What is a good bullet to shoot a bear with in .308

[straittactical]

I got a .308 I am going to take on a bear hunt. I shoot mainly hornday ammo. what is a good bullet to load up that has plenty of knock down power.
I am currently shooting a 168gr A-Max. will that be good ?

 

[Joe Williams]

What kind of bear?

 

[straittactical]

Ya I guess that makes a big diffrence. It would be a black bear.

What kind of bear?

 

[42769vette]

i was going to post you should try the amax, but i see you are already using them. id stick with the amax personally.

 

[whiskeytangofoxtrot]

Might look into Sierra's Gameking bullets, I don't think ballistic tip would work to well on such a large game animal. I've not hunted with rifle calibers save for Nosler BT killing coon and coyotes.

 

[sporter]

A good soft point heavy bullet.

 

[DocIndy]

Check out Federal and see if they load a Nosler Partition in a 165gr. Partitions are well known for great penetration with weight retention. The Barnes TSX is also a great bullet. I'm not sure how well the A-MAX will perform on game...I know how well it performs at long range on paper. Are you looking for loaded ammo or just a premium projectile to reload? Reloading would be more cost effective since the premium bullets are rather pricey and loaded ammo with them seems to be really expensive compared to FMJ os softpoint ammo.

 

[straittactical]

I do all my own reloading. so i would be looking for the best projectile. Yah I know premium loaded ammo is crazy on price.

 

[DocIndy]

Since you already reload....I would be looking for bullets around the 165 gr. weight and look for something that is going to give good penetration yet retain weight for energy transfer. Partitions usually have great accuracy too. Since you're set to load, look for a few boxesof projectiles to develope loads on and shoot some groups.

 

[daclamdvm]

Black bear aren't actually that much bigger than a deer and aren't as heavily muscled as a grizzly. You can use anything good on deer for a black bear. Having said that, I'd also pick something on the heavier and sturdier side as the others have stated. 150 grain would be heavy enough. For sturdiness, its hard to beat the A-max or Partitions. Any of the bonded bullets would also be good choices. You can easily load a .308 with 180 grains. The traditonal round nose soft points have been used on bear in 30-06 for years and would do fine in the .308. I'm from WI and 170 gr soft points in a 30-30 were always considered pretty reliable.

 

[IndyMonkey]

I have killed 6 with 140gr Nosler Balistic tips in a 280 Ackley.

Black bears are not very hard to kill. Through the front shoulders and your good.

 

[WLW]

I drop Texas boars in their tracks with Barnes TSX 150 grain bullet. Expansion is excellent and weight retension is 100% since its all copper. I've experimented with several brands since I reload myself (and calibers from 243 to .444 Marlin) and settled on the Barnes Triple-shock (TSX). My reasoning for sharing what I use is because boar are tough and if you can drop them with a 150 grain bullet in a .308 I suspect (not a bear hunter) that you can do the same with a Black Bear.

 

[Jack Ryan]

What is a good bullet to shoot a bear with in .308

All of 'em.