One fine spring June, finds me and my hunting partner from Texas, ensconced in the Upper Russian Lake cabin. Set to enjoy a week of ice-out fishing during the mid-day and a chance at a Grizzly or the odd Black Bear in the "witching hours" of morning and evening. We had located a sheep carcass in an avalanche run out, and had great hopes that "ol' mister griz" would locate it too. We watched it like a hawk morning and evening for a couple of days. Finally the scent and the wind did its job and a good-sized boar showed up.
Now my partner is a little recoil shy, and a disciple of the "high velocity small bullet" religion. As a result he shot a souped up 7mm Remington Magnum. It was free throated for extra velocity, and accurized to replace the accuracy lost by free throating. My personal choice was "ol' thumper" a .338 Winchester Mag., lacking the resources and availability of a good .375 H&H. I used the flat shooting Sierra 250 grain SBT, with a ballistic co-efficient of .596, stoked just as hot as "ol' thumper" could stand them. For short-range work I used the 300-grain Barnes heavy jacket. The velocity was less, but it was reputed to penetrate like a jackhammer.
We circled down wind and stalked to within 150 yards in good cover all the way. We eased up behind a huge cottonwood blow down, and glassed the bear. He was a good one, young, no rubs on the hide that we could see, probably a male, because no sows had been seen yet that spring. My partner won the toss and snuggled down taking a rest on the downed tree. He waited patiently for good side shot as the bear worked to dig the sheep carcass out of the tightly packed snow of the avalanche run out.
Now there are two schools of thought on bullet placement in a big bear. School one says take him through the lungs if the distance is great enough and let nature take its course when the bear is unable to breathe.
The second school says take him through the front shoulders to immobilize him, and follow up with a second shot to the lungs. I subscribed to the second school and practiced often and long getting off a second accurate shot. I had shot competitively for years with a bolt-action rifle and the motion was automatic. I was as fast as anyone I had seen with a bolt action. I had practiced with "ol' thumper" extensively. I even went to the extreme of developing reduced velocity loads, and used it for squirrel hunting. Well my partner had witnessed much of my practicing, and thought the “through the shoulder school” was the way to go. Only problem was he did not have enough gun to pull it off.
At the shot the bear jumped in the air and took off. I was watching through the spotting scope and saw the hit. It looked too far forward for a lung shot. I asked my partner "where did you hold?" he replied "I took him through the shoulders". I called him a name you can only call a close friend.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Be sure to check in next week for part 3 !
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