Well you and me both. I guess that the responses were to the question the OP presented. Sometimes some of the threads take on a whole new life of their own. In my opinion you are not old, you just possess common sense; and, sometimes common sense is a flower that does not grow in everyone's garden!! I'm into the larger diameter bullets for black bear hunting, thus the 35 Whelen, .358 Winchester and the 45-70. Most any rifle cartridge can kill a bear, just some are not as practical as others. Whether it's a black bear or a grizzly bear neither one are fun to track when they are wounded. My last experience with a guide looking or a wounded black bear turned into a situation where the guide was almost torn up. That bear was gut shot with an arrow, the hunter swore that it was a good hit, not....so! The only reason the bear died was because the arrow struck a major artery in the hind leg. To me a question of, "What caliber would you recommend for hunting black bears?" would be a better one. On this forum you will find the this question gets asked quite often for just about all game that is hunted. I like to hunt with a caliber that I know will get the job done with no questions asked. I like the .270 Winchester, however for black bear hunting I prefer a larger caliber (diameter) bullet for an exit hole for a blood trail. I like the .270, I just believe that there are better calibers to hunt bear with. All of the outfitters that I have hunted with all preach the same thing, large exit holes in case the bear has to be tracked.
! I'm on the other end of the continuum. I'm there for a week, I've paid a considerable amount of money, for my budget, and I'd like to get the job done. My artillery is comprised of 35 Whelen, .358 Winchester and an 1895 Marlin Guide gun in 45-70. I've never used the Guide Gun, however have seen a number of bear that have been shot with the 45-70 with impressive results. I've shot a number of bear with the 35 Whelen, and one bear with the .358 Winchester, great calibers for bear hunting.
