Posted on 11/26/2022 4:31:43 AM PST by marktwain
On October, 21, 2022, Wyoming dentist, Dr. Lee Francis, 65 years old, was hunting elk with his 40-year-old son, in the area near Rock Creek, in the Sawtooth Mountains, east of Bondurant, Wyoming.
In this video from KSAL-TV, he gives an interview and explains what happened.
Dr. Francis is an avid hunter and outdoorsman. He successfully collected a large grizzly bear with bow and arrow in 2013, during a hunt, perhaps in Alaska or Canada.
Image of archery bear from facebook.
Several attempts to contact Dr. Francis have been unsuccessful.
Dr. Francis had separated from his son when he unintentionally stepped in front of the entrance to a bear den. He saw the fresh dirt, had drawn his Glock 10mm, chambered a round, and was backing away when the bear charged at him out of the den from 10 feet away.
The best interview about the encounter appears to have been in an article at cowboystatedaily.com. The article says Dr. Francis used 130 grain hardcast bullets in his 10mm Glock.
“He came right at me, and he came on full blast,” the elder Francis said.
Counting the cartridge already in the chamber, he had 14 rounds loaded with 130 grain hard cast bullets in his Glock.
“I just remember shooting three or for times, right before he hit me,” he said. “Then I went down on my back.”
(snip)
Hard cast bullets will punch through a bruin’s body, instead of
rapidly expanding and expending their energy in massive, shallow wounds
the way that hollow point bullets do, he said.“Hollow points are meant for stopping people, not bears,” he said,
adding that it was also fortunate for him that his weapon was loaded
with hard cast bullets.“A hit from a hollow point would have probably just exploded my whole foot,” he said.
He also said he favors the high-capacity, semi-automatic Glock over magnum revolvers.
130 grain hardcast bullets for a 10mm would be unusual. Perhaps it is a typo or misreading of notes, where another weight of bullet was intended. Buffalo Bore has a 220 grain hardcast bullets loaded for bear in the 10mm.
Dr. Francis was attempting to fend of the bear with his feet when he accidentally wounded himself.
In the over 123 documented cases where pistols were fired in defense against bears, this correspondent recalls only two where the person firing the pistol wounded themselves.
Coincidentally, both were with 10mm pistols. Both happened as the defender fell on their back and attempted to fend off the bear with their feet.
The first case was with Kim Woodman who had to shoot a grizzly sow at bad breath distance in 2016. Kim was backing away from the bear when he tripped and went over backwards. He continued to fire, and shot the tip off of the middle toe of his left foot as he shot the bear and attempted to block it with his foot at the same time.
Peace officers train to be able to back up without falling, and failing that, to avoid shooting their legs or feet if they fall backward.
Those techniques can be handy for people who carry pistols as a potential defense against bears. Here is one video on shooting while moving. Here is one for shooting from your back. The important thing to practice is not to point the muzzle at your own body, obviously a more difficult task in the middle of a fight for your life.
What a stupid line to include in this article.
How often do peace officers encounter bear dens?
How often do peace officers have a bear suddenly appear 10 feet away, then charge them at full speed?
Accuracy on a fast moving target ain't easy, and reloading time almost non-existent.
Even time to draw back-up gun....
Or, you could stalk to within 60 yards (about max effective hunting range for a modern bow), and fire at a bear which was not aware of your presence.
The bear would likely snap at the arrow, but not know where it came from.
If lung-shot (the preferred arrow shot) in about 4-10 minutes, the bear would be dead, depending on exact placement.
If the heart is hit (a more difficult shot), death would likely be less than two minutes.
You just have to stay out of the way of the bear for the intervening interval...
see all that snow in the xray? yeah...
A person doesn’t know how unpleasant recoil from a handgun can truly is until one shoots an eleven ounce Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum 360PD with Super Vel ammunition, the recoil is vicious.
A friend of mine went hunting Black bear with a bow. He never went again and wouldn’t even talk about it. I don’t think it went well.
(I've never figured out how they hold their pee in the cold, since scent suppression is such a key factor?)
One has to go to the link to get the full story about his encounter with the bear. The bear was never found
Selling semi automatic weapons is just crazy.
Joe Bien
Not quite. The FBI never issued "full house" 10mm loads, so there were never any girlie-girl or weak-kneed Nancy-boy agents complaining it was too much gun. They dialed it back to a 180gr bullet @950 fps while still in the evaluation phase because they then were fixated on 12-18" of penetration (on account of the 1986 Miami shoot-out). Only the "FBI Lite" loads were ever issued to rank-and-file agents.
The FBI's own report on the process is here (pdf).
And the FBI didn't create the .40S&W, S&W did. S&W recognized that the FBI Lite loads left a lot of empty space in the cartridge casing so they could shorten the case by 3.6mm and then the shorter round could be fired from a pistol with a smaller grip.
The grip on the .40 S&W Glock 23 is exactly the same girth as the grips on the 9mm Glock 17 & 19. And all are noticeably smaller than the grips on either the Glock 20 (10mm) or 21 (.45 ACP), including the G20SF and G21SF (SF=short frame). Which makes the .40S&W pistols more 'ergonomic.' than 10mms.
And the FBI's .40S&W load fired the same bullet as had the 10mm FBI Lite and was loaded to the same muzzle velocity, so in the FBI's loadings the 10mm and the .40S&W produced exactly the same recoil.
So he shut himself in the foot while on his back kicking the bear in the face and firing his gun. Crazy!
In the early 90s I bought a S&W 1006 in 10mm. The recoil was surprising, especially as it was a pretty heavy pistol. The best part about the original 10mm loading is that it made most common pistol round seem tame. An added bonus was that friends wouldn’t shoot it more than a couple of times, which saved me ammo.
Then the “FBI loads” came out and I lost interest. I still miss the 1006 but I sold it for more then I paid for it. The modern loadings are just as good as the original, but these days the 9mm does everything I need a pistol for. If I was going to be walking around anywhere where there was larger than man-size predators 10mm would be a fine choice, but given the option I would prefer a rifle. Even the lowly .223 is more powerful than a 10mm.
130gr seems a little odd
My reloading manuals start with 135 gr jacketed, and 150 gr or 155 gr for lead bullets
If this is correct, I’m curious as to why he chose a minimum weight rather than a maximum weight bullet.
The Dentist from the Carol Burnett Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IUSM4EKcRI
Good thing he ignored Glock’s instructions not to shoot lead bullets.
And a bear that wishes to crunch crunch your cranium.
A friend has the 340PD (concealed hammer) and this is his pocket gun. It is so light!
He is an experienced “gun dude” and simply says the gun is no fun and hurts a lot to shoot, though it is very accurate due to the short barrel.
Remember that! Hysterical!
Anybody here amused going to the dentist...unless you have a wretched toothache?
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