Big Bear, 44 carry.

[DevilDog72]

well.....

I posted once in this thread already, that said, IMHO there is no such thing as too much gun when it comes to bears. In our elk camps there are at least 2 12 ga. guns with 00 buck followed by slugs for our primary bear medicine.

When we gang up to bring a downed elk to camp one of us grabs that 12 ga. gun...…just in case.

 

[Kurusu]

I posted once in this thread already, that said, IMHO there is no such thing as too much gun when it comes to bears. In our elk camps there are at least 2 12 ga. guns with 00 buck followed by slugs for our primary bear medicine.

When we gang up to bring a downed elk to camp one of us grabs that 12 ga. gun...…just in case.

Of course there is too much gun. Check the main battery of BB 63.

 

[DevilDog72]

well.....

Maybe just this once I might agree.... except, I don't think the USS Missouri is man portable.....what say you

 

[Kurusu]

Maybe just this once I might agree.... except, I don't think the USS Missouri is man portable.....what say you


View attachment 365351

You never said it had to be man portable.

Edit. In fact. It's just the other way around.

 

[BearBio]

Black bears are NOT dinosaurs! They are not 10 feet tall and don't weigh 2000 pounds.....

"As for "bear spray" you better keep the wind at your back or you will get a face full of bear spray and a pissed off bear on top of you"==Bear spray is heavy(oil based) and comes out at 30mph-so, just don't hunt in a hurricane! In other words, winds less than 30 mph won't affect it much! BTW: in the 3% of the cases (out of 200+), Herrero found it had only very minor effects to the user when it did hit them but still stopped the bear!

BTW: Can we get some newer jokes? Most of these have been around since WWI!

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Okay, I told a joke earlier, let me toss in a true story that will surprise you.

A friend of mine celebrated his 50th anniversary a few years back with various trips and one was in the American Northwest, hiking some trails etc. As I recall, he was told that if they came upon a bear to wave their arms and make noise.

He's a six footer, and lanky, even for an old dude. He was hiking with a group and his reasonable good health and long legs allowed him to out pace them some so there was nobody with him when he turned a corner and came face-to-face with a bear. (I agree with what y'all are thinking - he never should have gone so far so fast but that's water under the bridge.) He stopped, kind of stunned, then waved his arms and hollered!

WHAM!!! That bear hit him so hard that he went flying, backwards and to his right, and downhill. Remember, now, there is nobody to help him. Fortunately for him, the bear took that hit as a win and meandered off. So, now he has to climb back up to the trail that the bear knocked him off of - and he is injured.

The group got there a few minutes later, heard his cries for help, and got him back on the trail. Needless to say, he was very lucky. His shoulder was dislocated and he might have had some minor bone and internal injuries but, all in all, he was in decent shape. He was in a sling for a very long time.

The point here is that, sometimes, no weapon can save you - you get that close to a bear where it can punch your lights out you are TOO DAMN CLOSE! My buddy was unarmed and in the wrong place at the wrong time as far as that bear was concerned. He would never have had time to deploy a weapon - that is just a fact of life in the deep woods. Sometimes, nothing can save you.

========================================

I will note that my two choices for woods walking are a .357 Magnum or a .45 Colt. I'm not much of a fan of .44 Magnums. And I would be carrying a stout fighting knife, too.

Even so.............up close and personal is just too close!

 

[Kid44]

Sorry missed the humor. There are people that believe such things.

I heard a lady once ask a ranger at a national park what the best time of year was to come back and watch the elk turn into moose.

 

[Doug M.]

I was taught in the academy that the default round for a serious shotgun is a slug, and that buckshot is a specialized round for limited purposes. I generally live by that. While 00, or better yet, 000 buck might do the job (most of the buck I own is 000, in the interest of better penetration), if I were considering the possible use against a bear, I would have slugs in my shotgun (and probably one of the Brenneke models designed for maximum penetration). I would be concerned that with a bear, the need for penetration would not be reliably satisfied with buckshot.

 

[fredj338]

Okay, I told a joke earlier, let me toss in a true story that will surprise you.

He's a six footer, and lanky, even for an old dude. He was hiking with a group and his reasonable good health and long legs allowed him to out pace them some so there was nobody with him when he turned a corner and came face-to-face with a bear. (I agree with what y'all are thinking - he never should have gone so far so fast but that's water under the bridge.) He stopped, kind of stunned, then waved his arms and hollered!

WHAM!!! That bear hit him so hard that he went flying, backwards and to his right, and downhill. Remember, now, there is nobody to help him. Fortunately for him, the bear took that hit as a win and meandered off. So, now he has to climb back up to the trail that the bear knocked him off of - and he is injured.

The point here is that, sometimes, no weapon can save you - you get that close to a bear where it can punch your lights out you are TOO DAMN CLOSE! My buddy was unarmed and in the wrong place at the wrong time as far as that bear was concerned. He would never have had time to deploy a weapon - that is just a fact of life in the deep woods. Sometimes, nothing can save you.

========================================

I will note that my two choices for woods walking are a .357 Magnum or a .45 Colt. I'm not much of a fan of .44 Magnums. And I would be carrying a stout fighting knife, too.

Even so.............up close and personal is just too close!

Well i would submit if he had time to wave his arms & yell he had time to deploy a big bore revo or hvy loaded 10mm. Would that have helped or hurt, never know that answer. Had your friend stayed on the trail the bear would likely have pressed the attack, again just wont know.

 

[DB404]

AK Fish and Game used to advise that if you're attacked by a brownie and it gets to you, play dead and you'll likely survive after it smacks you around for awhile (might not look too pretty afterwards). They also advised that if attacked by a black bear, fight like hell because it wants to eat you. The only fatal black bear attack I can recall from my time in Alaska was by a scrawny 125 lb bear that ate a guys wife; IIRC, Troopers were holding him for possible murder charge after he reported her missing and his story seemed too outlandish. Took a while to sort it out, but the bear had indeed eaten her. So the big bears are impressive but even the little ones can be problems. Anything that goes bang is a better tool than your finger nails.

 

[N636P]

Having lived in bear country (Alaska & Idaho) AND not being all in one piece (piece of arm missing from a black bear), I can vouch that black bear can be nasty and just plain ornery. Brown bear are much more skittish. Make noise when you walk AND TALK TO YOURSELF LOUDLY. Whatever size of gun, save the last bullet for yourself.

We used to call walking a little dog on a leash, trolling for bear.

 

[badge]

There are other reasons to carry enough gun when in the back country.

Many years ago my dad and I were moose and bear hunting hoping to get one of each. One morning we got in the boat at daybreak so we could try and catch one getting a drink. We saw a big bull moose and put the boat ashore. We proceeded to track the bull spaced about 70 yards apart.

There I was like a Elmer Fudd thinking I was going to get trampled because all I could see was alder and grass over six feet tall. I walked the game trail and could see where several moose had been bedded down. But still no bull. Around the next corner of the trail I came across a still steaming pile of bear poop.

So now I'm really nervous. Now I'm thinking I'm about to be eaten.

What seemed like hours was really about 20 minutes and I hear a shot. My dad shot something but what? I walked carefully to where he was and saw the moose on the ground dead.

They both surprised each other about ten yards apart. My dad only had time to draw his 44 mag with home grown 250 grain lead hard cast and shot the moose in the head. Dropped him right there.

Back then people only had access to 41 mag, 44 mag, 12 gauge, and 45-70 to use as a back up for hunting or fishing. It worked then and it still works now.

That was my first of many hunts. And you won't catch me with bear spray or a 40 short and weak for large game.

Always nice to see folks comment that know of what they speak. Respect these critters as they can and sometimes do hurt us,..... residing and hunting in Wyoming for a number of years I was very wary of Moose in the river bottoms I frequented and Bears weren't quite as numerous 35 years ago as they seem to be now or we didn't seem to cross path's quite as much.
Carry something that you are confident in not to mention something that can do severe physical damage to large, heavy boned creatures that can at times seem impervious to skeletal destruction and pain. If you go out there ill prepared it is going to be you or someone close who pay's the price.

 

[EMP3]

From what I've read, bear spray is by a wide margin the preferred weapon as it is far more effective than any pistol.

I've just read an article that indicated bears are attracted to bear spray. Apparently they like it.

 

[FlightMike]

Good answer! Is bear spray generally good with hostile people as well. My stomping ground is also a remote road connecting poor communities across the TN and NC line, and there are more than the normal number of downtrodden and desperate folks along the route. I think I will probably settle for either a handgun or bear spray (wifey already has a can, I always forget about it) so I need to consider the human element too. Good reminder! Thanks.

But I was unaware that the outdoorsman load would penetrate better than the Keith load. Is the outdoorsman load the same HD standard of a 158 grain SWC and 12ish grains of 2400? That would be a good fit for a model 19 or similar.

I just got back from a Cody, Wyoming area Elk hunt. The locals like to use .44 mag. to counter grizzly attacks. Wyoming Fish and Game recommend .300gr. bullets. Some told me that bear spray doesn't work very well at high altitude 6,500' - 9,000'. I wasn't taking any chances as we saw 3 grizzly, so I carried my mag-na-ported 629-1, 8 3/8" with me at all times...

 

[tomrkba]

Ummm...carry both. The default is the gun but use the spray if you have the time and distance.