Bears and pistols

[Motorboatin]

A few friends and I flew to an area on the Alaskan peninsula near Aniakchak for a few days of fishing. We flew out of King Salmon and the whole time I was looking out the window for wildlife. After 2 hours of flying all four of us started calling out bear sightings and then the pilot tells us that's where we are being dropped off. I counted over 30 bears during the four days of fishing and we got as close as 15 feet from a couple of them. I was packing a S&W 44 airlite and never felt the need to use it. Plenty of fish for the bears to eat and after seeing the coastal browns that close I doubt the 44 would phase them....the things are HUGE

And I've eaten black bear plenty of times. It's all in the preparation. I've never had anyone tell me they didn't like it

 

[fishheadbob]

So I read the story link in one of the the first posts. A cop in Ohio shot a bear and a lion. In Ohio. ??? There might be some bears in Ohio, but lions? Kind of makes me wonder about the story in general. We had a reported case with photos of 2 duck hunters having a decent day when a black bear entered their blind for some duckling. One of the hunters pumped 3 rounds of 12 gauge into the bear, enough to kill the bear.
Meanwhile if I was in bear country backwoods I'd want something in about 105 mm.

 

[oosik]

Motorboatin - few realize how truly large a Brownie is until you are right up next to them. Makes for real quick understanding how truly helpless a human is, if a bear decided to attack. I've seen Brownies run over the tundra at an estimated 25 mph. The very best human might be able to run at 10 mph in this same situation. Overall - a very quick termination.

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

When we purchased our property I was inundated with "so you want to live in the country" emails. One was an official-looking warning regarding hiking in bear country. It said to wear bells and, as a last resort, carry pepper spray.

The last paragraph discussed identifying what type of bear was around by examining the scat. Black bear scat would contain traces of fruit and insects. Brown bear scat often contained little bells and smelled like pepper.

My first bow harvest was a black bear. Astounding that when walking on a hard path they made NO sound. No gun will help if you don't hear the bear coming.

 

[Snobdds]

Guess the round...

Should be fixed

 

[atsah]

Invalid Attachment specified

 

[oosik]

Invalid attachments

 

[3Ts]

Not my bear, but it is a brown bear at the taxidermist shop. Gives you an idea as to the size.

 

[turnkey4099]

About what i thought. Defending yourself with a pistol can be very effective. It is popular in internet forums to state that" the bear is going to shove that pistol of your up your ***"

But as the incidents show, even the puny 9mm pistols were effective in the times they were used. While I would not go bear hunting with a pistol, I sure as heck would defend my life with one against a bear or anything else. A good .44 magnum loaded with solids (not hollow points) would seem to me to be very effective. I do have a 2nd hand report from a friend that defended his life against a polar bear in Greenland while he was in the Air Force with a .45ACP 1911 military issue pistol. Of course this would have been loaded with 230 grain FMJ bullets. He advised he put all 7 of these rounds into the polar bear and it fell dead. A polar bear is a very large bear.

So the next time some internet warrior tells you that defending your life with a pistol, even against a large bear is useless, you might point them to this study.

And the bottom line is if you are out there with even a small pistol, it beats nothing at all.

 

[atsah]

View attachment 624427
View attachment 624428
View attachment 624429

Guess the round...

Should be fixed

I thought I was going to see a casing... It's anyone's guess, 22LR in the eye, I have no idea, stranger things have happened...