Best Bear Pistol……Power…Weight…Practical Carry?
Seriously…BEST BEAR HANDGUN???
On Bud’s Gun Shop Forums, the question came up: What is the smallest caliber handgun you would trust to protect yourself from bear attack?
The forum members, faced with practical dense woodland and mountain-side ease of carry, against the current selection of powerful, but heavy, .40 and .50 caliber Magnum handguns, considered this to be the most practical answer:
‘My personal favorite defense gun has always been a Beretta Jetfire in 22 short. Over all the years I’ve been hiking I never leave without it in my pocket. Of course we all know the first rule when hiking in the wilderness is to use the “Buddy System.” For those of you who may be unfamiliar, with this it means you NEVER hike alone. You bring a friend or companion, even an in-law, that way if something happens there is someone to go get help.
I remember one time hiking with my brother-in-law in northern Alberta. Out of nowhere came this huge brown bear, and man was she mad. We must have been near one of her cubs. Anyway, if I had not had my little Jetfire I’d sure not be here today. Just one shot to my brother-in-law’s knee cap, and I was able to escape by just walking at a brisk pace.’
Do you feel this is practical, or sportsmanlike??? Or, would you take your chances with one of the .450+/.50 caliber heavy magnums?
As always….your opinions in such matters are greatly appreciated!
Kindly ‘Ol Uncle Hoot 🙄
All Replies
overall Bears fill me with general disgust, I have ZERO romantic notions about what they are and do Roach
Where I grew up, if you saw a Bear on your property you grabbed the rifle or shotgun and killed the Damn thing just for being a damn Bear & with about as much afterthought about the matter as killing a Woodtick.
Known folks that collected old Hubcaps, half buried them in the ground and filled them with generic Green Koolaide…{antifreeze}
you think Dogs love the shit, Bears are into it even more and die just as fast from it.
Then there are suit balls that conceal a coiled chunk of sharpened Piano wire secured with cotton string…Bear eats the ball, the digestive juices degrade the cotton and the coil springs out tearing the stomach lining
even ground glass in bait piles.
I don’t know why it is but many of North America’s predator species seem to be on the rise
as a kid I practically never saw a Fox…now see the regularly, even in the City.
We always had big Cats in the North regardless what the dimwits in the State Capital claimed otherwise however now they are turning up regularly on private Game Cam footage and that’s a very primal fear for me
I don’t loathe the big Cats, like Timber Wolves I respect the hell out of them it’s just that unlike the big Timbers those damn Cats sometimes see us as an easy protein source which most of our species sadly always have been
were I a betting man I would bet the majority of missing dipshits in the rural PNW is due to big Cats or more likely Human Cougars…the deadliest of all North American predators
pretty easy for a body to be disappeared in the forest
used to be real bad on a couple of the Reservations up here
the Native term was to “Teepee” someone which meant you tossed their body at the base of a Pine in the forest and dropped the tree on the remains. By the time the Needles dropped smaller animals have scattered the bones and bits far and wide…CSI that crime scene…LOL
Actually there have been several attacks in Canada, where you can’t carry handguns anyway.
Here in Oregon, we have traditionally had hunters and berry pickers disappear off the face of the earth for decades.
I and other hunters suspect big cats and bears.
I, like Riverside fear the cougars more, altho I dearly lothe bears. I used to go out to my barn in eastern Oregon each night to check on things, I lived on a bluff with a lot of deer around, which is a recipe for cougars. As a result I carried a CAR 15 with a light and made a complete turn halfway there and back to check for eyes.
Regards,
Roachcreek
There is a lot more to it than simply selecting a handgun caliber.
100% correct, In the Woods here there are more Bear today than ever, not one attack has been noted, Black Bears are shy Creatures, but if any Wild Animal is going to attack it uses it’s Wild Animal Instincts,, It stalks and then lays and waits, a Black Bear can lay still and you’ll think it’s a Log or a stump, I have personally witnesed this myself. They know the frequent paths used by People “hey” we have a Stink they can smell,,, 😀 Cats do the same thing and there are some Big Cats around here too, more in the last few years Lots of Huge Animals are comming in here from Who kows where. ❓ Trust your nose, A bear has a smell like a Pack of wild Dogs that has been denning for a life time in the same spot, but rest assured it is a Bear. IMHO Bear scent has been mistaken for a Sasquach 😀 “They Sya it stinks” 😀 I’ll bet my money on the stink being a Bear instead of a Sasquach, After all Almost every one living today has seen a Bear, Not one credible picture has ever been taken of a Squach…. I have my 500 magnum, at least I can beet it to death with the handle if I miss 5 times. 😀
Crow and Roach, I certainly agree with you on all of the above. I was simply stating that those who are of the opinion that they can walk down to the local gun shop, purchase the latest Eargasplittenloudenboomer handgun, and be ready for a bear attack attack are sorely mistaken. 😕
There is a lot more to it than simply selecting a handgun caliber.
I have seen too many failures with 00 buck on humans to ever consider it on a 700 or 800 lb or bigger pissed bear.
Each of those pellets are very light and you just have too much to penetrate on a big bear.
Give me a HK 91 or a FAL or a MIA.
Regards,
Roachcreek
The best defense is just like others here mentioned. Dogs, other hunting companions, a 12ga with 3inch magnum 00 Buck, UDAP Bear strength pepper spray, etc. are all better ideas than walking the woods alone armed with a handgun.
that bear spray is useless if there is a stiff wind in YOUR face as the bear is charging Well it would “season” you up for the bear a bit
A good 10mm is a viable Bear gun, but it would depend on the carry method and skill of the user. The truth be told, a single human against an angry Grizzly is not a winning proposition, no matter what you are armed with.
The best defense is just like others here mentioned. Dogs, other hunting companions, a 12ga with 3inch magnum 00 Buck, UDAP Bear strength pepper spray, etc. are all better ideas than walking the woods alone armed with a handgun.
Yes but another factor in all that is there are likely a great deal more Black bear than Browns left
Minnesota is chock full of them, better than thirty thousand of the shit groveling garbage eaters with the majority of them in the Northern third of the State.
a point of order on Black Bear…since 1900 there have been around 60 fatal attacks in North America
in fact with thousands of bears around here there is but one recorded fatality in this State and that was back a few years ago in Ely
I know folks here that get all panicky about Bears
I don’t
same as people getting worried over Timber Wolves and yeah we have quite a few of those here as well
really the only thing I am the least bit concerned over are the Mountain Lions that have been reestablishing themselves in the State
that and the rare Wolverine that slips down from Canuckastan
more worried about swimming in the larger Lakes here
every year some kid gets a chunk taken out of them by a Muskie it seems 😉
A black bear is attacking to eat you sometimes over cubs but mostly to eat you, and will if it is a predatary black bear.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Indeed more people have been killed by Black Bear than Browns in the stats. I have always been told that while you actually have a chance playing dead with a Brown, when a Black Bear attacks it will stop at nothing to eat you.
Ever wonder why there were sophisticated civilizations in south america and not in North America?
One theary is that there was a bear that roamed NA about the size of a horse 25000 14000 years ago that kept mankind off the continent, as a result it was skirted by skin boats to SA.
Another thing that most folks forget, is that a black bear is far more dangerous than a brown bear. Then a Brown bear attacks it is usually over boundaries or cubs, seldom for a meal although they do eat people from time to time.
A black bear is attacking to eat you sometimes over cubs but mostly to eat you, and will if it is a predatary black bear.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Not afraid of fire, hard to kill, fearless of humans when charging, makes me respect the nerve it took to kill a cave bear with a spear! Yeah, they were usually snoozin when the paleoindians gigged ’em, but can you imagine going into a den solo? Those things were massive! Still, they were wiped off the planet. I did a research paper/project on the Pleistocene extinction, back in college. Mostly in groups, early natives here wiped out Giant Bison, cave bear, smilodon (saber-tooth cat), three species of elephant, camel, ground sloth and god knows what else, using mostly spears and teamwork. Many kill sites were whole herds driven off cliffs by fire.
Like RC says, the mind set is key. If there’s anything harder to kill than a bear, it’s fear.
We’re lucky big bear don’t hunt in packs! It’d be damn hard to hike around with a Thompson.
RC depends on the sub species
average black bears in MN are docile shits…hate them and have put down well over a couple hundred over the course of life, over a hundred wih a lowly AR15 over four days and a couple cases of canuck beer in the 70s…bear genocide in that case on a Rez in Canada
wagonburners were uncomfortable killing a totem beast so I was hired on for a free fire project
filled trenches with dead bear
now Griz, Kodiak or Polar…
close range best give me a shotgun with 00 buck
pistol? You have to be an idiot
let me relate two situations
first was a dumbass that put 2 rounds of 458 WMG in a polar just outside of Churchill on Hudsons Bay
last I heard he was still piloting a wheelchair
second was a dumbass that plated three rounds of .45-70 in a Kodiak up in Alaska and was still mawled rather bad
best bear medicine close range is an 8 shot riot with 00 buck in my opinion
at least a M37, better yet a Benelli
fucking DETEST Bears
on the big ones you disable their ass
last I dealt with took 3 rounds of buck to remove its right front leg
fucker was not very mobile after that
Around here your more Apt to get attacked by a coyote or wild dog rather than a bear
There are some big blackies out here but MOST of the time they run
I have carried a 357 with 6 inch bbl and buffalo bore loads until this coming season Which I will have the 10mm
the 357 is enough for a black bear a charging grizzly? Id rather have a 458 socom AR
I must remember to carry a 22 short!!
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16632419
Looks like north american bears were eating humans =)