308 Bullet for PA black bear?

Hi Guys, I am going to western PA for early muzzleloader and my friends father-in-law said he has problems with bear around his cabin and asked if I would come out for bear season as well. I have a Marlin in 35rem and im using hornady ftx for that. I want to bring my 12fv 308 1 in 10twist as well if I have a shot over 75yards. I only have a load for the 168g hornady a-max. I know some guys use this for deer. will this be ok? if I dont have time to work up a load what over-the-counter ammo should I use??
Thanks, Pete
P.S. the Cabin is off old exit 4 on rt.80

Hello 12fv 308,

Your 168 A-Max should do the job, but if it were me I would load some 165gr. Sie Gamekings. In my Son's 308 you can hardly tell the difference in POI even without changing the scope. I know it will do the job on Pa. black bear,as for factory ammo I don't really know as I have not used any for so many years.

I have shot a few feral hogs with this bullet from my .308 at 2700 fps. All were head shots on small hogs(120lbs or less). Longest was at 209yds. Fantastic results with head shots. Not sure how they would do with shoulder shots, but I know some folks swear by them for deer. I've never shot a bear before, but hogs are pretty tough. Hope that helps??

I would be surprised if your bear are any bigger than the blackies over here in N. Iduh-Ho. I like BTB's suggestion of using a hunting bullet, rather than a target bullet...
That said the Amax will have plenty of poop to knock the sock's off of one. They truly don't take much to crumble, even if you want to break shoulders.

Bears get BIG here in Pa, my Family had a trailer in a development mostly no body around in winter got a call some years ago from Gary Alt he in charge of bears here in Pa. asking if we were going to hunt deer that year as there was a sow bear denning under our trailer(some one bowered the extension ladder and left the door open) knew this as bear had radio collar when collar was put on in summer she was 600 lbs.
If we were going to hunt deer A BIG YES they would remove the sow and cubs and take them to his farm for rest of winter when we arrived on the Saturday before the season started the snow was all messed up from the side to front of trailer road had been plowed BUT front of trailer was not Gary must have done this thank you.

Thanks Guys, I think I will see if I have time to work up the 165 SST's or Accubond's. wish they make them in 168's

I've shot several bears with the Sierra 165 boattail hollowpoint and it did a great job everytime!!!

45.5 grains of Varget pushing a Hornady 180 grain softpoint out of a 20" barrel made a golfball sized ENTRANCE hole in the ribcage of a whitetail this last season. The 180 retained 175 grains of its original mass. The Hornady's were grouping between 3/4 and 1" 5 round groups at 100 yards.

Its hard to beat a Nosler Partition and they are available from several manufactures as factory ammo.

i have never killed a black bear in pa but the guys i hunt with i know a few that use that bullet in there 06's and have killed a few.
in my 308 i use the accubonds. that are very nasty on whitetails.

Give the barnes 165 tsx a try.

I ran a 155 AMax and a 150 SST with the same loading in my 12FV in 308, all the same but bullet. POI to POA was the same at 100, 200, and 300 yards and the Amax was doing 1/2 MOA and the SST was doing .625 MOA. Might be worth a try with the 168 AMax and the 165 SST.