If I were in bear country and wanted to only carry a handgun and not both a handgun and a serious long gun. I would carry a Glock 21 converted to .460 Roland
If I were in bear country and wanted to only carry a handgun and not both a handgun and a serious long gun. I would carry a Glock 21 converted to .460 Roland
Nor do I. And there is valid argument about heavy, well constructed projectiles to the cranium or shoulder.
My question, is in the charging bear scenario, how many are able to take that shot?
I've seen Sarah Palin do it on TV with a shotgun, and I'll give her credit, she nailed it. :-)
And how do you weight two 700 ftlb vs one 1400 ftlb shot, etc.
My gut sense is that there are not iron clad rules. But still probably worth thinking about.
Last edited by pinzgauer; 04-18-16 at 11:15. Reason: bear was chasing me
Well the 700ft-lb bullets will fail to penetrate the roughly 3 feet of fur, hide, fat, muscle, bone, and organs. This should be easy enough to understand, but a lot of you seem to be having a tough time. It doesn't matter how many times you shoot a bear with your 10mm, if the rounds fail to penetrate to vitals or smash bones they effectively might as well be complete misses for the purposes of keeping that bear from mauling you.
I also have to laugh at all the pronouncements of "well I can put more shots into that bear with my auto (never mind the fact they are totally ineffective) than I can a revolver! 3 shots at 700lbs-ft is 2100, and that's better than one at 1400."
Well the one powerful round has all that energy focused in one place, so it will penetrate deeply and do a lot of damage in that one area. Now if it goes someplace that is not vital, then you're up shit creek but that's true regardless of what you use.
For the multiple shots on target crowd....yeah you won't have time for that shit. Have any of you seen how fast four legged animals accelerate? Ever noticed how much higher their top speeds are? Stop thinking like you are practicing two legged critter defense, we upright monkeys move really really slow by land mammal standards. So when we fight each other we have more time to do stuff at a distance to each other while we close.
Any handgun is a better than nothing tool to try and save your ass if you tangle with a bear when you are not actually hunting them! Bears , lions , elephants , hippos and Buffaloes are called dangerous game not because you cannot kill them , but they might kill you before they die! If I had to try and protect my self from a bear with a pistol , it would be the biggest , most powerful I could get and I would empty the gun in the bear!
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Whilst I, personally, have yet to come across a Minnesota Bear, I have seen them pretty regularly.
I make sure to be aware of the direction of wind, the noises I make (intentionally), and the droppings/tracks around me.
Can I say that a combination of these has kept me safe? I dunno. But, I sure do appreciate the spike in my awareness when my eye catches a nice sized print from one in the area. Not to mention it is a big confidence boost being situational aware or "Caution Yellow" as I was taught.
I am seriously reconsidering my standard carry for when I go into the woods after this thread, however. Haha.
Last edited by HeruMew; 04-18-16 at 12:41.
Coal dragger,
Perfect response to the capacity for brown bear nonsense. A charging bear most likely will not give you the chance to empty a 5-6 shot revolver anyway.
Capacity is of secondary importance for dangerous game, just look at the big double rifles preferred by many African PH's. Essentially 2 extremely expensive, single-shot rifles duct-taped together.
Where a heavy double action revolver is even better than a rifle would be when the bruin is already in the process of mauling you. x_x
Last edited by QuickStrike; 04-18-16 at 12:43.
Thinking about this more, given the grizzly bear acceleration and top speed I wonder if you will even get 2 shots off with anything if you're within 50 yards and caught flat footed. At that point having a pistol you can jam the muzzle into your adversary might be really important. If we can accept that a significant chance exists you'll be mauled anyway to some extent I'd rather have a pistol that can't be pushed out of battery. Advantage revolver.
From my perspective,
357 or 10mm is fine.
Let me be very clear this is in black bear country.
In the 80s I had a NM black hawk.
Starting in the 90s a 1006 or 1076 and more recently an 8 shot DA 357.
Fine in an emergency for a 300 pound bear.
I will defer judgment on the grizzly and polar bears to those experienced with them.
A black bear might as well be a teddy bear compared to a brown.
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