Posted on 03/29/2024 6:01:27 AM PDT by marktwain
One of the persistent myths about shooting bears in self-defense is a bear’s skull is nearly bulletproof. Bears skulls are not bulletproof. However, bear heads are big. It is easy to miss the brain or spine if you aim at the wrong spot or aim away from the brain because you are afraid the bullet will “bounce off.” This is exacerbated by trophy hunters’ hesitancy to shoot a bear in the head. A powerful shot to the brain cavity will fracture the skull, making measurement for the record books impossible.
The year appears to be about 1915 or later, as related by the writer Calvin H. Barkdull on page 153 of Blood on the Arctic Snow, published in 1956.
“The bear stood directly facing me. I saw the long maine on is neck and shoulder hump rise and fall several times. I waited for him to raise his head so I could get a heart shot from the front. I knew a head shot from the front would only irritate him.”
The narrator shot the bear several times with .45-90 black powder loads from an 1886 Winchester rifle. He finished the bear with a headshot to the base of the ear.
A .45-90 black powder cartridge is fully capable of smashing completely through a big bear’s skull and brain with a frontal shot. The normal black powder load is a 400-grain bullet traveling at 1300 fps. You have to know the right place to aim.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Aiming for the eye will miss the brain. Aiming between the eyes, if the nose is pointed at you, will miss the brain if the shot is half an inch too high.
Slightly above the eyes is the hardest and thickest part of the bear's skull. If the nose is pointing at you, a bullet from you, just slightly above the line of the eyes, will strike the skull at a very slight angle, and may be deflected.
The article cites examples where the shots missed the brain and did not kill the bear. However, in those examples the bear left, which would work well enough for me.
So, good sir, looking at a bear frontally, what should be the aimpoint?
Clearly centered. But mouth? Nose? Above the nose and below the eyes? Betweem the eyes? Somewhere else?
The pictures of the carved skull do not make this clear. On a fully clothed bear, where should I aim?
Please advise.
It is important to consider the target in three dimensions, and aim accordingly.
Aha! So you recommend centered slightly above the eyes at the brow line?
The general rule is: imaging lines from the eye opening to the ear opening on the opposite side.
The two lines will intersect inside the bear's head.
Aim for that point. The point the bullet hits the surface of the bear will depend on how the bear is oriented toward the shooter.
When the bear's head is oriented toward you, as illustrated in the image, correct.
If the bear's nose is pointed at you, aim up the nose.
If the bear's nose is pointed up in the air, aim under the bear's chin, toward the back of the head.
If the bear's head is sidways to you, aim half way between the eye and the ear.
Very good.
I’m in Griz country about every other year. I’ve been practicing. When I started, I could hit about 2 out of 6 small (5” diameter) metal plates at 15 yards
Now, I’m running around the parking lot to get my heart rate up, running up to the 25 yard mark, spinning three times to make myself dizzy, drawing from my chest rig, hitting 2 out of 3 plates, reholstering, drawing again, and hitting 2 out of 3 again.
I think I’m ready. Knowing WHAT to hit is very helpful.
Doesn’t make sense to me to be packing if you can’t hit the right spot under extreme stress.
What eventually happened to your cousin’s still?
4 bore rifle at about 9 minutes. https://www.thereloadersnetwork.com/2024/03/29/4-bore-rifle-vs-grizzly-bear-%F0%9F%90%BB-the-biggest-rifle-ever/
It got away right clean like. All I did was take a nap.
Aha! So you recommend centered slightly above the eyes at the brow line?I recommend a type-2 phaser with a level 16 setting.
When encountering a grizzly bear the properly prepared person will remember and follow the advice in this handy reference:
I wouldn’t go any way near a Bear unless I had a 12gage that carried slugs
big ones.
The polar bear illustration with the intersecting lines was helpful. Have you thought about using a large number of bear photographs in different profiles with a red aiming spot on the center of the brain or an outline of the brain position? To me, that would be helpful.
I’m not sure I’d have time to contemplate three dimensions and then pick my aim point. Kind of looks like “Top of nose” would be good if the bear was moving level and “In the mouth” would be better if he was raising up.
Thoughts?
If nothing else, it seems a mouth shot out to cause significant surprise and pain, which often seems to be what results in the bear breaking off an attack. If they fully commit, though, then my 40 S&W might be a bit underpowered. Something “375 H&H Magnum” sounds small if they fully commit to killing you!
BTW, there was a professor at Utah State when I was there who was mauled:
“Bent over and moving over the ridge, I heard an explosive woof and looked up to see a mass of brown fur launch toward me. With milliseconds to react, I faced an insanely furious grizzly, head down, ears back, and roaring. Low to the ground, her body rocketed toward me. I saw her claws raking the bedrock as she accelerated. I knew this was trouble, not a bluff charge. I had to get out of there. Standing to face her never even entered my mind....
I remember clearly, just before that bite, that her breath smelled rotten, like the bottom of a garbage can on a summer day.
As my life drained onto the ground, I went limp, and the biting stopped. Just then Bruce came over the rise, saw the bear standing on me, and yelled “HAAAA!” as loud as he could.
The bear moved off. Her bloody footprints were later tracked going down the mountain...
...Despite blood loss and wounds requiring close to one thousand sutures, the rescue unfolded in a stunning series of actions.”
https://mountainjournal.org/in-new-book-bear-biologist-recounts-his-mauling-by-a-grizzly
“The bear, Gilbert later realized, was simply being a bear—reacting to his presence as a threat to her cubs. She wasn’t interested in killing him for the malicious reasons humans attribute in their deep trait of anthropomorphizing other animals. She simply wanted to neutralize an unknown and unidentified threat and once it was no longer a threat, she left....
A team of highly trained medical technicians attached to a smoke-jumping crew had just deployed from a nearby fire base. And the helicopter pilot who picked him up had just done two combat tours in Vietnam war, landing under the most difficult conditions. Finally, a team of military surgeons experienced with battlefield trauma had just been assigned to the nearest medical facility.
Gilbert’s first surgery, the one that would save his life following a bear mauling in the remote Rockies, took 11 hours and exhausted the hospital’s suture supply....
We should all be grateful that Gilbert didn’t succumb to the kind of risk-averse apprehension regarding bears that might have gripped the rest of us, because he went on to almost half a century in the field, exhaustively studying bears in their habitat and in the most intimate proximity, at that. He sat with them, walked with them, observed them more closely than the benighted rest of us might get in a zoo with cages.”
https://www.focusonvictoria.ca/earthrise/53/
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