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Posted on 10/02/2026 5:23:50 AM PDT by marktwain
Handguns have been shown to be extremely effective at stopping bear attacks. This correspondent and colleagues have documented over 200 cases in North America where handguns were fired in defense against bears. Handguns have been effective in about 98% of the cases.
One objection to these findings is often stated this way:
If a person is killed before the handgun is fired, you will not include the incident in your statistics, because the handgun was not fired.
Fair enough. It is a limitation worth exploring.
Wikipedia and others maintain a database of all the people who have been recorded as having been killed by bears in North America. It cannot include those who were killed by bears in prehistory. There is no reason to look for handgun incidents before the availability of cartridge handguns, about 1870. All the fatal bear attacks in North America which could be documented from 1870 on were examined by this correspondent. From 1870 to present, there were 204. There was a single case where a handgun was present at the scene when the person was killed by a bear. This was the terrible case of Mark Uptain. He had a Glock Model 20 in a holster by his pack, without a round in the chamber. He was a professional guide processing an elk. The Glock was never fired because his client, who was able to access the handgun, did not know how to chamber a round. Mark Uptain was not able to access the Glock pistol. He was able to access a can of bear spray and was able to empty it. He was killed by the bear.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
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Might as well been carrying a rock.
Bear spray is about useless. They should do a study of how many killings by a bear where an empty can of bear spray was found by the bodies?........
What is there to be said? Some snarky remark about a revolver instead, in hindsight?
Watched too many tv shows/movies where the idiot actors always have to “rack” a round to show the audience he/she is serious. I get sick of seeing that in movies.
Since the John Wick movies, I've also seen a proliferation of people doing, "press checks." To each his own, I suppose. A lot of people I see at the range seem to be doing it because they think it looks tacti-cool.
It doesn't.
One of my EDC's is a PPK. It's been around since the 1920s. It has a loaded chamber indicator. I can confirm a round in the chamber in complete darkness without making a sound or risking taking my weapon out of battery.
The title is misleading. It reads as though one model of handgun was present for all known fatal bear attacks in North America, such as a .44 magnum.
There's also the ambiguity of whether it was fatal for each bear or fatal for a human in each encounter.
Not if you use it on one of your fellow hikers when the bear shows up.
😆.....................
I wouldn't call such a comment snarky. Carrying a large caliber revolver in bear country is a tried and true method. Carrying a semi-automatic handgun is risking taking a tool made for one scenario and applying it to another.
Elmer Keith, who certainly had his pick of semi-automatic handguns, would have insisted on the revolver.
Reminds me of an old joke about handguns & bears. The favorite gun for a bear attack?...A .22 caliber pistol. Just kneecap your buddy & then you can probably walk away.
People make silly arguments when they are trying to virtue signal or think they sound smart. But if you put them in a the thunderdome with either bear spray or a gun on a table in front of them, despite everything that came out of their mouth, they are taking the gun.
Exactly. Add in a splash of fish oil to help the bear select Hoppy the Hiker from the menu.
Elmer had a very small choice of semi-auto had handguns.
Then amount and types are far more then in Elmers’s time.
I started a Carrer in law enforcement when revolvers were king. My last duty issue was a Glock.
I never felt under gunned with either type.
The different variety of semi-autos now days is far greater than it was in the 70’s.
With a far greater choice of bullet types.
I have also shot bears with rifles shotguns and handguns.
Nothing wrong with a good revolver nor a good semi-auto.
It is far more the user then the firearm.
I, um, don’t go where there are bears. But, that’s just me.
Take the gun. Leave the cannoli.............
We had a RV that we occasionally rented...
I always offered the renter a can of bear spray — with the warning that it was dangerous — I live north of YNP and we have bears.
One renter (a computer programmer for Amazon back east) said: “YES! Absolutely! How does it work? You sit at a picnic table for lunch and spray it around the table to keep bears away?”
He DID NOT get the bear spray.
“..I, um, don’t go where there are bears. But, that’s just me...”
I don’t go to those places either. They’re definitely not my type....LOL
I live out in the country...verrry rural areas. It’s definitely snake country.
I carry a 6-shot, 3” .38 spcl revolver. Three rounds of CCI snake shot on one side of the cylinder, and 3 rounds of 125gr Speer Gold Dots on the other. Depending on my situational awareness, it’s snake shot for the creepy, crawly snakes and the Gold Dots for the creepy, upright, 2-legged variety. I can easily rotate the cylinder to meet the specific awareness.
Bear country? It’s be some variaty of a .44 revolver for me...
Bear Spray for bears is like Ranch Dressing for Humans.............
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