[BillF]

Don't they usually advise that, if you going to carry a handgun in bear country, it be a minimum of 44 mag. or more?

When my brother's USAF fighter squadron went to Alaska for training, they issued him and the other aviators 38 caliber sidearms in case they had to bail out in the wildness.

One of the aviators asked the leader if the 38 could be used on a grizzly bear. The leader said, "Yeah, it will annoy him so that he will kill you faster."

[fire_eye]

Well, I know a guy who killed a bear with a .22 handgun (after someone else winged it with a .30-30 which then jammed). But he was very careful where he shot it (and very desperate) (and VERY cool-headed, if you ask me...). But it was a black bear, not a grizzly...

Anyway... I know this thread is dead, but I just *had* to post this, in tender memorial of the two dead 60's fruitcakes:

Have you stopped to consider
How it will feel
Cold grinding grizzly bear jaws
Hot on your heels

- Jim Morrison, "Shaman's Blues"

(Shoulda *listened* to all those Doors records, fruitcakes...)