.38 Special Effective Against Wyoming Grizzly Bear

AmmoLand ^ | February 18, 2022 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Handguns have proven to be 97% effective in defending against attacking bears. Caliber is not as important as willingness to kill the bear and shot placement.

[Tupelo]

Amongst the caliber debates, I cannot help but think of the 14 year old Indian girl in northern Canada the killed a world record sized Grizzly Bear with her single shot .22 back around 1952.

[Gnome1949]

Good article. It has been difficult to find .38 Special ammunition in stores this past year.

[marktwain]

You are close, but she was 63 years old, a small Indian woman, Bella Twin.

Here is an article with more detail than any other I have seen.

[Tupelo]

“You are close, but she was 63 years old”

Damn! Missed by only 49 years.
getting more like Dimjo every day.

[wastedyears]

Are the bullets made with depleted uranium?

[marktwain]

Damn! Missed by only 49 years. getting more like Dimjo every day.

You did much better than most. Most of your recollection was correct.

It is an incredible story.

[COBOL2Java]

Handguns have proven to be 97% effective in defending against attacking bears.

And human bears as well...

[Does so]

“Handguns have proven to be 97% effective in defending against attacking bears.”

...said all the survivors...

[marktwain]

There may be some cases where people who fired pistols to defend against bears were killed. It is difficult to know what may have never been reported.

However, it is very likely far more cases where attacking bears were killed by people armed with pistols are never reported. There are significant incentives for people armed with modern pistols not to report defensive encounters where they killed the offending bear with a pistol.

Before 1960, it was considered unremarkable; after 1975, it was legally risky.

[ought-six]

The venerable old .38 Special has been getting a bad rap for about fifty years, and its disparagement is undeserved. It was the official police caliber for about 75 years, before the auto-loaders became popular. Maybe I’m an anachronism (well, I AM in my 70s!), but I like the tried-and-true wheel guns of yore.

[riverrunner]

Please find the non survivors.

Stories abound about handguns not working but they are just that.

If you can find documented cases of handgun failures,

I sure would like to see them.

[Psalm 73]

"...14 year old Indian girl in northern Canada the killed a world record sized Grizzly Bear with her single shot .22"

Wow - like 14 year-old David scoring a direct hit with a single rock against the massive warrior Goliath and dropping him.

[marktwain]

The venerable old .38 Special has been getting a bad rap for about fifty years, and its disparagement is undeserved.

Many of the .38 Special revolvers are wonderful examples of the gunmaker's art.

[unread]

Hmmm... I can only say that the .38 was found to be somewhat lacking in those days when the Army strayed away from the .45 colt.. A determined “Moro” warrior with a machete was apparently more than a match for the Army’s new .38cal. Hence the birth of the 1911 .45ACP.

But, with when your back is against the wall, a big stick is better than nothing... :)

[03A3]

Gotta believe the .38 Spl was brought to dispatch a wounded elk, and not for bear defense.

[FreedomPoster]

Thanks, great story. You do great work.

[marktwain]

Hmmm... I can only say that the .38 was found to be somewhat lacking in those days when the Army strayed away from the .45 colt..

That was not the .38 Special, which was fielded in 1902. It was the .38 Long Colt, a significantly weaker cartridge.

Another factor, seldom considered, is the Army also found the .30-40 Krag was lacking in "stopping power". The Moros were often drugged up, and it took a central nervous system hit to stop them.

The .38 Long Colt had a 150 grain bullet at 770 fps. The .38 Special standard load was 158 grain bullet at 855 fps.

[Kolb]

Scary, I’ve backpacked for a week in this same backcountry area of Wyoming (twice). Armed, of course. Fortunately we never encountered or noted signs of any bears. They are there...

[ought-six]

“Many of the .38 Special revolvers are wonderful examples of the gunmaker’s art.”

Yes.