Nice bear.
Posted on 09/24/2022 6:18:52 AM PDT by marktwain
I was walking to the pickup on my first day of work with the US Forest Service.
I was on a three man Trail Crew.
A coworker walked by with a revolver strapped to his side.
I asked my partner on the crew if that guy thought he was Jesse James.
My partner hissed at me to shut up.
When we got in the pickup he told me that the guy with the pistol had been on a four man trail crew that got between a Grizzly sow and her cub.
He was the only one who could walk to get help.
He carried a 357 revolver after that when he went into the woods.
I was on a Trail Crew with the US Forest Service.
I was carrying a brush saw one day because there was a thick growth of Huckleberry bushes across the trail.
I was a ways ahead of my partner.
I strapped on the cutting chaps and reached down to pull the starting cord on the saw.
I pulled the cord and a bear exploded out of the bushes.
Bears have explosive starting power.
I did exactly what I wasn’t supposed to do and ran back down the trail yelling “Bear! Bear!”.
I don’t know what kind of bear it was.
We were in Grizzly country.
I don’t know why the bear didn’t take me.
Maybe it was surprised by the sound of the saw.
However, I believe they are way overrepresented in the statistics, exactly because the bear is much more likely to injure a person in that scenario than others.
If no person is injured, the incidents seldom make the news (or the academic papers).
Anyone who goes into bear country with a single action wheel gun probably has a death wish. At the very least, make sure the will and insurance papers are easily accessible
Apparently you don’t know what you are talking about.
The president and owner of Buffalo Bore is one of the best authorities on bear hunting, camping in the North Country.
Buffalo Bore and CorBon both have developed specialized ammo for single action revolvers using .475, as well as a few other large calibers.
Linebaugh, Magnum Research and Freedom Arms come to mind, but there are a couple of others.
Most of these revolvers are carried as a backup, but they are also carried by those who are not actually hunting, but working or hiking in the woods.
A rifle is preferred, but it does you no good if it is out of reach. There are quite a few stories of hunters dressing a Caribou getting attacked by bears determined to get the meat. The rifle leaning against a near by tree does you no good.
And I suspect it is a little difficult to fish for salmon while carrying a big bore rifle.
There is a difference between hunting a bear with a revolver or a pistol and defending against a bear attack. Personally, I wouldn't hunt a bear with a revolver or pistol, but to each his own. For day hikes most people aren't going to carry a rifle. A Glock 20 is the go-to pistol for bear defense in Alaska. While not perfect, it's a far better option than a single action revolver.
Have you ever shot a bear with a shot gun.
I have shoot to kill.
Shooting at the legs on purpose is just plain stupide.
Aim to drive your projectile down through the head into the neck and chest.
You know nothing about bears they are not furry friendly forest critters.
A will place bullet of proper caliber and construction driven and enough velocity.
Has no problem killings bears.
Doesn’t make a difference from what type of firearm it is fired from.
I have killed bears with rifles, shotguns and different caliber handguns.
Proper bullet placement has always resulted in a dead bear.
Most people who disparage handguns are those who are not proficient in there use.
Phil Shoemaker the Ak who shot the bear use a S@W 3953 9 shot 9mm 8 in the mag one in the chamber.
He shot the bear 9 times. The charge was stop with the first few. The rest were shot to make sure.
I have had conversations with Mr. Shoemaker on this subject.
Here is one of the many articles on the attack.
I have shot several bears with handguns the closest two where a foot and five feet.
The one at a foot I drove a 41 mag 215gr hard cast thru the the head that side ways.
The one at 5 feet head on I drove a 315gr WFN 44mag down through the brain into the body.
Both dropped DRT dead right there.
If one has trouble hitting with their side arm get training and practice until you can hit what you are shooting at.
It is a foolish idea that if the human does everything right a bear will not attack them.
The bear is the one decides if they are going to attack not the human.
I lived in bear country for 66 years,
Trying to figure out why a bear does of doesn’t do something is not possible a lot of the times.
“Have you ever shot a bear with a shot gun.”
No, but I have shot bear at a distance enough I could get a clear shot and not try to snap off a shot at close range with the bear coming at me.
The odds of killing a bear at that range with a single shot is not good. Spent part of my life in Alaska and learned to give bears a wide berth. And I carried a shotgun with a side arm in the woods for protection. The shotgun blast is not going to kill a bear with any regularity at close range.
But the intent is to stop the bear more with pain and sound in its face. If you shoot a bear’s front end with a shotgun, you will pepper the whole front end and hopefully cause the bear to flee. Taking the legs as part of the blast will slow it down enough that you may be able to flee while it is confused and hurting. But you can’t do that with a side arm or rifle at that range. You’re a meal. In that situation, you aren’t shooting to kill, you’re shooting to escape.
wy69
The best shooting action to take is to stop the attack.
It works best to kill or disable the attacker.
Does wounding a animal work some times yes.
Just as warning shots work some time.
The best ceruse of action if you are shooting to hit the bear is killing it or disabling it enough to stop the attack.
Thus allowing you time to put enough distance from the attacker.
Yes also have wandered around in AK, Western US and Canadian grizzly country on and of for over 4 decades.
Thanks for the correction. My memory was not accurate on the number of shots.
I should have slowed down and thought a little more because I actually owned a S&W model 39 years ago but too long ago to remember the magazine capacity.
Most bear stories fail to mention the ammo, which is vital to understanding why the bear was hard to stop. I suspect many of the stories involve the use of every day carry loads.
Were the 41 and 44 mags shot from double or single action?
I do not live in nor hunt in big bear country, but do occasionally encounter the smaller black bears common on the east coast.
I got into the conversation because I am a fan of the single action. I own many of the popular weapons and most of the popular calibers....and many others in past years, but the single action Rugers are my favorite.
You are correct. Six hits out of six is a lot better than six hits out of 18 attempts Every miss has consequences.
Leaving a wounded bear on purpose should e a hanging crime.
A wounded bear is extremely dangerous so anyone who wounds one is obligated to track it and kill it before some innocent person encounters it and gets mauled.
“Leaving a wounded bear on purpose should e a hanging crime.”
Please don’t equate leaving a wounded bear with trying to escape a charging animal with very good speed that you may get off one shot at, and coming back when it is safe to track the animal and kill it without putting my or others keysters out there. If I fire on the animal, and wound it, I will have to come back. But if I try to kill it with one shot, and don’t, I won’t be able to come back. So if I can get far enough away to be safe, I will decide if I have to kill the animal at that time.
wy69
“Does wounding a animal work some times yes.
Just as warning shots work some time.”
As I understand this exercise they were doing, the intent of it was to get a bear right up to you and force you to fire on it. In too many cases, trying to scare a bear with a warning shot at the range they were talking about would be almost a waste of time. The bear is going to follow through on the charge unless you can do enough damage to stop it as they put it right in your face. And even if you do fire a fatal shot, a thousand pound bear takes a while to realize it’s dead and can travel quite a distance bearing down on you.
“The best ceruse of action if you are shooting to hit the bear is killing it or disabling it enough to stop the attack.”
Because they purposely create the scenario to not give you time to set up, killing it would be a stroke of luck. So disabling it is the best choice with a snap shot. You can always come back when it is safe and evaluate the bear for harvest with better equipment and help.
wy69
Nice bear.
I can’t think of anything that I would rather not do more than crawl through thick brush looking for a bear who is wounded and who has laid down.
Better to take the right firearm with you at the beginning.
If you first see him so far away that he is barely a shotgun target he is also too far away for most pistol shooters. The smart thing to do is cock the pistol, be very careful not to be distracted from watching the bear’s every move and be at the ready.
Around here shooting a bear that is not almost in your face can cost you thousands of dollars, your license for life, your gun and maybe even your truck...if the truck is close by. Three miles from here that is exactly what happened.
I shoot double action revolvers.
I am not a fan of single action ones.
“Around here shooting a bear that is not almost in your face can cost you thousands of dollars, your license for life, your gun and maybe even your truck...”
Know that one. In 1985, a guy I know was up the Ruby a couple of miles while he was living in old Galena. He was sleeping on the boat and had locked up the doors and windows but a black bear had smelled him out and was going through the wall of the boat when the guy shot him 4 times. The bear went down in the boat, so the guy, not having tags took off with the dead bear and went to the ranger station in Galena, couple of hours, and since he was a citizen there. The state ranger listened to his story to include seeing the destroyed housing on the boat with the dead bear.
But the ranger wanted to detain the guy and give him a summons for illegal hunting without tags. The guy pulled out a side arm, and backed into the boat and left. He was never found that I know of. He had another home in Nulato and friends in King Salmon. God knows where he is now if not dead.
wy69
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