Savage 99 for polar bear

[bcp]

Found this photo. Click the link.

http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/scripts/l ... eID=152728

Bruce

[tman]

must be a fake. everybody knows you can't kill a bear with a .303 savage. just ask guns&ammo/shooting times. those puny ,underpowered slugs would just bounce off. the hunter would have been mauled and eaten. nice trick photo ,though.

[TedH]

Neat picture.

[gamekeeper]

I'm with tman everyone knows you can't kill a polar bear with a levergun.

[Blaine]

There's one safe from Global Warming

[Ben_Rumson]

Polar hunter looks like another over gunned wuss to me.. Check THIS sportsman out:
http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/item_viewe ... CISOPTR=99

[mescalero1]

.30 Carbine, underated?

[tomtex]

! love seeing those pictures. But can someone tell us what happen to the new model 99, that was coming from Savage!!

[Old Ironsights]

Polar hunter looks like another over gunned wuss to me.. Check THIS sportsman out:
http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/item_viewe ... CISOPTR=99

Woo Hoo! Now I can go Bear Hunting with my .357!

[Bear 45/70]

! love seeing those pictures. But can someone tell us what happen to the new model 99, that was coming from Savage!!

It appears the economy bit it in the azz.

[Ben_Rumson]

mescalero1 said

.30 Carbine, underated?

Lucky for the hunter the bears didn't know to wear the now legendary Korean War Chi Com quilted winter weather clothing/armor cause we all know .30 carbine bullets bounce right off of it.

[tman]

both hunters in both photo's must have came across dead bears and had their picture taken with them. minimun for bear is a .416 weatherby. must fire a super bonded, urainium depleted premiun bullet. these photos should be outlawed. god forbid, some dumb hunter saw them and tryed to duplicate the feat, maybe with a pathetic 30-06. i hope the rifleman at least has enough sense to file the front sight smooth off of his rifle, cause the trophy of a lifetime GREAT BEAR knows what to do with that gun.

[Old Time Hunter]

Wonder if the guy with the .30 carbine realized what he was doing? I can just picture one of his buddies rolling around on the tent floor laughing that morning when the guy grabbed his carbine to go Kodiak Bear hunting.

[mescalero1]

Wonder if those bears knew what he was doing?

[Bogie35]

I didn't know they chambered a Savage 99 in 470 Nitro.

bogie

[JerryB]

I was stationed at Fort Ord in 1958 and became good friends with an eskimo from Point Barrow. He told me that he got his first polar bear at age nine with a Winchester 94 in 25-35.

[mescalero1]

Did he provide details?

[kimwcook]

My dad hunted moose in BC for a number of years and the ole native guide he and his friend used carried a bolt action 22. He told my dad he shot both griz and moose with it. He said he shot the bears in the ear and I don't remember where he said he shot the moose.

[mescalero1]

Kim,
Years ago I read about an Eskimo that would do that to polar bears.
Always thought he was very crazy or very brave, or very foolish.

[Cosmoline]

Folks up here loved the 99 and used it extensively. I see far more of them in period photos than the bigger 86's. My bet is if you went back to 1910 and asked hunters what was better bear medicine, they'd tell you a 99 over an "outdated" .45-70 black powder round.

A hunter on Kodiak called Peter Kewan killed 49 enormous island bears with very light leverguns. In an account reprinted in the book "Kodiak Island and Its Bears," the author relates that "Kewan was reputed to have had 48 bear kills to his credit. He used a small caliber rifle, not exceeding a .30-30, and "... would sneak within a few yards of the big bear and as the bear would raise to his hind feet to get a better view before charging, he would fire a fatal shot, hardly ever shooting more than twice." P. 74. Eventually Kewan's luck ran out and the 49th finally got him before it too died.

He wasn't the only one. There's a well known photo of a human skull found feet from a bear skull from one of the SE islands. Chuck Grubin had a print of it hanging in his gun store for years. The broken remains of a Savage 99 lay between the skeletons.

After the war the bolt actions took over, but thanks to the pioneering work of guides such as Harold Johnson the leverguns of old were retrofitted to new, amped-up bear killers like the .450 Alaskan and .50 Alaskan. The resurgence of leverguns as valid big game rifles can be traced to their efforts. I always wondered why Marlin didn't adopt these awesome wildcat cartridges in its revamped 1895.

[mescalero1]

Cosmoline,
Thank you for that narritive.

[Old Shatterhand]

BTW, Karamojo Bell shot some cape buffalo with the .22 High Power. I do not know if he fired it from a m99 or from another gun. And Barne's Manual #3 has a short article on the .22 Hornet, where the author, Dr. Ed Ashby, writes, that the little cartridge is capable of taking "larger plains game animals". The article is illustrated with a photo of the Dr. Ashby and a bagged zebra.

"Shot placement is king" somebody wrote. But I would not be fond of meeting a polar bear with a .30 caliber gun in my hand. There are some reasons for a .45-70. And perhaps I would prefer to not encounter a polar bear at all. It is great, beautiful animal, but I have no ambitions to become a dinner.

Pete

[kimwcook]

When I was about 10-12 years old my dad took my brother and I to the movie house to watch a show on bow hunting. I don't remember who the archer was but it showed him taking a whole slew of different critters. From whale to polar bear. The polar bear was a mankiller or nuisance of some type, don't quite remember, but they found this huge male bear from the air and landed. The cameraman followed the archer through these huge broken up ice fields and they came around a corner and there was the bear. The guy got the bear, but remembering back it still gives me the willies. That bear looked as big as a house and it was too close for my comfort. It was quite the show.

[t.r.]

My Grandad was a cattleman in Wyoming. He was born in 1889 and died in 1973. During those years he saw many changes but he never changed his hunting style or rifles. Grandad's favorite rifle was a long octagon barreled 94 in 30-30 with a flip up tang sight. But he also hunted at times with a 95 Winchester in 30-40 and a battered 94 saddle ring carbine in 30-30. Grandad shot many elk, bears, mt. lions, mulies ( he called them blacktail deer), antelope, and coyotes. Grandad hunted bighorn sheep in 1920's before they vanished from the Bighorn Mts. In summary, animals are not armor-plated and will die quickly if hit right the first time. Grandad had the close range hunting skills of an archer and the patience of a man who raised 6 children.

Thanks for sharing this photo.

TR

[mescalero1]

That's nice country!

[Travis Morgan]

I'm with tman everyone knows you can't kill a polar bear with a levergun.

'Good thing nobody ever told Mr. Wesson you couldn't do it with a .357!

[Travis Morgan]

Folks up here loved the 99 and used it extensively. I see far more of them in period photos than the bigger 86's. My bet is if you went back to 1910 and asked hunters what was better bear medicine, they'd tell you a 99 over an "outdated" .45-70 black powder round.

A hunter on Kodiak called Peter Kewan killed 49 enormous island bears with very light leverguns. In an account reprinted in the book "Kodiak Island and Its Bears," the author relates that "Kewan was reputed to have had 48 bear kills to his credit. He used a small caliber rifle, not exceeding a .30-30, and "... would sneak within a few yards of the big bear and as the bear would raise to his hind feet to get a better view before charging, he would fire a fatal shot, hardly ever shooting more than twice." P. 74. Eventually Kewan's luck ran out and the 49th finally got him before it too died.

He wasn't the only one. There's a well known photo of a human skull found feet from a bear skull from one of the SE islands. Chuck Grubin had a print of it hanging in his gun store for years. The broken remains of a Savage 99 lay between the skeletons.

After the war the bolt actions took over, but thanks to the pioneering work of guides such as Harold Johnson the leverguns of old were retrofitted to new, amped-up bear killers like the .450 Alaskan and .50 Alaskan. The resurgence of leverguns as valid big game rifles can be traced to their efforts. I always wondered why Marlin didn't adopt these awesome wildcat cartridges in its revamped 1895.

Some folks can learn to handle a bolt gun real quick, but chances are, with the same amount of practice, they'd be able to handle a lever like it was a semi-auto!

[nemhed]

bcp, thanks for the link! I made that photo the wallpaper on my desktop.

[Hobie]

When I was about 10-12 years old my dad took my brother and I to the movie house to watch a show on bow hunting. I don't remember who the archer was but it showed him taking a whole slew of different critters. From whale to polar bear. The polar bear was a mankiller or nuisance of some type, don't quite remember, but they found this huge male bear from the air and landed. The cameraman followed the archer through these huge broken up ice fields and they came around a corner and there was the bear. The guy got the bear, but remembering back it still gives me the willies. That bear looked as big as a house and it was too close for my comfort. It was quite the show.

That was likely Howard Hill... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV5uI3TqcXw

[airedaleman]

Folks up here loved the 99 and used it extensively. I see far more of them in period photos than the bigger 86's. My bet is if you went back to 1910 and asked hunters what was better bear medicine, they'd tell you a 99 over an "outdated" .45-70 black powder round.

A hunter on Kodiak called Peter Kewan killed 49 enormous island bears with very light leverguns. In an account reprinted in the book "Kodiak Island and Its Bears," the author relates that "Kewan was reputed to have had 48 bear kills to his credit. He used a small caliber rifle, not exceeding a .30-30, and "... would sneak within a few yards of the big bear and as the bear would raise to his hind feet to get a better view before charging, he would fire a fatal shot, hardly ever shooting more than twice." P. 74. Eventually Kewan's luck ran out and the 49th finally got him before it too died.

He wasn't the only one. There's a well known photo of a human skull found feet from a bear skull from one of the SE islands. Chuck Grubin had a print of it hanging in his gun store for years. The broken remains of a Savage 99 lay between the skeletons.

After the war the bolt actions took over, but thanks to the pioneering work of guides such as Harold Johnson the leverguns of old were retrofitted to new, amped-up bear killers like the .450 Alaskan and .50 Alaskan. The resurgence of leverguns as valid big game rifles can be traced to their efforts. I always wondered why Marlin didn't adopt these awesome wildcat cartridges in its revamped 1895.

The note about the photo of the two skulls reminded me of a short story contest Field & Stream ran 30-odd years ago. Does anyone remember it? Seems mixed human and bear bones were found somewhere in Alaska (exactly where escapes me) along with a rusted .31 calber 1849 Colt grown into the crotch of a nearby tree. (There was a picture of the Colt, trapped in the tree, illustrating the sidebar.) F&S challenged readers to come up with a story explaining the scene. I entered, but I think my take on it wasn't creative enough. (I didn't win!) Anyone recall this?

[Tumbleweeds]

Ben East killed his first polar bear with a 99, in .300. He said in his book "Bears" that he had thought the .300 Savage adequate for all his big game hunting until that day, but no longer held that opinion. It's a pretty interesting story - the bear died right at the tips of his boots.