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Thomas Pavelka

I was going through some old photos and stumbled across this one. This Bear was taken in New Brunswick Canada with a Remington 350 Rem Mag Model 600 some years back when I was a younger pup.

As I remember, the rifle was quite short of barrel at 18 1/2 inches or so, the bolt was an strange dog leg affair. With a handloaded 240 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, or it may well have been a 225 grain bullet, (memory is failing me on the exact bullet I used) in that little 5.5 pound gun I much regret to say it kicked like Hell. But it was the berries for climbing up trees and waiting out bears.

My Guide had said in spades, "I don't care what you hit em with, don't expect them to drop right there, they always run."

Well after 3 mornings and 3 evenings getting drained of all my blood by those miserable 3 pound Black Flies they have in Canada, the 4th morning as it was barely getting light I thought I saw a hummock stump move in the swamp.

The bear must have sensed something was up because he didn't want to come in. After a few minutes he decided to bail out. As he went to turn I fired a shot at what I best could determine was his shoulder in that dim light.

Fully expecting the Bear to be running for all he was worth I sat in the tree waiting for it to happen. Nothing. I jacked up the scope and looked where he had been. All I saw was a front paw waving it's last. He was down and out stone dead without even a death moan. And it dawned on me then that the 35 caliber rifles had much merit in the quick taking of game.

I parted company with that rifle after that hunt and went to a 35 Whelen because the chamber was cut way large on that 600 rifle. The case was stretched so bad in front of the belt I could not get a second reload in it as it would come in two.

The Rem 700 in the Whelen solved that problem and was a much more pleasant rifle to shoot.

The Whelen was a death ray on Russian Boars and any hit fair with it did not last for long. In most cases it was a bang flop affair just as we like it.

For a spell I itched all over to get my crabcrackers on a 358 Norma Mag but was unable to come up with a rifle for it and then went to the 378 Weatherby and called it a day.

It would be a wonderful thing IMHO for Weatherby or another gun manufacturer to come out with a 35 cal rifle on the 378 case. Another possibility would be on the 375 H&H case.

Sometimes it makes a man ache when he is a rifle nut :)