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On the evening of September 6, 2024, Owen Beierman, 12, and his father, Ryan, 43, were hunting bears near Siren, Wisconsin. Siren is about 50 miles north and 50 miles east of Minneapolis, in northwest Wisconsin.Owen shot a 200 lb black bear with his .350 Legend rifle. The bear ran off, leaving a strong blood trail. Even mortally wounded bears often run for some distance. The Beiermans borrowed a Labrador retriever from their neighbors and started tracking the bear about 20 minutes after it was shot. It was already getting dark. Game is often shot just after sunrise or shortly...

Here are all the cases that have been documented where calibers beyond .44 Magnum were used. There are 4 incidents where .454 Casull revolvers were fired. There was 1 incident where a .460 S&W Magnum revolver was fired. there were 2 incidents where a .500 S&W Magnum revolver was fired. These cases do not include incidents where handguns were used with other lethal means or a mix of handgun calibers were used. The incident is included if more than one handgun of the same caliber was used. Six incidents were against brown bears and one against a polar bear. All...

On August 20, 2024, Tyler Johnson, 32, and his father, Chris, were backpacking and hunting on the Resurrection Trail in Alaska. The trail is in the Chugach National Forest South of Anchorage, across the Turnagain arm of Cook’s Inlet. The north end is just South of Hope, Alaska. The trail is about 38 miles long. On the first day, the Johnsons had hiked in about 15 miles. The weather was great; it was about 64 degrees, and it was mostly sunny. Both men were in excellent physical shape. Hiking 15 miles in the mountains with heavy packs in a day...

A flurry of black bear attacks has been covered in the media in the summer of 2024. Five people were injured in the attacks. The first occurred in Alaska at a campground near Anchorage, by a male bear. The bear injured a woman’s face after scratching and biting its way into the couple’s tent. She was treated at a hospital. There was no food or other items that usually attract bears inside the tent and it’s not clear what prompted the rare encounter, Wardlow said. “These folks who were involved did everything right and this is just a very unusual...

Here are all the cases that have been documented where .44 Magnum caliber revolvers and one semi-automatic handgun were fired in defense against bears. The .44 Magnum has been used far more than any other caliber in defense against bears.These cases do not include incidents where handguns were used with other lethal means or a mix of handgun calibers were used. If more than one handgun of the same caliber was used, the incident is included. There are 44 incidents with a .44 Magnum caliber handgun was fired (9 black, 30 brown, 5 polar bears).One incident was a failure with...

In the last week of May 2024, Bowhunter Tyce Erickson used his 10mm S&W 2.0 handgun to defend against a large Kodiak brown bear. The 10mm handgun was loaded with Underwood ammunition utilizing 220-grain hardcast bullets. The hunt was on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Tyce had wounded a large Kodiak bear in the last two days of the hunt in a shot at a moving bear from 200 yards with a borrowed rifle. The bear was tracked for two miles when it decided to ambush the hunters. The guide was about 10 feet in front of Tyce with a .375...

On July 10, 2024, a 19-year-old tourist woman and her boyfriend hiking in Romania were attacked by a European brown bear. The couple was on the emergency phone line with authorities as the woman and man followed directions on how to handle a bear. The woman was attacked, dragged off, killed, and partially eaten. The bear attacked authorities attempting to recover the body and was shot and killed.The European brown bear in Romania is a sub-species of the worldwide population of brown bears. The species includes the North American Grizzly, the Japanese Ussuri brown bear, the Kodiak bear, and the...

Chris Baker at Lucky Gunner has produced a very good video summation of the use of handguns to defend against bears published on AmmoLand. The graphics in the video are well done. There were over 95 thousand views in five days, with 748 comments. The vast majority of comments were favorable. This is a well-made video worth watching if you prefer to obtain your information via video instead of print. The video is 11:48 minutes long. Chris has obviously studied the data collected and analyzed it from the long-running series at AmmoLand. He has created a good narrative and visual...

While visiting my daughter, her husband, and their children, my five-year-old granddaughter, Elizabeth, presented Grandpa with the picture of defense against a bear. She had created it just for Grandpa on the morning of the day after I arrived. The picture is on ordinary 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper. The bear in the picture, with fearsome teeth and claws, appears to be about fourteen feet tall, as compared to the human figures in the lower right corner. The humans consist of one man and two women shooting handguns at the bear.Elizabeth informed me that the woman on the far right...

Here are all the cases which have been documented where 10mm, .41 Magnum, .45 Super caliber handguns were fired in defense against bears. This grouping includes the three calibers to provide enough incidents to be illuminating. These cases do not include incidents where handguns were use with other lethal means, or a mix of handgun calibers were used. There are 7 incidents with a 10mm caliber handgun (1 black bear, 6 brown), 4 incidents with .41 Magnum revolvers (1 black, 3 brown), and 1 incident with a .45 super handgun (brown bear). All were successful. The incidents are listed by...

Here are all the cases which have been documented where .45 acp handguns were fired in defense against bears. These cases do not include incidents where handguns were use with other lethal means, or a mix of handgun calibers were used. If more than one handgun of the same caliber was used, the incident is included. There are 9 incidents with a .45 acp caliber handgun was fired in defense against bears (6 black, 3 brown). The incidents are listed chronologically.We have found 9 cases where .45 acp pistols were used to defend against bears. 6 against black bears, 3...

In 2008, bear spray received a large boost with the publication of the paper on the “Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray” by Smith and Herrero. The paper considered 83 incidents, of which 72 incidents were scored for effect where bears were sprayed. The eleven other incidents did not involve bears being sprayed. The authors judged bear spray to be 92% effective. 25(35%) of the scored incidents involved aggressive bears. 10 of the aggressive bears charged (14% of the incidents). 21(29%) of the 72 incidents involved park personnel targeting bears. The percentage of aggressive bears that were deterred was not mentioned....