. When I saw that bear at 250 yards, I just held dead on since that rifle was zeroed at 250 yards, without checking my turret. Sure enough, I went about 8" over that bear's back. I didn't get a second clear shot, so I let it walk and just kicked myself for not checking my scope.</p><p></p><p>I spotted this bear initially at 501 yards, but I never snap-shoot at bear. I always try to watch them for at least 15 minutes just to be sure there aren't any cubs hanging around. This doesn't guarantee it's a boar or a solo sow, but it does make me feel better about taking the shot on a personal level. I watched this one for almost 20 minutes as she worked through the berries and never saw any cubs crawling around. By the time I was in a good position and the bear was in a good position, it was at 523 yards. The problem here is that my personal max range with the rifle I had with me was 500 yards. The gun is an old flat back Savage in 300 RUM. I've had it sitting around for a few years after taking it in trade, and it's an "acceptable" shooter on a good day. The most accurate load I found for it up until about a year ago was a 200gr A-Frame at a touch over 1 MOA. The only reason I still have this 300 RUM is that the 153 Afterburners shot pretty well out of it. It's no high end match rifle, but it's an honest 3/4 MOA rifle with the 153 Afterburner at 3520 fps. I've shot this combo as far as 900 yards and it held roughly 1 MOA out that far. My comfort zone with the combo is right about 500 yards though from a good field rest. 523 yards was right at my limit, but the wind was directly in my face and I had a good setup on a log, and the bear wasn't spooked at all.</p><p></p><p>I have the 300 RUM zeroed at 240 yards with the 153gr Afterburner so that I can essentially hold on the spine at 400 yards. In this case, I dialed up 4 MOA since my drop chart says 4.1 MOA at 525. Because this rifle has a muzzle brake and I value my hearing, I put in some earplugs when I got ready for the shot. The downside to this is that I can't usually hear the bullet impact unless I hit a rock or something hard. The bear was facing uphill, but on a stump at an odd angle, slightly quartering. I held just right of the spine, right between the shoulders with the hope that the bullet would pass through and catch both lungs or possibly a lung and the heart. I couldn't hear the impact, but the bear just dropped from sight. The berries are about waist-high, so it's tough to see an animal once it's on the ground. The shot felt good and I couldn't see any movement on the hill, so I packed up and headed over to look for the bear. After wasting time searching around the wrong stump with no blood, (and starting to panic! LOL) I got my bearings and moved over to the correct stump 30 yards away, where I found her in the bushes right at the base.</p><p></p><p>In reality, she wasn't facing uphill as much as I thought and I hit slightly higher than I wanted (within 4" which is as good as this rifle will hold though). The bullet went in just above the right shoulder and just right of the spine, then exited at the base of the neck on the left side. It was essentially a shot right at the base of the neck. A lot of the damage in the picture of the exit is from the broken vertebrae, as Can1010 pointed out. In a perfect world, I would have just waited for a full broadside shot to get a perfect test of the bullet.</p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6SLR2mB.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/yOchHZ1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>This isn't a big bear by any means, but she does have a beautiful hide. The hanging weight at the meat shop was 98#, so I imagine the live weight was in the 150# range. That's a pretty average size bear for this area at this time of year.</p><p></p><p>The impact velocity should have been right around 2550 fps like Mark posted. In all honesty, pretty much any bullet would have dropped this bear the same way if it took out a chunk of the spine and severed pretty much all of the major arteries in the neck. For me though, the Afterburner is the bullet that made this particular rifle a viable hunting rifle. This gun was on the list to get torn apart for parts until I shot the Apex bullets in there. 18 Months ago I would have laughed at the though of using this gun for a 500 yard shot on a game animal. Now it's responsible for my longest shot on game to date. I'm an avid long-range shooter, but typically hunt with handguns or a muzzleloader. 523 yards with this gun was really a noteworthy accomplishment in my book.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="yorke-1, post: 2622596, member: 11960"] Mark covered the important stuff pretty well. This bear was in the same valley as a bear I missed 2 years ago, and it's very likely the same bear. Chocolate color phase bears are common in this area, but the chocolate/cinnamon combo on this bear is not very common. I spotted this bear on the opposite side of the same valley as the bear I missed, from the same spot that I shot from a few years earlier. I missed the bear 2 years ago after my scope was knocked off zero while I was rolling down the berry field. When I saw that bear at 250 yards, I just held dead on since that rifle was zeroed at 250 yards, without checking my turret. Sure enough, I went about 8" over that bear's back. I didn't get a second clear shot, so I let it walk and just kicked myself for not checking my scope. I spotted this bear initially at 501 yards, but I never snap-shoot at bear. I always try to watch them for at least 15 minutes just to be sure there aren't any cubs hanging around. This doesn't guarantee it's a boar or a solo sow, but it does make me feel better about taking the shot on a personal level. I watched this one for almost 20 minutes as she worked through the berries and never saw any cubs crawling around. By the time I was in a good position and the bear was in a good position, it was at 523 yards. The problem here is that my personal max range with the rifle I had with me was 500 yards. The gun is an old flat back Savage in 300 RUM. I've had it sitting around for a few years after taking it in trade, and it's an "acceptable" shooter on a good day. The most accurate load I found for it up until about a year ago was a 200gr A-Frame at a touch over 1 MOA. The only reason I still have this 300 RUM is that the 153 Afterburners shot pretty well out of it. It's no high end match rifle, but it's an honest 3/4 MOA rifle with the 153 Afterburner at 3520 fps. I've shot this combo as far as 900 yards and it held roughly 1 MOA out that far. My comfort zone with the combo is right about 500 yards though from a good field rest. 523 yards was right at my limit, but the wind was directly in my face and I had a good setup on a log, and the bear wasn't spooked at all. I have the 300 RUM zeroed at 240 yards with the 153gr Afterburner so that I can essentially hold on the spine at 400 yards. In this case, I dialed up 4 MOA since my drop chart says 4.1 MOA at 525. Because this rifle has a muzzle brake and I value my hearing, I put in some earplugs when I got ready for the shot. The downside to this is that I can't usually hear the bullet impact unless I hit a rock or something hard. The bear was facing uphill, but on a stump at an odd angle, slightly quartering. I held just right of the spine, right between the shoulders with the hope that the bullet would pass through and catch both lungs or possibly a lung and the heart. I couldn't hear the impact, but the bear just dropped from sight. The berries are about waist-high, so it's tough to see an animal once it's on the ground. The shot felt good and I couldn't see any movement on the hill, so I packed up and headed over to look for the bear. After wasting time searching around the wrong stump with no blood, (and starting to panic! LOL) I got my bearings and moved over to the correct stump 30 yards away, where I found her in the bushes right at the base. In reality, she wasn't facing uphill as much as I thought and I hit slightly higher than I wanted (within 4" which is as good as this rifle will hold though). The bullet went in just above the right shoulder and just right of the spine, then exited at the base of the neck on the left side. It was essentially a shot right at the base of the neck. A lot of the damage in the picture of the exit is from the broken vertebrae, as Can1010 pointed out. In a perfect world, I would have just waited for a full broadside shot to get a perfect test of the bullet. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/6SLR2mB.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/yOchHZ1.jpg[/IMG] This isn't a big bear by any means, but she does have a beautiful hide. The hanging weight at the meat shop was 98#, so I imagine the live weight was in the 150# range. That's a pretty average size bear for this area at this time of year. The impact velocity should have been right around 2550 fps like Mark posted. In all honesty, pretty much any bullet would have dropped this bear the same way if it took out a chunk of the spine and severed pretty much all of the major arteries in the neck. For me though, the Afterburner is the bullet that made this particular rifle a viable hunting rifle. This gun was on the list to get torn apart for parts until I shot the Apex bullets in there. 18 Months ago I would have laughed at the though of using this gun for a 500 yard shot on a game animal. Now it's responsible for my longest shot on game to date. I'm an avid long-range shooter, but typically hunt with handguns or a muzzleloader. 523 yards with this gun was really a noteworthy accomplishment in my book. [/QUOTE]
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Black Bear With the 153gr Afterburner - 523 Yards
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