Crazy story but true..on the ranch I bow/rifle hunt a lot on, was bow hunting and noticed one of the owners cows had died and fallen in the middle of a creek. When I hiked back to the ranch house I told the owner about it and that we should drive down there with a truck and use a long stretch of rope to pull her out of the creek. I threw my .243 in that was loaded with 70 Nosler ballistic tips...as I had seen a coyote floating around there that I am sure was eating on the dead cow..

As we approached the area in the truck sure enough I saw the coyote trotting up the creek bottom, I hopped out with rifle in hand attempting to take a shot at him. Just then the owner yelled bear..I looked over to the dead cow and a chocolate color black bear was leaving the cow and attempting to go up a very steep incline from the creek bottom.. I shot at the front shoulder/spin area as her back was exposed to me..on the 3rd shot she flipped over backwards and rolled down the slope to the creek bottom..I ran down to the bear and found it dead..Last shot had severed the spine just behind the front shoulder..other two had gone in beside it..when skinning the bear out and examining, the other two had penetrated enough to hammer the lungs...which really surprised me that a ballistic tip would penetrate that far on a bear ..the MV of that load is about 3550fps....

I took the hide/head to the local fish and game dept as is required by law in Montana..about 5 months later I got info on the bear..was a 22 year old female...the oldest bear they had examined for that season in the entire state...pretty interesting...

Ripp