Alaska, Grizzly Bear, .44 Magnum, The Longest Minute

Gun Watch ^ | 24 January, 2018 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Doug White with Bear and .44 Magnum

On September 7th, 2006,  Alaskan moose hunters, Doug White and Reed Thompson, were working on packing out the meat and head from a successful moose hunt. They were attacked by a large grizzly bear. As the attack was in 2006, it did not get the coverage it would today. 

I found the account as I was searching for bear attacks where pistols had been used as a defensive measure. I vaguely remembered the incident. 

The bear moved from one hunter to the other during the attack, giving Doug the chance to access Reed's .44 magnum, that had been hung in a tree. Doug shot the bear and stopped the attack.

Because of intense interest from his family and friends, Doug wrote a detailed account of the attack and the aftermath. He includes several photographs. Here is an excerpt. From  thegreatwhitehunter.com:

When Reed distracted the bear from its attack on me, I had time to concentrate on the holster. I saw a buckle with a strap running through it. I could not figure out how it held the gun in place, so I grabbed the buckle and attempted to rip it off. To my surprise, the buckle was actually a snap and the strap peeled away. As I pulled the revolver out, a sudden calm came over me, and I knew everything would be fine. I looked in the direction of Reed only to once again see the bear charging at me. He was about ten feet away coming up and over the initial log that I had tripped over. That was when I pointed the revolver and fired at center mass. The .44 magnum boomed in the night and the boar fell straight down, his head three feet away from where I stood. As he fell, he bit at the ground and ended up with a mouthful of sod. I stood in a dumbfounded stupor. I had no expectation that the pistol would kill the bear. My hope was that the shot would sting the bear and help scare him away along with the flame and loud report. As his head sagged to the ground, I shot him three more times in quick succession, out of fear and anger.

While not stated in the account, one of the pictures indicates the first, crucial shot, was to the center of the bear's chest. It might have continued on to hit the spine, resulting in the instant collapse of the bear. 

The pistol, from the picture and account, appears to be a Ruger stainless single action .44 magnum. This attack makes  29 pistol defenses against bears that I have found. Only one of them ended in failure.

The account is worth reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of bear attacks and the effectiveness of pistols for defense against bears.

Link to the account of the attack, The Longest Day.


©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch

[marktwain]

The .44 magnum proved far more effective than the shooter expected.

[Leo Carpathian]

Dats racist, killing poor black bear.
Black Bear Lives Matter! (Lotsa meet)

[DOC44]

Pistol looks like a Ruger Hawk, double action.

[DOC44]

Red Hawk

[Puppage]

It was a grizzly.

[RitchieAprile]

RH w/7.5in barrel. Got one. its a lot of pistol.

[KC_Lion]

Alaska Ping

[marktwain]

From the account The Longest Minute:

“Unable to remove the pistol from the holster, I tried to shoot through it, but the strap held the hammer down on the single action revolver.”

The writer does not seem like much of a pistol person. Maybe he got it wrong.

[DOC44]

“RH w/7.5in barrel. Got one. its a lot of pistol.”

Got one like it also and a Ruger Alaskan in 44 Mag great “LITTLE” gun.

[Spok]

For most people, you have to be close to use a handgun effectively. Fortunately (or unfortunately) when a bear charges, range is not a problem.

[yarddog]

Caliber and bullet capable of penetration plus shot placement.

I got that from reading Karamojo Bell.

[Mr. K]

Moral: Keep your handgun close, and make sure your partner has a handgun on him too.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I’m reminded of the book THE INDIAN WAR OF 1864 by Capt Eugene Ware in which he finds a bull bison and shoots it with his .44 Colt pistols. All the head shots bounced off. He used over thirty rounds of black powder paper cartridges to finally bring it down.

[marktwain]

Bison have big heads. Their brain is only a small volume in it, and is protected by a lot of heavy bone.

I kinda doubt the “bounced off” report, but who knows the quality of powder he was using?

[Delta 21]

Looks kinda tiny in that picture.

[Big Red Badger]

A Real Goldilocks story.

[vpintheak]

This is why I always have my Glock 10mm with me in the great outdoors. 15 rounds in case I’m nervous!

[SgtHooper]

S&W 5 inch 460. When fired, I know it’s accelerating my receding hairline. :-)

[Pollster1]

We knew that .44 Magnum was that effective back in 1971, unless Hollywood lied to us:

“Being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”
- Harry Callahan

There’s also a lesson about not taking your gun off in the woods (not meant as a criticism, just a lesson learned, since I might have thought the same way in the excitement of dealing with success and the logistics of hauling several hundred pounds of meat). I can understand not wanting to get blood on a nice firearm, but that wasn’t a moose gun that they could set aside. I’m sure they were carrying the revolver for one reason, and that reason became stronger once they had their moose, not weaker.

[MileHi]

That certainly could be a Super Blackhawk, hard to tell with his hand over it.