ol mike
Well-Known Member
You got any pictures of that bear laid out where you can see him better ?
Great story and shooting !!!!!!!!!!! Thanks
Great story and shooting !!!!!!!!!!! Thanks
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Smoked a bear with my 338 AM
- Thread starter Shawn Carlock
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Shawn Carlock
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Unfortunately I don't my digital still camera took a crap just before I got to the bear. I used it to take some early light sunrise pictures and 1 hour later zipo. Sorry. I am a pretty good sized guy and could only move one end at a time though.
Great shot Shawn, fantastic story and fantastic bear. I am leaving N.C. to travel up to Maine for a bear hunt next week. I can only hope my luck is as good as yours and my story is not. I look forward to a good story, but sometimes boring is better and less stressful.
Dead Beat
Well-Known Member
cool story shawn im heading out in 2 weeks one week stay in ST LOUIS then on to northern wisconsin for black bear
JIM
JIM
goodgrouper
Well-Known Member
Great story and great shot Shawn. I suppose that bullet was the 300 SMK?
Shawn Carlock
Sponsor
GG,
It was in fact a 300 SMK. I as not disappointed in it's performance but there is certainly room for improvement. No blood trail is a fairly common bear issue, but if the exit hole is big enough ..... It is back to the age old long range bullet performance issue. Expansion or penetration, on that hit location you almost could not have had to much expansion with a 300 gr bullet but if it had been off in windage slightly and hit the point fo the shoulder could you gaurantee penetration into the chest cavity. I have high hopes for Richards aluminum tipped bullets and this shot would have been the perfect test bed. Until then I will error to the side of penetration and deal with trailing issues. For me it is not a issue of will the SMK kill well on a give shot placement but rather will the exit wound leave a good spoor trail to recover the animal. In this case, on the bear the bullet left a good but not huge wound channel that was sealed off by fat not a bullet performance issue in my mind. Had this hit been on an elk or deer a blind man could have followed the trail. Had the bullet contacted a rib on either side would have made a huge difference. The 265 WC bullet on this shot would have impacted at maybe 2600-2700 I'm guessing and looked like a hand grenade went off. This would be good in a lot of respects, there could also be some other issues with it, but I believe that the best LRH bullet performance is coming down the road and could very well be the WC bullets.
It was in fact a 300 SMK. I as not disappointed in it's performance but there is certainly room for improvement. No blood trail is a fairly common bear issue, but if the exit hole is big enough ..... It is back to the age old long range bullet performance issue. Expansion or penetration, on that hit location you almost could not have had to much expansion with a 300 gr bullet but if it had been off in windage slightly and hit the point fo the shoulder could you gaurantee penetration into the chest cavity. I have high hopes for Richards aluminum tipped bullets and this shot would have been the perfect test bed. Until then I will error to the side of penetration and deal with trailing issues. For me it is not a issue of will the SMK kill well on a give shot placement but rather will the exit wound leave a good spoor trail to recover the animal. In this case, on the bear the bullet left a good but not huge wound channel that was sealed off by fat not a bullet performance issue in my mind. Had this hit been on an elk or deer a blind man could have followed the trail. Had the bullet contacted a rib on either side would have made a huge difference. The 265 WC bullet on this shot would have impacted at maybe 2600-2700 I'm guessing and looked like a hand grenade went off. This would be good in a lot of respects, there could also be some other issues with it, but I believe that the best LRH bullet performance is coming down the road and could very well be the WC bullets.
Shawn Carlock
Sponsor
This piece of vidoe will either be on my long range hunting videos or may air on the "Big Game Explorers Journal" on the mens channel.
Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Shawn and GG,
Interestingly enough, my elk that I shot at 607 yards with my 338 AX and the 265 gr AT RBBT would be very similiar in terminal performance to what you would see with the 338 AM with the same bullet impacting at 1000 yards.
At 607, the 338 AX has around 2400 fps retained velocity, my 338 AM should be clipping along just over 2500 fps at 1020 yards with the load I am using which is relatively mild at a 3460 fps muzzle velocity, it would not be hard to push over 3500 fps.
Very similiar terminal velocities between the two rounds are these different ranges. Now I know that RPMs would be different and to some degree that can effect terminal performance as far as expansion and penetration but I do not believe the difference would be measurable.
That 265 gr AT RBBT smacked that 1100 lb bull, hit a rib on the onside, plowed a 4 to 5" hole through both lungs, centered a rib on exiting and made a 1.5 to 2" exit wound on the offside. I Remember seeing the bull go down and noticing the huge blood stain on the offside shoulder which to be honest suprised me that it penetrated so well.
When I say it plowed a 4 to 5" hole though both lungs, I am not talking blood soaked lung material, it was simply gone. It would not have been hard to literally put your fist though both lungs through the penetration path of that bullet.
The path was even and consistant as well, not a huge intital wound channel and then tapper off but just a consistant big hole bored through the chest.
I believe the aluminum tip aids in expansion just enough for good tissue damage but the VERY heavy jacket stops expansion on soft tissue relatively early for deep consistant penetration.
How would it have performed on a hard shoulder impact, no idea but had I known what I do now, I would have aimed to center that big shoulder!!
As far as the 300 gr SMK, its a different beast when driven to 3300 fps at the muzzle. IT will never be a huge expanding bullet without the impact of heavy bone but it expands much more reliably at 3300 fps muzzle velocities then it will in smaller rounds.
Much past 1200 yards, with any round, you will not get much expansion with this bullet in my expansion testing. The AT RBBT on the other hand is a different story.
Here in 3 weeks or so there will be a pronghorn taken with these bullets to test how they expand on light game at long range. There will be a full report on the findings and then onto deer hunting as well. No fear anymore about not enough penetration, if the bullet will fully vent an 1100 lb bull elk, no deer on the planet will be an issue.
Kirby Allen(50)
Interestingly enough, my elk that I shot at 607 yards with my 338 AX and the 265 gr AT RBBT would be very similiar in terminal performance to what you would see with the 338 AM with the same bullet impacting at 1000 yards.
At 607, the 338 AX has around 2400 fps retained velocity, my 338 AM should be clipping along just over 2500 fps at 1020 yards with the load I am using which is relatively mild at a 3460 fps muzzle velocity, it would not be hard to push over 3500 fps.
Very similiar terminal velocities between the two rounds are these different ranges. Now I know that RPMs would be different and to some degree that can effect terminal performance as far as expansion and penetration but I do not believe the difference would be measurable.
That 265 gr AT RBBT smacked that 1100 lb bull, hit a rib on the onside, plowed a 4 to 5" hole through both lungs, centered a rib on exiting and made a 1.5 to 2" exit wound on the offside. I Remember seeing the bull go down and noticing the huge blood stain on the offside shoulder which to be honest suprised me that it penetrated so well.
When I say it plowed a 4 to 5" hole though both lungs, I am not talking blood soaked lung material, it was simply gone. It would not have been hard to literally put your fist though both lungs through the penetration path of that bullet.
The path was even and consistant as well, not a huge intital wound channel and then tapper off but just a consistant big hole bored through the chest.
I believe the aluminum tip aids in expansion just enough for good tissue damage but the VERY heavy jacket stops expansion on soft tissue relatively early for deep consistant penetration.
How would it have performed on a hard shoulder impact, no idea but had I known what I do now, I would have aimed to center that big shoulder!!
As far as the 300 gr SMK, its a different beast when driven to 3300 fps at the muzzle. IT will never be a huge expanding bullet without the impact of heavy bone but it expands much more reliably at 3300 fps muzzle velocities then it will in smaller rounds.
Much past 1200 yards, with any round, you will not get much expansion with this bullet in my expansion testing. The AT RBBT on the other hand is a different story.
Here in 3 weeks or so there will be a pronghorn taken with these bullets to test how they expand on light game at long range. There will be a full report on the findings and then onto deer hunting as well. No fear anymore about not enough penetration, if the bullet will fully vent an 1100 lb bull elk, no deer on the planet will be an issue.
Kirby Allen(50)
new shooter
Well-Known Member
338 am bear
Shawn what video do you use? What spotting scope and tripod? Great shot.
Shawn what video do you use? What spotting scope and tripod? Great shot.
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Gosh, it must be nice to live out west! Just go out the door in the morning to a great hunting spot.
Shawn Carlock
Sponsor
New Shooter,
I use a JVC with a 32x optical zoom for right now but am looking at a Canon HD Pro Grade. I have and have used a number of spotting scopes, on this trip I had my Leupold 15-40x MK4. I also have a mount I made that you can zero the camera and spotting scope to the same point and use the 1 tripod. I had to do this because it is nearly impossible to spot through the camera view finder.
I use a JVC with a 32x optical zoom for right now but am looking at a Canon HD Pro Grade. I have and have used a number of spotting scopes, on this trip I had my Leupold 15-40x MK4. I also have a mount I made that you can zero the camera and spotting scope to the same point and use the 1 tripod. I had to do this because it is nearly impossible to spot through the camera view finder.
Shawn Carlock
Sponsor
Len,
Your right. I grew up here and for the longest time never new how lucky I was to live in the Northwest. There are oportunities here that just don't exist other places for the average guy. As a kid growing up in a different part of Idaho my favorite hunting spot was a long trek and would take 11 or 12 minutes from my front door. When I was a deputy for the sheriffs office I got a picture at lunch one day of a moose in the parking lot. I wouldn't leave the NW even if a gun was to my head.
Your right. I grew up here and for the longest time never new how lucky I was to live in the Northwest. There are oportunities here that just don't exist other places for the average guy. As a kid growing up in a different part of Idaho my favorite hunting spot was a long trek and would take 11 or 12 minutes from my front door. When I was a deputy for the sheriffs office I got a picture at lunch one day of a moose in the parking lot. I wouldn't leave the NW even if a gun was to my head.
