Fella's;
Many years ago in western Montana, a friend and I were hunting grouse. He had a 16 and I had a 20, both single-shot shotguns. We'd hiked up a logging road to get above a little meadow & where the road crossed a creek, we turned left & started into about 30 yards of brush & light trees to get to the top of the meadow. The creek was on our right hand side, just a little step-over run of water. 'Bout halfway through the brush we came upon a small clearing, maybe the size of a queen bed. There were two bear beds in it. There was a steaming fresh pile of bear scat on the far right hand edge of the clearing. There was also a irritated grunt, accompanied by halitosis that came from my immediate right, just in the creek area which was screened from me by heavy brush & trees. We thereupon set the world's record brush dash back to the vehicle. Mr. Griz wasn't hungry that time. No, there was no possibility that it was a black bear. Black bear do not survive long in griz habitat.
My current heavy packin' pistol is a .475 Linebaugh. The no-fun at all to shoot load launches a 425 grain hard cast out the 6" barrel at 1250 fps. I have a great respect for the big bears & do everything I can to avoid them. I've never had another encounter anywhere near that close that I know of. But it's very hard to believe you've got too much pistol when you do get a "close encounter".
900F
Many years ago in western Montana, a friend and I were hunting grouse. He had a 16 and I had a 20, both single-shot shotguns. We'd hiked up a logging road to get above a little meadow & where the road crossed a creek, we turned left & started into about 30 yards of brush & light trees to get to the top of the meadow. The creek was on our right hand side, just a little step-over run of water. 'Bout halfway through the brush we came upon a small clearing, maybe the size of a queen bed. There were two bear beds in it. There was a steaming fresh pile of bear scat on the far right hand edge of the clearing. There was also a irritated grunt, accompanied by halitosis that came from my immediate right, just in the creek area which was screened from me by heavy brush & trees. We thereupon set the world's record brush dash back to the vehicle. Mr. Griz wasn't hungry that time. No, there was no possibility that it was a black bear. Black bear do not survive long in griz habitat.
My current heavy packin' pistol is a .475 Linebaugh. The no-fun at all to shoot load launches a 425 grain hard cast out the 6" barrel at 1250 fps. I have a great respect for the big bears & do everything I can to avoid them. I've never had another encounter anywhere near that close that I know of. But it's very hard to believe you've got too much pistol when you do get a "close encounter".
900F