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Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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^^^ Yes, I agree. I should have been more specific. A bear running straight on at you, by shooting center mass, IF you connect you have a good chance of hitting something vital. Bone, perhaps shoulder or through into organs or luck into a frontal head shot. Remember the whole bear and it's head bounces up and down when running.
I would think getting whacked in the head by a heavy bullet, even if it doesn't penetrate will probably ring it's bell for a second or two maybe allowing additional shots.
I wonder what a mag dump from an AK47 would do? Like say a Draco SBR?
does it stop a bear or kill it after running into you and killing you?
to kill a bear, I can wack it with a stick if it stood around long enough for me to do it and not attack me in return but when does this condition happen?
use bear mace and hope you aren't down wind from it
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rescue3
In .45 caliber, it's like getting hit with a Buick.
Black bears are pretty timid as a rule....I'm in Colorado...no grizzlies yet. The problem is that I know my dogs would chase and harass a cub. You know the rest of the story. There are also a lot of packs of large coyotes.
I have really great cattle dogs and they need a *great* deal of exercise to be happy. Sold some land and wanting a good handgun to protect my dogs and I with daily hikes in the woods. Currently thinking of, maybe, a .243 chambered in a pistol? Being able to hunt deer with a pistol has long intrigued me.
Handguns in larger than .44Mag size sure are expensive. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet here.
Don't care too much about prestige. Looking for "bang for the buck." Kind of know rifles, pistols not so much.
Thanks in advance for help!
Hundreds of millions of miles of trail are hiked in Colorado annually. The vast majority of the very few bear incidents are not with hikers but but with people at campgrounds and in towns. Lugging around a two-(or more) pound tool to deal with such an exceedingly remote eventuality is silly. If you carried that to its logical extension, you'd need a train of pack horses to haul around all the stuff you'd need in the case of every highly-unlikely problem you might conceivably encounter.
You might try training your dogs not to harass wildlife.
I've spent time in Grizzly bear country. Been within 100' of several and never had an issue. I would certainly prefer the spray first but keep in mind it could get ugly if the wind is blowing back toward you! I also carried a 629 S&W Mountain Gun. 44 mag with 320 grain buffalo bore loads. This would be the "bear" minimum for a firearm and I wouldn't have much faith in it! The best would be a 12 Ga with slugs.
A few quick stories: When things go wrong, it happens VERY quickly! My neighbor and his hiking buddy were attacked near Yellowstone a few years back. Just walking up the path when a grizzly came flying out of the bush about 30 yards away. The bear spray was holstered and the bear was on his friend before he could get it out! They are really, really quick. He was knocked to the ground and chewed up and then the bear just turned around and promptly left. He was very lucky to only need a couple hundred stitches. Another friend of mine was hunting Moose in Alaska. All the sudden he spotted a grizzly about 100 yards away that decided to charge him. Took 4 shots (don't know what caliber rifle he had) and the bear dropped 10' from him. Now this guy is a real adrenaline junky and he said that was too much for him!
I carry a Taurus Titanium 41 Mag 5 shot revolver; only disadvantage is only 5 shots. I also have a Ruger Super Redhawk 44 Mag but it is just too big & heavy to pack into the places I end up going. I have had 1 bear encounter where I had my gun out and the hammer pulled back. I also had it out once upon encountering unleashed & aggressive dogs on a trail very clearly marked "Dogs on leashes".
I have heard that if you kill a bear and claim self defense, when the game warden shows up to clean up the mess that bear better have been close enough to have powder burns on it. And he's gonna want to know real bad why the dogs weren't on leashes, especially when practically every trailhead in the state is clearly marked as such.
When I'm out on early morning walks around home (where both bears & mountain lions are occasionally spotted) I carry bear spray.
why not upgrade my ammo to something that will also work on black bear, just in case?
Coyotes are an invasive species in my state, the philosophy is that if you see one and can safely shoot it, then it's your civic duty, just like destroying autumn olive or other invasives.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unsettomati
Lugging around a two-(or more) pound tool to deal with such an exceedingly remote eventuality is silly.
The primary purpose of my handgun is a defense against canines and 2-legged predators, so since I'm already carrying a 21 oz. tool, why not upgrade my ammo to something that will also work on black bear, just in case?
Hundreds of millions of miles of trail are hiked in Colorado annually. The vast majority of the very few bear incidents are not with hikers but but with people at campgrounds and in towns. Lugging around a two-(or more) pound tool to deal with such an exceedingly remote eventuality is silly. If you carried that to its logical extension, you'd need a train of pack horses to haul around all the stuff you'd need in the case of every highly-unlikely problem you might conceivably encounter.
You might try training your dogs not to harass wildlife.
It is very difficult if not impossible to train the average dog to stay away or not to bark at a bear, although certain breeds can be trained to track bears and even keep them away from you. In Alaska we have had bear problems with hikers, runners, people walking to their cabins, people sleeping in tents in isolated areas, in town, while hunting, land surveyors doing their jobs, and so on. In other words, people in the outdoors, not just campsites and towns. Some of these people have died from bear encounters, but most mauled. Some of the attacks happen by hiking and other trails, sometimes from bears protecting their catch (dead moose for example), or their young.
Last edited by RayinAK; 01-15-2017 at 12:46 PM..
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why not upgrade my ammo to something that will also work on black bear, just in case?
