Posted on 12/03/2007 3:09:30 PM PST by george76
Long ago, grizzly bears thrived in Montana as did tales - some tall, some true - told by frontiersmen of a man-eater even more fearsome than the other two bogeymen of the forest, wolves and mountain lions.
Today, the reputation of Ursus arctos horribilis - along with other major predators ...
Also changed is how people can handle encounters with grizzlies, using a chemical spray rather than guns to improve the odds that both humans and bears will escape the encounters unharmed.
But Workman believes that if a bullet was good enough for his great-grandfather more than a century ago, then it's good enough for him when confronted by a charging grizzly, especially since he's wielding a modern, high-powered rifle.
It's an opinion held by many hunters, but Workman also is a member of Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission, the citizen board that oversees the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
And that agency, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, devotes considerable resources each year on bear awareness programs that emphasize chemical spray, not bullets, as the way to keep both people and bears safe in the woods.
Last week, Workman drew widespread criticism from bear biologists, wildlife officials and some hunters when he shot a charging grizzly - and later said bullets are far more effective than bear spray in fending off such an attack.
These people who think that they're safe with bear spray, I'm here to tell them it's a false sense of security, he said.
The spray is better than nothing, but I'll choose a firearm every time.
Workman...also drew fire for saying grizzlies have become so populous in Montana that they should be taken off the endangered species list and hunted to make them afraid of people.
(Excerpt) Read more at missoulian.com ...
Goodnight MOO’S.
You may be right on the heavier bullets, but after you meet a upright grizzly in the woods, how about get back to me and
let’s see if you still hold the same opinion about size.
Pick the one who snores...
That Garrett ammo will flatten out rhinos and cape buffalo; a grizzly is big, but not THAT big.
LOLOLOL Hope you got a good lawyer !!!
Unless you have some sort of super intelligent spire ammo for the 50, I’d still expect the 45/70 with those flat-nosed silver solder bullets to put large animals down faster. Those bullets don’t HAVE to expand. Part of the problem is that there’s no real way to make spire ammo which functions well under all conditions, all targets, all ranges. If you want a 50 to hunt with, go for the 50 Alaskan.
roll your own then. you can load it with really mild loads that even with that butt plate, will kick less than a 20ga.
huge revolver cartridges aren’t worth spit if you can’t hit the target with ‘em.
i don’t know about you, but that’s a bit too much gun for me to hit accurately with.
Chambered primarily in .457 Wild West Magnum, compatable with 45-70.
Other calibers, finishes & options available.
Oh I so want one...
If it’s basically what I ate for dinner last night, I won’t exactly expect it to stop a large charging carnivore.
When walking in the woods I carry a S&W 500 4 inch with alternate hollow point and flat head 300 grainers.
For Democrats I recommend a small can bear spray and wear those little jingle bells in your shoe laces.
Or a gun that squirts pepper spray and shoots a bullet at the same time?
You're getting there. When travel afoot in bear country was a daily liklihood for me, my most usual companion was a short-barrelled 12-gauge shotgun, sometimes with a folding or pistol grip, sometimes not.
Ammunition choice was easy: in the daytime [when surveyors work] it was loaded up with 12-gauge solid slugs, known in the midwest as *deer slugs* but as *bear slugs in some corners of the West and Alaska.
For nighttime use, a *Dragon's Breath* round was first up, useful both as a bear deterrent and as a signalling device to aircraft flying overhead. It was expected that if the first round didn't leave Mr/Mrs Bruin fleeing in a smoking, smoldering panic from the Fire God, it'd at least flashblind one loing enough for the following 5, 6 or 7 slugs to follow.
Only caveat with the Dragon's Breath rounds: don't use during fire season, and don't fire straight up when signalling.
“If you are in a group, pepper spray the bear, and while he is temporarily blinded hand the spray can to someone else in the group.”
Preferrably, the slowest runner in the group.
Yeah!
Spray the sucker with THAT!!
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