I have quite a few bears that wander through my property during the year, this one got to be a real nuisance. I shot this bear just above my yard.

Mod. 28 S&W, Keith 173 gr. cast bullet.

Nice bear John!!! I like the coloring of the coat, Pretty neat. How big do ya figure he was? He looks like a good sized bear. Congradulations sir!!!

Great looking bear, and very refreshing post. No firebreathing wristwrenching super duper magnum. Just a proven cartridge, with the proper bullet, put in the proper place. And it looks like no hesitation to take the bear in the thick stuff ;^) I think you broke every single modern internet theory on suitable bear rounds ;^) I love it.

Craig

My mantra is and has always been that there is no replacement for placement. That said, I choose to make big holes because I can -- no other reason!

Nice work, John!!

Congrats! What a convenience to have an inconvenience of bears around the yard!

Thanks for the kind words.

Sometimes I have bears, the same bear, that show up in or near my yard three times a day. I have no vendetta against bears, I truly enjoy seeing them, however I will not tolerate them around my horses. This bear was getting to be a regular. I had played tag with this one in the thickets for about three weeks and never had a good shot. Then one day I caught the bear just as it came out of the thick cover, just above me on the side hill. It was quartering away and above me, about 25 yards, an almost perfect bow hunters shot. The bear dropped at the shot and rolled into the thicket, thrashed a bit and rolled into the open, I administered one more behind the ear, and that was that.

My load was the 358429 bullet cast out of soft lead, over 7 gr. of Unique, 1100 fps according to my chonograph. I did not recover the bullet as it passed completely through.

I estimated live weight to be 250-300# and that is about as big as the bears get around here.

I do have a big brown phase bear that is probably closer to 400#, he has been staying away from my place and as long as we have an "accord" he will live to a ripe old age.

I have had some real interesting times with sows and cubs. I would be hard pressed to shoot a sow with a cub, because I would have to take the cub as well, fortunately I have not had to do that.

The bear before this one I took with my Blackhawk .45 Colt, with just the standard, 255/900 load, it was "over kill" in my estimate.

Gotta love hunting at home.

awesome job! my favorite caliber at that too!


btw- on a side note, do you sell your cast 173gr. bullets?

bmbailes

Here is a link you will enjoy.. http://www.leverguns.com/articles/taylor/357magnum.htm

I do not sell my bullets too many liability problems, however I do loan molds..

John

awesome! thanks for the link.

Boartuff

Not just bears, there are mt. lions, white tail deer mule deer elk, lynx, bob cat, coyotes and wild turkeys. I see more game out of my kitchen window, than most people see hunting for an entire season.

I like it here..

John,
All I can say is I'm jealous:)

Chad

Kind of a long hard trail getting here, lots of very high stress jobs along the way. Now it is good to go out on the ridge and watch the sun set.

When there is snow on the ground I check for interesting tracks every morning, a couple of days back I found elk tracks headed up toward my horse barn, probably a cow, I couldn't tell if she went in to work the feeders too many horse tracks. I have had a cow that grazes with the horses, she tries to convince me that she is just another horse.

better then the deer...

Great information I let my 28 go a few years ago and kicked my self ever since brought it new in 1972 for $120.00

Mad Dog 1954

When I was in Alaska, I got a "dispensation" from my detachment commander, and carried my 28 as my duty side arm. Those old "N" frame smith .357s would shoot a steady diet of the "old" .357 mag loads and just keep "ticking".. the new standard load is pretty anemic by comparison, it is good to reload.

I bought my first 28 back in the 60s, new for $87.50. They were great value for the dollar, not as pretty as the 27s, the shot as well and that is what is important.

That's just awesome. And I feel lucky shooting rabbits in my yard with an air rifle!

Nice bear, and good story.

MN

MN

I started off as a hand gun hunter on the farm back in NY, I used to hunt squirrels along the edge of the corn fields with a Crosman CO2 pistol.

So rabbits in the yard with and air gun, is just good practice. I shot a lot of rabbits with an air gun in Alaska, during the peak of the cycle, and the saying there was, a bunch or rabbits in the freezer is much better than no moose.

I had fresh bob cat tracks in the yard this AM.

I take it that is your contender in the avatar, do you have a .22LR barrel for it?? If so, the new CCI "Quiet 22s" would be just the ticket for "things" in the yard, that round is quieter than a lot of air guns.

Take care and thanks .. John

I'll ditto this.
STeve