Goldilocks gets revenge!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/24/AR2005102402024.html
Looks like great minds do think alike: Please see **Weirddave’s ** thread.
“They won’t eat now, they won’t eat a thing.”
Sounds like someone was told that black bears are known to be ferocious and indiscrim inate man/kid-eaters. I wonder if she even knows what she killed? Not that it matters I guess. Good shooting for a little kid, but a .24 calibre rifle? Bit small for bear isn’t it?
She killed a bear with a rifle? I wonder how the bear got the rifle in the first place.
Well, the Constitution says that we have the right to arm bears doesn’t it???
.243 Win is definitely light for bear. The general rule of thumb is nothing smaller than a .30 cal bullet. It’s as much the thick mat of hair and tough hide as the sheer bulk of mass. 211lb is pretty small for a full-grown bear.
I’m not opposed to hunting for game management purposes–we’ve seen with deer what happens when populations overrun their resources–but I question whether Maryland really needs to thin out bear populations, and in any case, the young lady in question seems badly misinformed on the topic of hwat bears will eat; they can actually be rather picky, if vociferous eaters, and black bears are rarely predatory and almost never wantonly aggressive toward people. And I regard trophy hunting–which this appears to be–as an abominable practice.
But then, I like bears, despite an altercation with one that tried to claim my backpack. [thread=299721]Pigeons[/thread], on the other hand–you can shoot those all day without any complaint from me.
Stranger
Yes, but it bears repeating. Even if you’re opposed to repetitious bears. 
Dances, you never miss ursin for a cheap pun. That was just grizzly.
Nah, it’s just been bruin for a while. 
Glad they got pictures-it certainly was a Kodiak Moment™.
What about a polar-oid?
Or perhaps a moment for an old brown-ie camera.
So long as he wasn’t panda-ering to the photographer. :eek:
No, it’s not, not if you’re not hunting grizzleys or Alaskan Brown bears. It’s all about the shot placement, and it’s what I use. Many hunters use a higher caliber, but the bear hunters that I run with say even a .22LR will do the job if you’re a good shot. I’m a good shot.
Good for her. I wish my dad had taken me hunting at her age, but he quit when I was about three and it took me twenty years to get into it on my own. For what it’s worth, I turned down a shot at a bear about that size this year. And that size would be a few years old, not a cub.
I just checked with my gun guru and he supports the Cowgirl. I don’t know if I could approach a bear with a .22 or not though. I’m a good shot, but while a black bear would just as soon run away from me as look at me I can’t help thinking I’d arouse his inner kodiak should I fail to murder him on the first shot. Did anyone else notice that this little girl put 2 shots into the beast? And that she started shooting at 50 yards? Ovaries of steel! I’d have shit my pants twice in the time it took a wounded blackie to get to me and eat me up! She just drilled it again!
Dogfaces, can I get a HOO AH!!!
A .22LR roundnose will penetrate surprisingly well, owing to it’s high sectional density, but it isn’t going to have much of a wound channel. Unless you’re lucky enough to hit the brainstem or spine you’re just going to have a pissed off or scared bear at hand. .243 will do the job, clearly, but it wouldn’t be my preference; in my mind, that’s more of a whitetail cartridge. A .270 Win or a decently powerful .30cal/7mm is really a better round for assured penetration and critical damage, shot placement or no. YMMV, but I’ll (hypothetically) stick with large caliber for large game and leave the .22LR for rodents and rabbits.
These days, though, I do my hunting at the butcher’s counter. Do as you please.
Stranger
We have a 7 y.o. daughter. I would love to get her to shoot even a .22, but she is (unfortunately) gun shy. It’s a predicament… on the one hand I don’t want to put undue pressure on her, but on the other hand I’d love to see her get into hunting & shooting.
As far as caliber goes, the .243 is probably the lightest round I would use for bear. Personally, I’d go with .308 or .30-06. The latter can take down anything in North America.
Well, to be fair, I should point out that I hunt bear with hounds, and we can typically get a pretty good shot at the brain case. I would never use a .22 on anything from the ground; it just wouldn’t be clean or ethical. Well, except squirrels, but that’s different. Shooting on the ground does require a different caliber, and you’re right, a .243 would be pretty light for a big black bear.
I’d love to have a .270 for longer shots, but a .243 is what I have.
Crafter Man, my 7 year old son is a little gun shy too, so I’m not pushing it either. When he’s ready, I have a BB gun for him (which we’ve already played with some to learn the rules) and then a nice pellet rifle, and I just bought a .22 to teach both of my boys with. I plan to start slowly like that and keep it fun, but if they don’t want to (and my older son doesn’t) then no skin off my nose. I would be very proud to be that girl’s mother though!
I have a .270 and I would want to use at least a high quality 140 grain bullet before I felt comfortable hunting bear with it. (A Barnes X, Nosler Partition etc.) And a sidearm and/or a hunting partner would also be nice. My .45-70 on the other hand would make short work of any ursine prey in this continent.