I have purchased the tag this year. Had a question, any strong opinions on iron sights for bear? I would not shoot 100 yards for sure but 50, is that not reasonable?
Junior Member
I have purchased the tag this year. Had a question, any strong opinions on iron sights for bear? I would not shoot 100 yards for sure but 50, is that not reasonable?
HuntingBC Champ
Close in the distance that you are confident hitting a pie plate off hand and go have yourself a great time.Originally Posted by Noob
HuntingBC Champ
What Rackstar said... it's all about shooting ability... whatever distance you can hit a paper plate from with the form of shot you will be taking.
I like to aim for the double lung. If I miss forward, it will blow out the shoulder likely crippling it and causing enough CNS trauma to knock it silly... miss low, good chance of still hitting lung or heart.. miss high and I'm hitting spine and lots of margin of error before hitting too far back.
Stuff happens, so more margin of error the better. I had a bear abruptly turn as a shot went off. By luck it went through his eye and blew out the back of the skull. Prior he was completely broadside and I was going for a double lung. They are tough animals so it's important to hit the mark. I had another one where somehow the first shot took out both lungs and completely severed the spine just after the shoulder... he actually tried to get back up and run with the front legs but it wasn't happening. I'm sure he wouldn't have lasted another 10 seconds and would have helped things bleed out if I let it go so I put another one right where the spin meets the skull.
Hit too far back, bad angle shot, grazed one... things you definitely don't want to happen. Paper plate accuracy is a minimum requirement. Ideally softball
Last edited by caddisguy; 04-17-2018 at 08:40 PM.
Bushwhacker
Bears are very easy to stalk up on, enjoy your iron sight....
HuntingBC Champ
It is all about personal accuracy we it comes to shot distance stick with in your skill level
Possible to get that close to a bear hell yes my closest bear was 4 yards
HuntingBC Champ
More good advice here... when mowing grass or tearing up a log to get at bugs they are pretty much oblivous.
Other times they know you're there and don't even care. In some cases this time of year I find that if I was in their feeding area first and they come in, they know I'm there any don't get spooked even if I get up and start walking around. If I walk into their area and they bust me, they usually bolt or slowly wander off.
They are odd critters... never predictable which outcome it will be but there really are only 3 outcomes... either it bolts, it doesn't care or it gets cranky.
Last edited by caddisguy; 04-17-2018 at 10:03 PM.
HuntingBC Champ
Who is heading out this weekend? I think Region 2 will start showing some reasonable activity.
caddisgirl has a meeting and is doing the sun run, so I'll be heading out with my brother.
I expect most of the snow will be gone and I expect the ticks to be ruthless.
I figure this weekend will be a 1 in 4 shot, the following 1/3 and 2/3 each following weekend.
Going to do some filming. Will see some deer and some birds for sure. I got a new digital camcorder in the mail today. Seems pretty decent for a cheapy. Sadly I just unboxed the new SJ4000 cam I received a week or two ago and it has a nick in the lens cover on the camera housing... makes a cloudy blotch on the video. I'll probably run it a bit but less than I hoped. Will be packing the old point-shoot cam too (video only 640x480 but good optical zoom for pics) just so I can be properly equipped like a full on tourist lol
Junior Member
Thanks guys. Prolly not this weekend for me. Thinking to go after some turkey or more likely just for a field survey. I'll be watching this thread tho hopefully there will be someone to land a hand to Noob in the weeks coming after.
I'm happy with my rifle sighting but it doesn't stop me from dry fire practice. My bench shooting is good for paper plate at 50yds, softball 2 out of 3. I'm not sure how would that work off hand.
HuntingBC Champ
My bear rifles are iron sights, makes it a lot more intresting sneaking into iron sight range, as long as the wind is right, it’s not to hard to do. With a bit of practice, 100 yards is quite manageable. I limit myself to about 125 yards before my front sight starts covering to much of my target.
HuntingBC Champ
Just got back a couple hours ago. I left on Thursday night... brother met me up there Friday afternoon. I pounded my spots from Friday morning until mid Saturday. Bears are up in my area but not very active. The grass is getting hit, probably at night. I usually have a couple trailcams on hand but purposely didn't bring them. Slight regret. I got some decent footage of deer, checking out sign and what not. By Saturday afternoon I was pretty discouraged. Turned into a beer weekend instead of a bear weekend. Things will start heating up in a week from now. I think 14 days from now will be prime time for the Fraser Valley. Despite the long winter I have a feeling it will another early and sudden peak.
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