Stopping a bear

[ixtow]

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Er, not trying to be a salesman, I work at the place that makes these.... But it seems to suit the bill.

It is an NFA AOW, $5 stamp. Seems that most places you'd run into a bear, are states that allow NFA anyway...

http://www.serbu.com/top/superShorty.php

A bit bigger, but still small enough to carry under hiking circumstances, without adding the full weight of a standard size shotgun.

The Mossberg version weighs significantly less than the 870.

Again, not trying to commercialize.... If I had to pick something to carry around all over the countryside, and pack enough power to take down a bear, this would be it.

 

[Jersey Ron]

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We've had our disagreements in the past, but I AGREE with you whole heartedly on this one! In this type of situation you can only pray to hit something vital on the bear because I don't think anyone will be thinking about caliber size when a full grown Kodiak Bear is charging you at20 miles per hour.







Jersey

 

[Jersey Ron]

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Jersey Ron wrote:

We've had our disagreements in the past, but I AGREE with you whole heartedly on this one! In this type of situation you can only pray to hit something vital on the bear because I don't think anyone will be thinking about caliber size when a full grown Kodiak Bear is charging you at20 miles per hour.



This message wasfor cs9c1.



Jersey

 

[PaulB]

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I know someone who was packing an elk out on a hunting trip and got charged by a 400lb grizzly (an older bear). He shot one overhead to warn it off (didn't work), then two to the chest which killed it quickly enough. He used a Taurus revolver in .41 Magnum.

I also knew a lady who went to Spitzbergen (N of Norway) on a naturalist trip. They were required to carry rifles. Reason being, the previous year when the folks were prohibited from carrying rifles in this wildlife refuge, a polar bear had dragged one person out of his tent and ate him in front of the rest of the crowd.

I carry a .45LC or .44 Mag, either loaded with 300gr WFN hard cast bullets. It will work well enough for bears, humans, wolves, wild dogs, moose, bison, and slavering bunnies.

 

[Flowmaster]

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when i'm offroading/camping in George Washington National Forest (on the VA/WV boarder) west of Harrisonburg, VA, i open carry a K frame .357 hopefully that'd pack enough punch to stop something big or at least scare it away.

i've been to that part of the national forest 11 times now and i've seen 3 bears in my travels. that's enough to make me remember to wear my trusty S&W every time i go out there.

 

[papabear47]

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June 1968,Alaska I took a 1300 pound grizzly with three shots from a Win .300 mag which is wayyyyyyy more powerfull than a .40 S&W.Shot #1 broke left shoulder,#2 took out lungs,#3 heart shot and that old boy,(27 years old +/- 2 years according to the wild life people who use tooth growth rings to determine age) still ran almost 100 yards before he dropped.Thankfullyheran away from meas I was less than 50 ft away from him with all three shots....We supprised each other while I was tracking a black bear.

I took a black bear in August of that year with a neck shot that dropped him instantly from a quarter mile.

While all of my shots on the Grizzly were dissabling and fatal he would have had time to maul or kill me if he had come at me according to the Fish and Game people,yet they said my shot placement was acceptable and my backup was fine had they not stepped on each others toes trying to help me,none of tem got off a shot.

Go with a .44 mag or .50 if you can handle it A 12ga with 00 buck and slugs would be better.In fact any large callibre carbine would be fine.

 

[zoom6zoom]

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I've only taken one bear. I don't know what caliber an Oldsmobile is, but it did the job.

 

[Flowmaster]

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:lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[gbentzen8]

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Flowmaster.......smily faces? It ain't Friday night.....but it is after 5pm.

 

[gbentzen8]

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This sounds like Mr Lumsden, who after retirement was returning from geezerland...er, Fla, and was on 95 north .......near God forsakin' Northern Va. when he and his wife had the joy of hitting a deer( I think it was an Olds). I'll never forget what he said: " you haven't lived until you hit a deer at 6:30am going 65mph on 95 (Hell road) and both airbags deploy...you can't see and you can't steer properly......it's living, really living" ZOWIE!

 

[badmonkey]

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Agent6-3/8 wrote:

badmonkey wrote:

When I'm hiking I carry a .357 with soft point loads, some expansion but still deep penetration. I feel confident in this, although I have never actually had a bear charge me so I'm really not sure how I would react. Keep in mind that I am in WV and we only have black bears around here and the biggest ones are usually only 300-maybe 350 lbs. If I was in brown bear country I would carry no less than .44 magnum if I was actually afraid there was a chance of confronting an angry bear. Or you could always pull out all the stops and go with the .500 magnum Ohh I want one of those...but thats another story....

Have you ever seen a bear in you area, badmonkey? I'm from over in Mingo Co and have never seen anything other than some possible scrapings. (although I know a few people who have)Other than people, I'm more worried about feral dogs and coyotes. I carry a .45 Colt S&W Mountain Gun loaded with Corbon+P200g JHP's. I want to find a heavier load when I get a chance though.

Agent, I just now saw that you asked me a question, a couple of months later! HAHA! Anyways, yes I have seen 1 bear in the wild around here (I wasn't hiking I was mountainbiking in the New River Gorge). I was haulin' down this one trail (Kaymoor Mine Trail if you're familiar with the NRG) and a small one, probably about 100lbs took off up the trail and into the woods. Caught me by surprise so I was watching my back for a while.

Oh yea, I wasn't armed at the time as I was only 16.

 

[Mini14]

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If you must choose a handgun for bear defense, I'd load it with ball-type ammo. If you fire until slidelock, it should go down. Because my XD40 is a multi-task gun, I load a ball round every other hollowpoint or so.

A Handgun is last ditch weapon for defense against bear, if you must carry a .40, why notget a .40 S&W carbine? Ruger, Kel-tech, and even High Point make good to above average weapons that hold at least ten shots. The longer barrel of the carbine means that a pistol round has a bit more knock down.

Additionally, a .40 carbine simplifies logistics; It's when pioneers carried Colt revolving carbine along with theirColt Navies.

I personally would not want to face a bear unless I had either a .30-06 Saiga or an AK47.

 

[gbentzen8]

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Yo Mini......love the 14, but sadly don't own one. I think this all started out with a discussion about handguns that may dispatch a bear.

As there are situations that require discrete carry, a rifle is impractical. If we could all openly carry rifles without having all the limp wristed sheeple going wacko and wetting their collective drawers, life would be simple, but alas these are wiennie times.

Personally it's .357 with hunting ammo for Black bearsand .44mag for Griz as my handgun floors. The .40? Ahhh...no. If it's all I had , of course that's what I'd use. Hell, I'd use a nine on a Black bear if it was all I had on me. Re. Griz......well I saw a video of a 1969 attack on a Park Ranger. He pumped five .357 mags into the beast and was still getting mauled. The last round he put into its neck and it gave it up. After I saw that I figured .44 mag is my Griz baseline. As I stated earlier in all this, several years backI read about two Swedish guys dogsledding in Polar bear country.........they were attacked and dispatcheda Polar bear with a S&W .44Mag. By golly, if those two svensga's can use a .44Mag on a Polar, I guess this Great Dane can consider it a Griz caliber.

All you out there need to contact your so called Reps and Senators and push for National Park Concealed Carry. I want to stomp around Glacier National Park legally with a 3" stainless .44Mag with Garrett Cartridges for bear stoppin' power.

 

[IanB]

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gsh341 wrote:

Believe it or not I have heard that pepper spray works VERY well against bears. Bears have an excellent sense of smell and pepper spray is supposed to be WAY more effective against them than humans. I guess PETA has been fighting use of pepper spray on bears because of it's effectiveness.

Just a thought.

I was just about to type the same thing until I saw your post at the end. I second everything you just said. Pepper spray is by far the most effective way to deal with bears, dogs, or other animals with a keen nose for hunting. Granted, you will be affected (by the spray) as well since you are gonna HOSE the bear down but you will still be ALIVE. Unlike a human, a bear wont know to not rub the spray around once it contacts its face and it will most likely make it worse once it gets douced.

 

[UTOC-45-44]

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reefteach wrote:

I wouldn't want to be in that situation, and If I thought I was going to be, I would get no less than a .44. In my opinion, high capacity won't matter much. Assuming he is in close range and charging you, only the most skilled of shooters would be able to expend 14 rounds accurately. But maybe you're that good. I know I'm not. I would mess myself after the first3 rounds.

I have a Vaquero Bisley 44mag :shock::what::lol:....AND a 44mag Henry Rifle,...He,He,HE:lol:

 

[casullshooter]

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The Ruger Redhawk is available in .454 Casull which is only slightly less powerful than the S&W .500 Mag for about $400 less . It also can fire .45 Long Colts as well for plinking . A snub nose model called the Alaskan is available too . I added Houge finger groove grips to my Super Redhawk which improved control but no real reduction in recoil . .454 Casull rounds run about 1750-1925 lb-ft. of muzzle energy vs. 600 lb.-ft. for a .357 Mag. The pepper spray sounds like a good back-up or vice versa .........454 Casull you have to try it to appreciate it...KA-BOOM!!!!!!!!

 

[PaulB]

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I have a feeling most writers about bears care more for the bear than they care for you! Thus the emphasis on pepper spray.

There is one site I've seen by some kinda biologist or other such expert up in British Columbia I think it was. Just from my memory he said a gun was about 90% effective and spray about 70%, somewhere in that range. I can't give the link though, it would take a while to find it.

One clue you can use for the reliability of such writing is whether the writer even considers firearm use at all. Most do not. If that is the case, I would not put much credence in their writing. If you find one who considers honestly both guns and sprays, you will have a better chance of getting reliable advice.

 

[HerbM]

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In the 70's I had a friend who was extremely trustworthy and who I never caught telling "fish or bear stories" so I believe this one:

My friend Davy had run a bear guide service in Washington (prior to 74 but I don't know precisely when) taking his dogs and well-to-do hunters on trips to hunt. Since the clients were expected to shoot the bear with their rifles, Davy only carried a .357 Magnum which he used for killing any dog who got torn up by a bear.

The dogs would sniff out and chase a bear until they brought the bear before the position Davy would arrange for the mighty hunters.

As you might imagine, eventually one of his week-end hunters dropped his rifle and ran as a good size bear charged their position.

Davy fired all 5 (or 6, as I don't recall this detail) shots of the .357 and the bear died with the head at Davy's feet close enough for him bend over and touch -- he said that one shot less, or one bear length more, and they would likely have died together.

So, if you are accurate and fire enough rounds the bear will eventually die, but don't count on it happening soon enough unless you use a firearm that is equal to the task.

And you cannot outrun a determined bear even in sneakers.

FWIW: He was my best friend, and I believed Davy when he told this story -- it stood up to interrogations which he never minded nor shrank from.


--
Herb

 

[Mainsail]

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I picked up a Ruger Alaskan in .44 for my long wilderness hikes here in WA, as I prefer to hike off-trail to remote peaks and the like. My biggest worry is the two legged predators, bears, and big cats, in that order.



I do get a little weary of the non-hikers who tell me that .44 magnum isn’t enough to stop a grizzly bear at full gallop when I don’t live where there’s grizzly bears.



I have heard that the bear strength (fire extinguisher sized) pepper spray is effective, and I don’t doubt it, but I have several issues with it. First, I don’t want to have to determine wind direction and hope I’m not upwind. Second, they are bulky and hard to deploy in a hurry.

 

[glocknroll]

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I'm going camping in the GWNF with my brother this weekend. We like to get off the trails, and into the back country. I was seriously thinking about carrying my G32 .357 Sig, but you guys about have me convinced to stick with my 4" 629 .44 Mag. The shotgun with slugs would probably work great, but here in VA if you get caught carrying a long gunin the National Forest outside hunting season you are likely to lose the gun, and your right to hunt for 5 years.