[Archidamus]

"I'm so lucky," he said."

Everything is relative.

[claptrap]

Im sorry but why do these runners have to go into the woods to run? Cant you just jog down the stupid street?
If you are going into the woods why not pack heat?

[Junior]

It sucks when you discover you're not the top of the food chain.

[ZULU]

Ordinary people shouldn't be in grizzly country. And grizzlies shouldn't be anywhere near ordinary people.

The only interaction between normal people and a grizz should be across the sights of a well-aimed rifle.

[montag813]

If I had seen this depicted on TV I would never believe a man could survive such an attack. Incredible.

[HolgerDansk]

Since I live part time about 15 miles away from where these maulings occurred, this isn't just an academic question to me. We have both black and brown aka Grizzley bears that pass through our small community on their annual migration between Glacier Park and the Bob aka Great Bear Wilderness. I did a lot of research before coming up with my solution.

Across the river in Glacier National Park, your options are limited to Bear Spray, which is a large (pint) sized container of capsicum pepper spray. These work well for most people, since they're an area weapon it's hard to miss, and the bears do respond to them, usually by running away. However, they also rely on cooperative wind (which you'll get about 75% of the time here) and we have seen bears that back off, then come at you again when you stop spraying.

Pistol rounds won't do the trick against brown aka Grizzley bears. Skull is too thick and they have insulating cartilidge similar to that of a hog. The going wisdom is that you need to have something that's at least .44 caliber, 1600 fps and 300 grain. I'm not convinced even the .454 Causall will get the job done, and I've heard reports of 4-5 rounds of that caliber being needed -- maybe the 500 S&W. The other consideration is that you want to be able to put more than one round on target in less than five seconds. So the larger heavy recoil rounds like .45-70 Government and 500 S&W can be problematic. And what if you miss that first shot?

The compromise I've settled on is a Winchester 94AE Trapper in .44 Magnum. The 16" barrel gets every last bit of performance of the cartridge, and is easy maneuvered in thick brush. Aside from limiting recoil and barrel jump, the .44 Mag is shorter than the .45-70 Gov, so you get nine shots instead of five out of the same magazine. 300 grain castcore extra hard bullets by Federal go in the magazine, though I'm looking at the Cor-Bon stuff. Works for me, YMMV.