| 9.3x57 |
| (.450 member) |
| 02/10/14 05:09 AM |
|
Re: back up pistol for bears
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Quote:
Buckshot is effective against black bears - small black bear at close range. Solid projectiles ONLY for grizzly and most larger black bears. One of my staff shot a black bear 4 times with buckshot at quite close range and that bear was REALLY ticked off. It took another member walking up alongside the bear and planing a load of 00 in the side of it's head to kill it. The body shots sort of stopped the bear, but he was far from dead. I do not trust buckshot - slugs or round balls.
Ed Huble here has some 12 bore wads that nicely hold 2, 58 cal. round balls. I am in the experimentation mode on those, but that "buck" shot will work - guaranteed. Should be able to get them moving 1,500fps with Longshot, Blue Dot or Steel powders.
I wouldn't personally use buckshot for anything I wanted to stop unless it was going to be shot at such close range that a slug would be no disadvantage. As soon as the shot starts to spread so much it improves hitting, it loses alot of penetration. I've had a number of failures of buck on dogs and have no interest in the stuff overall.
12 bore roundball?
Different story.
Daryl, your double 58 reminds me of the African I hunted with in Katanga Shaba province who had a homemade front loader...bolt action, too, long before the Knight Modern Muzzle loaders!!! and he used 2 .44 cal pistol bullets borroed from my friend who owned a Ruger Old Army. They were not accurate in that contraption but I suppose he worried the local impala and monkey population some.