“Drats!” I will not be hunting spring black bear this year, as has been the case during the past few years. That makes me a bit sad. I dearly love hunting black bear, especially as their breeding season approaches, when big boars are on the prowl. During each of the past two years, I have hunted bear in Alberta. I have taken a bear each year. One of those bears squared 7 feet 7 inches and the other 7 feet 8 inches — both measured without stretching the hides. Their skulls measured in excess of 20 inches. Big bear in just about anyone’s book.
Alberta allows the taking of two bears per spring. After taking a big bear each of the past two seasons, I hunted for a bigger bear or a mature color phase. I passed up some really nice bears, including a couple that approached the size of the bears I had taken, as well as an immature blond bear.
Unfortunately, last fall I committed to several projects that will keep me horribly busy during spring 2025, preventing me from going black bear hunting. I know… not good planning on my part! Not being able to do a spring bear hunt, I set up a black bear hunt this coming September with Randy and Sharon Flannery’s Wilderness Escape Lodge in far northern Maine. I will be in camp with the hunter who buys the bear hunt donated by Randy to our DSC Foundation Gala, July 17–19, 2025, at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas. Hopefully you’ll be able to attend. If not, you can still bid on the hunt and numerous other high-quality hunts and hunting items by clicking here, starting most likely in early June. Randy’s Wilderness Escape Lodge hunt package includes not only the hunt, lodging, and meals, but also bearskin rug taxidermy by Double Nickle Taxidermy and a Rossi R95 .45–70 lever-action rifle.
Flannery’s expansive area produces some huge black bear. Hunted over bait, the bears will be hungry, preparing for a long winter’s nap. While I have not hunted with Randy and his crew, he and I have been friends for a lot of years. And, I’ve known him via reputation even longer. Randy is no stranger to hunting and is especially known far and wide for his whitetail deer tracking abilities in the North Woods, and for his clients taking large bears.
Several years ago, hunting just across the southern border from Randy’s territory, I had an encounter with the biggest black bear I have ever seen — one that exceeded the 563-pound bear I shot several years ago on Arizona’s White Mountain Apache Reservation. On that hunt I was using a Thompson/Center .50 flintlock muzzleloader. Unfortunately, it did NOT go BANG when I pulled the trigger. The gun merely “sizzled” — a flash in the pan. The bear of a lifetime, of several lifetimes, walked away unscathed. That bear would have squared over 8 feet! I have taken a couple of black bears that squared 7 feet 10 inches. I have never seen a black bear to equal that one!
Hunting with Randy’s Wilderness Escape Lodge, my hope is to take a mature boar — one that has a luxuriant black coat! I have been fortunate to hunt black bear for a long time, have taken a fair number, and am a reasonable judge of bear size, so I’ll be a bit selective.
One of my bucket list animals is a huge color phase black bear. I know bears in Maine are black. I am not aware of any color phase bears living in that state. Oh well, I’ll simply have to plan another hunt for such a bear.
My quandary regarding hunting bear in Maine is what gun to use. Knowing I will be hunting over bait, there is no need for a long-range rifle. Shots should be 50 yards or less — likely closer. My last two bears were taken over bait. The first of those bears was taken with a Mossberg Patriot Predator chambered in 7mm PRC, shooting Hornady’s Precision Hunter 175-grain ELD-X. I shot that bear at 12 steps. Even at that close range, the Hornady ELD-X bullet performed perfectly!
I shot last spring’s bear at 75 yards with a Mossberg Patriot Tactical rifle in .308 Win, using Hornady’s 178-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter and topped with a Stealth Vision 3–18x44 SVT scope, which has an operational lighted reticle. The bear came in during a rainstorm, in very poor light conditions. Because of the lighted reticle, I was able to make a precise, killing shot. He ran about 30 steps. That bear was an old, sly boar. He would look from a distance to see if anyone was in the tree stand near the bait. If there was a hunter in the stand, he would leave and not show up again until after dark. We set up a ground blind and fooled him. I talked to Randy about possibly doing the same, should we need to.
In years past, I have taken black bear with a wide variety of calibers and rounds — on the upper end being .375 H&H Mag, .375 Ruger, .450 Marlin, .45–70 Govt, .450–400 NE 3-inch — as well as with .50 muzzleloader and 12-gauge shotgun slugs. I have also taken bear with .44 Mag and .454 Casull handguns, and with a variety of lesser rifle calibers and rounds as well. To me, any rifle caliber and round used for big mature whitetail deer should be sufficient for black bear. But that said, I would suggest using a .270 Win and up. I like the idea of larger caliber rounds for black bear that create big holes going in and coming out, creating a substantial blood trail should the bear run away.
I have taken black bears with single-shot, bolt-action, and lever-action rifles. All have worked well!
Black bear vitals — heart and lungs — sit farther back behind the shoulders than our other North American big game species. If you have not hunted black bear, before doing so I highly recommend finding an anatomy chart to learn where a bear’s heart and lungs are positioned in their body and how to make killing shots from different angles.
Even though my September bear hunt is still nearly half a year away, I’ll soon start setting up the rifle I intend to use in Maine. Randy Flannery hunts with — and is a huge proponent of — lever-action rifles. He knows whereof he speaks! In his honor, I plan on hunting with a lever-action. I am currently awaiting the arrival of a Rossi R95 chambered in .45–70 Govt with a 20-inch barrel, to Schubert’s Firearms in the small town where I live in Texas. Once it arrives and paperwork is completed, I will add a Picatinny rail and a Stealth Vision red dot sight. I will sight in at 25 yards using Hornady’s LEVERevolution 325-grain FTX ammo, which should be close to an ideal — if not perfect — black bear hunting load. That load in the R95 produces in excess of 2,500 ft-lbs. of energy at 25 yards. Based on my past experience with Hornady’s FTX bullets, they do considerable tissue damage and kill quickly!
The primary reason for adding a red dot sight is the “red” dot. Open or “iron” sights can be difficult to see against a black bear’s dark color, especially when light conditions are less than perfect. Oftentimes, the biggest bears come to bait very late in the evening, when light is far from ideal to see open sights — or, for that matter, black crosshairs against a near-black background.
Once I get my rifle set up, before taking it bear hunting, I’ll spend some time hunting hogs in North Texas. That way, by the time my September bear hunt gets here, I’ll be really familiar with my new “bear rifle”! I can hardly wait!