Posted on 02/16/2018 2:09:05 PM PST by marktwain
Todd Orr is the survivor of a double mauling by a grizzly bear on 1 October, 2016. When the bear charged him, he used bear spray in an attempt to stop the attack. It did not work. Todd was taught that bear spray was superior to pistols for stopping charging bears. He took the use of bear spray seriously, kept an up to date can of spray in a holster, and had practiced quick drawing the spray and using it. He had used bear spray on a black bear twelve years previously.
In that instance he surprised the sleeping black bear from about 30 feet away. The bear came at him, and he was able to deploy bear spray from about 10 feet, directly into the bear's face. The bear instantly turned and ran off. He never saw that black bear again.
His frame of mind was that “Statistics from recorded bear attacks show that bear spray is more effective than a gun at stopping a bear charge.”
I met Todd at the 2018 shot show in Las Vegas. I was impressed. Todd appeared to have healed well. He is an outdoors professional, an obviously skilled woodsman and shooter. He is intelligent, thoughtful and articulate. He is an accomplished pistol shot, having harvested 28 elk with a pistol. He is a custom knife maker and has been an active reloader of his own ammunition for most of his life.
Todd was carrying a 10 mm Rock Island pistol with a six inch barrel and a 2×7 Burris variable handgun scope in a chest holster when he
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Shoot (pun not originally intended, but hey) remember the guy who took down a bear with a cheap .45? I think it was a brown bear but actually don’t remember that part. I just remember it was one of those cheap .45 pistols.
Old Boy Scout joke:
The National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Glacier National Park and other Rocky Mountain parks to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter.
They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking. The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them. This might cause a bear to charge.
Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear’s sensitive nose and it will run away.
It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.
Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.
It was a HiPoint .45, an inexpensive pistol, but they work. The incident is included in the article on defensive use of pistols against bears. It is incident 16 in the article.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/pistols-for-defense-against-bears.html
I always love your writing!
What I want to know is where can I get a hat like Dean's.
Thank you for the kind words.
I have an update on pistols and bear defenses coming out shortly. We now have 37 incidents, but only 35 pure pistol defenses. Two incidents include rifles being used as well as pistols.
How about one of those flame throwers?
10mm is a fine cartridge; my Delta Elite is my sidearm of choice here in Louisiana when I go places I might stumble across some angry wild boar or gators. I still think I’d want something a bit more robust in grizzly country.
Boar can be jut about as bad- thick skull and hard to hit a vital that’ll stop them before they impact.
Yeah, a Hi-Point. I’ve seen them but never shot one.
My regular pistol is a cheap one. It does OK. I’m reasonably accurate with it. Not a Hi-Point though.
The 10 mm and .357 magnum are very, very close in energy. The 10 mm uses a little heavier bullets, but sacrifices a little energy with those bullets.
For the same weight bullets, they are so close the difference is inconsequential, IMHO.
Got to love The Far Side.
There are a lot more options in .357 firearms so barrel length becomes a big variable when comparing the performance of the .357 to the 10mm (which has a minimal range of weapons to choose from). All other things being equal, with proper loads, I’ve always thought of the 10 as bridging the gap between the .357 and .41 magnums.
With the heavier bullets (165 grains and up for the .357, 180 grains and up for the 10 mm) both have plenty of penetration to use for defense against bears.
As I have collected incidents of pistols being used against bears, the primary factors, for a pistol of 9 mm or greater power, seem to be a willingness to shoot, knowing bear anatomy so as to shoot for vital areas, and to keep on shooting.
However, there have been a number of documented one stop shots of Grizzly bears from 9 mm to .44 magnum.
The number of documented bear attacks and defensive uses with pistols are so small as to make caliber comparisons of little value.
My suspicion is that many successful uses of pistols to defend against bears, especially black bears, are never documented, or, if they are documented, are never reported to the public.
No doubt, you’ve researched the matter far more than I. I grew up in Western PA, where we had the occasional nuisance black bear. My dad would always pack his department issued .357 into the woods, and I suppose in my mind that established the baseline for (black) bear medicine.
I carry a .45 all the time when out in our fields. A lot of forest. I have never seen a bear, but have seen coyotes galore and I understand there are a few wildcats.
heard a story the other day about a young woman who successfully defended herself against a mother grizzly bear attack with a .22 caliber pistol. She state that she and her boyfriend were out hiking in the woods and inadvertently came between a mother grizzly and her cub. When the mother attacked she said she immediately reached down in to her ankle holster and retrieved her .22 pistol. She then shot her boyfriend in the knee and slowly backed away down the trail.
That’s Just WRONG!
Sounds like my Ex-wife!
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