9mm v Bear again

Register to hide this ad
BEAT THREAD! BEAR THREAD! Get out the bear spray! And the .600 Nitro Express double rifle! And everything in between!

But seriously, of course those guys were lucky. But so is everybody who successfully repels a grizzly attack with a handgun, no matter the caliber.

Here, it most likely succeeded because the bear was highly agitated, but not actually attacking. Looking at the photo of the scene and reading the guide's description, had the bear charged with the intention of carrying through, his clients would not have walked away without a scratch as they did. But the guide did NOT stop a charging bear, he got multiple opportunities to take aimed shots at an agitated bear cavorting around a few feet in front of his clients, but never making contact, not even after starting to get hit.

This is a fascinating story, but I don't think it proves anything other than you can kill a grizzly with a 9mm if you shoot it often enough and aren't distracted by the bear chewing on you.
 
There are probably many counts of people killing dangerous game with sub-calibers that we now deem insufficient for the purpose. That said, how many Buffalo do you think were brought down with a Bow & Arrow? Lewis and Clark used an Air Rifle to kill Buffalo and it blew the Indians mind. Just shows ya how some well places shots at a reasonable range can still get the job done.
 
Years ago I read of a guy that killed a grizzly with a .32 S&W top break.

It seems that he was treed and all he had was an old DA and a box of shells. Every time the bear started up the tree he would pop it with the .32 and the bear would back down.
After 34 or so shots the bear finally bled to death......;):eek:
 
Last edited:
Bear spray is a more reliable way to deter a bear attack than a gun regardless of caliber. Remember the bear will charge at about 35 mph. Since most bear attacks start with the bear about 5omtom150 feet away, you will have only a few seconds to draw aim and shoot. Miss an incapacitating shot and you are toast. A charging bear presents his front to you low to the ground so the head is the most prominent target. The skull is impanatrable by most calibers. The best area to targer is the dried of a bear just behind the shoulder because that will hit the area of heart and lungs. But you will it have time to change position for side shot.

On the other hand bear spray is used properly will either drive the bear odd or stop the charge. If the charge has been stopped there is time to take incapacitating shots.

I hike spring and fall in PA black bear country. Over the past ten years I have had to spray two bears. They ran off and did not come back. Of course they were brown or grizzly bears, but there is plenty of documentation that bear spray works on them too.

The spray also works on cougars, coyotes, and wolves.
 
Last edited:
N

If you spray the bear spray on you will that work as well?

No, but it will really test your endurance of mace.

Bear spray is pepper spray that is many more times powerful than personal defense pepper spray. You spray it wha. The bear is between 15 and 20 feet away. It creates a large cloud of the pepper spray. It is usually colored orange or yellow.

When the bear runs through it it breates in the spray cloud and it gets it in its eyes. The bear suffers major instantaneous inflammation of airways and eyes. Their natural impulse is to go in a different direction.
 
No, but it will really test your endurance of mace.

Bear spray is pepper spray that is many more times powerful than personal defense pepper spray. You spray it wha. The bear is between 15 and 20 feet away. It creates a large cloud of the pepper spray. It is usually colored orange or yellow.

When the bear runs through it it breates in the spray cloud and it gets it in its eyes. The bear suffers major instantaneous inflammation of airways and eyes. Their natural impulse is to go in a different direction.

Thanks. I admit I had to laugh when I read you spray it when the bear is 15 to 20 feet away. I had an image of myself telling the wife, "Wait Madge, not yet, wait till he gets to 15 feet. Not yet. Not yet!
 
Bear spray is a more reliable way to deter a bear attack than a gun regardless of caliber. Remember the bear will charge at about 35 mph. Since most bear attacks start with the bear about 5omtom150 feet away, you will have only a few seconds to draw aim and shoot. Miss an incapacitating shot and you are toast. A charging bear presents his front to you low to the ground so the head is the most prominent target. The skull is impanatrable by most calibers. The best area to targer is the dried of a bear just behind the shoulder because that will hit the area of heart and lungs. But you will it have time to change position for side shot.

On the other hand bear spray is used properly will either drive the bear odd or stop the charge. If the charge has been stopped there is time to take incapacitating shots.

I hike spring and fall in PA black bear country. Over the past ten years I have had to spray two bears. They ran off and did not come back. Of course they were brown or grizzly bears, but there is plenty of documentation that bear spray works on them too.

The spray also works on cougars, coyotes, and wolves.

You are correct....But remember: black bears and grizzlies are two different birds. Black bears can climb trees and tend to flee when they're challenged or hurt. Grizzlies can't climb trees, but they're bigger, meaner and far more committed to the attack than black bears ever are. Hell, they kill just for fun sometimes, both humans and critters. Any device that will deter or kill a griz is a good thing. But comparing them to their smaller more common cousins is dangerous.

With that said, I carry a 40 with the same type rounds; 200gr. hard cast solids or a .357 Magnum. Both have a slight edge over a 9mm. I'll give the old guy credit, he did the best he could with what he had.
 
Last edited:
If you spray the bear spray on you will that work as well?

If you wanna feel like you just fell into the depths of hell! I was sprayed with 5% OC (standard police stuff) in the academy 21+ years ago. It SUCKED! I'll never forget that. I don't even like using OC on the job because it goes EVERYWHERE! But, it is effective on criminals & the bear formula is far worse.
 
If you wanna feel like you just fell into the depths of hell! I was sprayed with 5% OC (standard police stuff) in the academy 21+ years ago. It SUCKED! I'll never forget that. I don't even like using OC on the job because it goes EVERYWHERE! But, it is effective on criminals & the bear formula is far worse.

Is the 5% OC worse than tear gas. We did the tent drill where we walked into the tent with our gas masks on and them took them off and had to stand there for some length of time.

I didn't enjoy that at all.
 
"This Alaskan guide took a bear with 9mm Buffalo Bore +P.
If I go into into Bar Country with a 9 Thrillameter,
I want to be with this guy!"

All this proves is God takes care of fools!

Grizzlies basically want to remove a threat. Once they are convinced the threat is neutralized, they're happy!

MALE black bears will attack for food. They're not happy until you pass through them!
 
Though they both contain the same active ingredient — oleoresin capsicum, bear spray contains a much lower concentration. A typical pepper spray used for self defense will have an oleoresin capsicum (OC) concentration of about 10% or higher. A typical bear spray has a oleoresin concentration of about 1 – 2 %.
 
I'm certainly no expert or have any experience with Grizzlies....but if I owned a better weapon to use other than a 9mm I think I certainly would have taken it with me (the reason he gave for not taking his M-629 .44mag was pretty lame IMO).

I think this guy was extremely lucky to have killed/stopped this bear before it got to his clients.

Very poor judgement on the guides part. I would not want to book a trip with this guy.

Don
 
Last edited:
This spring there was a kid who used his 870 (new) to do a pretty good job at close range. This is not an ad for Remington, but 12 gauge seems to have some attractive features when facing Yogi. I think I kind of dislike the recoil of slugs, but I understand its necessary.
 
A 9 x 19 semi-auto against an angry Brown Bear? Prayer works too. Sometimes the Lord is with you.
 
"This spring there was a kid who used his 870 (new) to do a pretty good job at close range. This is not an ad for Remington, but 12 gauge seems to have some attractive features when facing Yogi. I think I kind of dislike the recoil of slugs, but I understand its necessary."

That was NOT an attack. The bear knocked two or three adults out of the way. The bear was trying to escape. I did my MS Thesis on bear behavior in 1998 and was charged once.

"Though they both contain the same active ingredient — oleoresin capsicum, bear spray contains a much lower concentration. A typical pepper spray used for self defense will have an oleoresin capsicum (OC) concentration of about 10% or higher. A typical bear spray has a oleoresin concentration of about 1 – 2 %."

That is TRUE but misleading sales propaganda. Bear sprays are rated Class I to Class III for human sprays. Bear sprays are the next step up! The "concentration" may be a greater proportion of a weaker pepper liquid. You may have 10% of 10,000 Scovill Heat Units or 2% of 2,000,000 SCU strength pepper spray=That would be a dose of 1000 SCU/can vs 4,000,000 SCU/can.

"Is the 5% OC worse than tear gas. We did the tent drill where we walked into the tent with our gas masks on and them took them off and had to stand there for some length of time.

I didn't enjoy that at all. "

Been through both, as well as police mace (mace and CS were during training; dog spray was accidental). Dog spray was the worse.
 
If you wanna feel like you just fell into the depths of hell! I was sprayed with 5% OC (standard police stuff) in the academy 21+ years ago. It SUCKED! I'll never forget that. I don't even like using OC on the job because it goes EVERYWHERE! But, it is effective on criminals & the bear formula is far worse.

My favorite bear spray video. Note that the stuff comes out in a fairly strong concentrated stream. Even wind may reduce the range a bit, but it will still get there.

Too many people (who don't trust it) envision gentle puffs of matter like from a hairspray can, which is also why they worry overmuch about wind. That's not what real bear spray looks at all. Personally, I've only emptied expired cans for practice (while wearing a surplus Israeli gas mask ;)), but that stream is really quite impressive and goes a ways before dissipating.

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YTcqhhAnE88[/ame]
 
You don't need no stinking bullets.............. !!

Years ago on a "Now you know the rest of the story".......
a hunter was gutting out a deer he killed on a Island south of Alaska that he had taken with his rifle.

A Bear came at him to get either him or the deer and he did not have time to reach his rifle.
After a battle the hunter came out on top.......still able to walk
and now with two dead animals.

The kicker was............
the hunter was in his Sixties !!
 
We have anti spam software, anti virus software...isn't there any anti bear thread software?
 
Back
Top