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Well, Sonny scored and tested a new .45-70 load for me to-boot.

We hunted Saturday in the continued dry conditions with the logging roads choked in deep dust. Very poor tracking conditions, and the dogs ran hard but we came up...dry...

Long day:

My son hunted Sunday. I wasn't able to be with him, but I handed him the camera and told him to use it.

The dogs got on a bear after a strong strike. The bear ran, naturally, down, down and more down, then at the bottom, treed.

The houndsmen wanted to pull the dogs and leave the bear as it was a nasty hike out, but sonny wanted the bear for the meat as he is a "near-penniless" college student, so they tied up the dogs and he shot it.

Rifle was my Marlin .45-70. I've used this rifle on deer, bear and range cattle using my old favorite 402 grain cast Hollow Point at 1640 fps. That load is a deep penetrator, and for this hunt we decided to work up a new load. Specifically, the Remington 300 grain Jacketed Hollow Point over a stiff load of IMR4198 for about 2050 fps. This is a fast load. I have seen some deer shot with the Remington 300 JHP at 1800 fps and it is one of the most decisive deer stoppers I've seen.

I decided to run the speed up in order to prevent the bullet from exiting the bear. A true "Houndsman's Load". The hound chasers around here, almost to a man, use the .444 Marlin since its 240's will not exit a bear. The load I worked up was meant to provide the same results with the 300 JHP.

In preparation, it was tested on the boards and jugs. At 2050 is a bomb, pure and simple. This performance was dramatic. Recovered weight of the bullet was 136 grains The bullet and two fragments of core were found in the 2nd jug. A jacket shard can be seen stuck in the rear of the first jug at right in the second photo.

The load performed as planned. My son got a shot straight on into the chest of the bear that was sitting on a branch sort-of like as if on a swing, maybe 50 or so feet up. The bullet struck the sternum, and then once inside, erupted. Sonny said the insides looked like they were run through a blender. He said the heart and lungs were literally mushed, pulverized. Like the bear swallowed a smoking Mills Bomb.

The pack out was long and he had the job all by himself, so kiddo skinned the thing in the hole and then boned it out, sewed up the meat in the hide and hauled it out in one hike.

Here is the hide. The critter went about 185 lbs, on the hoof, so-to-speak. He stands 6'2".

My son said he doesn't like the load. He wants a bullet to penetrate deeply so any reasonable angle shot can be taken. This load is a specialty load, and would work very well for houndsmen on smallish bear like ours I do believe, but I do not consider it a good all-round load for deer or elk, either. I do not believe it would be a very good all-round load for pig, either, tho for picked side shots at all of these critters it would no doubt drop them fast.

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Edited by 9.3x57 (29/09/09 10:36 PM)

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