Is this guy pulling my leg? Black bear hunting with a .44 cap & ball

[Ranger Roberts]

I'm sitting around talking with my buddy who owns my LGS this morning. We are both getting excited because hunting season is coming up. I tell him that I have a black bear hunt coming up in November. I was holding a can of Pyrodex as we were talking. An older gentleman was listening as we were talking (he was being helped by someone else). He leans over, points at the Pyrodex and says "you gonna use that on your bear hunt?" I told him that I was using my Super Blackhawk, not a BP gun. He goes on to tell me and my buddy that he hunted black bear for 20 years using a steel framed .44 colt reproduction. I said "a cap and ball revolver?", he says "yes". I asked if he had any luck, he says he has pulled out more black bear with his BP revolver than anyone else he knows. I told him I've never heard of anyone doing that before. He started to get a little snippy but right then his sales person comes back with the item he was looking for. I took this as my cue to get out of Dodge before he decides to regale me with more of his stories.

So I ask you guys, is this guy full of it? I have never heard of someone using a .44 cap and ball to hunt black bear.

 

[CANNONMAN]

Oh Yeah! Sure!

Here in New Mexico we hunt the great Woolly Mammoth with our pellet guns. Of course ya gotta remember that peyote is legal here. I also got a bridge in Brooklyn and some excellent swamp land in Florida for sale. I'd say that the .44 would be an excellent way to piss off a bear. Then, having his attention, you could shoot him with a camera. Cuz that would be the only "still life" yur gonna get.

 

[whughett]

If it will kill a man or a horse why not a black bear. Just saying, never shot any of those things with anything myself so would not know.

 

[desidog]

I don't see why not. I'd say from a stand or with dogs when the bear's tree'd.

The .44 was introduced because the .36 wasn't effectively bringing down cavalry horses...and if a .44 can go through a horse end to end, that means the bear's in trouble.

 

[rodwha]

I can't find a link to the story, but there's a historical story of an army officer putting down a grizzly bear with 2 shots from his .44 caliber pistol (thought to be what we call the Dragoon) after his soldiers fired numerous shots with their .36 cal pistols.

After skinning it they found the .36 cal rounds didn't penetrate through the layer of fat.

I wouldn't use a ball, but a heavier conical/bullet ought to work when using energetic powders such as Swiss, Olde Eynsford, or Triple 7.

Mike Beliveau, using Kaido's 255 grn bullet (redesigned 255 grn Lee .45 Colt bullet) and 25 grns of 3F Triple 7, which is a reduced load with minor compression, gave him nearly 500 ft/lbs of energy.

Kaido's 240 grn version has gone through an adult hog nose to tail through a cap n ball pistol (don't recall which type of pistol but it wasn't a Dragoon or Walker), and the bullet wasn't recovered.

I'm not a good enough shot with a pistol to try it on a bear, but I'd certainly carry it as a back up to my .50 cal rifle using a 320 grn REAL or a saboted 285 grn WFN bullet I designed for my ROA with the intentions of tracking wounded critters that may want to chew on me.

 

[4v50 Gary]

A 22 LR was used to harvest bear and even an elephant once. It's one of those "don't try this at home" and more importantly, shot placement.

So can a 44 cap 'n ball do it? Sure. Would I be the one to find out? Nope. I'll use a .577 minie ball first.

 

[rcmodel]

Elmer Keith in his book 'Sixguns by Keith' mentioned several instances of the .44 C&B revolver being used to kill running buffalo from horseback, and being used to kill Grizzly's from a tree stand.

There is no doubt they would kill any black bear that ever pooped in the woods.

rc

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

2nd rodwha's 36vs44vsbear story from back in the day.

 

[Crawdad1]

let's see now, 4 months of groundhog/coyote hunting, 2 months of small game hunting, a month of turkey hunting 2 weeks of deer hunting, and now black bear hunting??? A better part of 8 months of hunting each year!!! Guys, I got to give this revolver more of a break. I'm going to plum wear it out.

 

[rodwha]

Scroll down to post #13:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=397801

 

[whughett]

And cap and ball has become such a much used term to label percussion revolvers. How many would use a round ball to hunt with. Old guy in the OP most likely used some sort of conical or flat nosed bullet.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

No reason why a walker can't do it. Range and shots would have to be a little too personal for my preferences. Folks have killed white tail with 22 longs. My Dad killed a deer with a 38 Special.

It would not be my choice. But heck, look what Fred Bear bagged with a bow.

Rather the Walker than a bow for bear.

 

[RPRNY]

Percussion cap revolver would not be my firearm of preference but a 200 gr conical at 850 fps will most certainly take care of most black bears fairly quickly with decent shot placement. People seem to think percussion 44s are cap guns because they use caps. Behind the cap is some 30 grs of FFFG black powder and a .450(ish) " projectile. That's no toy.

 

[xXxplosive]

In the hands of an experienced shooter...........it will do the job.

 

[Sunray]

Can't imagine why you'd think it wasn't possible. Yogi is not armoured.

 

[Noz]

Would it work? Yes!

Would I do it? NO! Too many ways to screw up. Not fair to the bear.

 

[Jim K]

I knew an old timer who got a lot of deer with a .22 Hornet. I allowed that was a little light, and asked him at what range he usually shot the animal. "Oh, I sneaks up ahint 'em about ten feet and shoots 'em 'tween the ears", was the reply.

A good shot who can stay calm enough to get close should have no problem killing black bear with a .44 Army.

Jiim

 

[MAKster]

A 44 cap and ball shoots a 140 grain bullet around 900-950 feet per second. That's basically equivalent to a 38 Special. Not sure how many people would recommend hunting a bear with that.

 

[rodwha]

Those velocity figures are if you are using any of the many weaker powders. I guarantee that Swiss, Olde Eynsford, or Triple 7 will give much higher numbers.

But I'm not so sure many would use a ball when they could use a heavier conical/bullet. I wouldn't.

 

[rodwha]

Check out Mr. Beliveau's testing using various Ruger Old Armies and standard Goex vs Triple 7 with balls and conicals.

Also note that his T7 charges are reduced and minimally compressed...

 

[mec]

Al Georg Authored Pioneering Handgun Hunting 50+ years ago and a number of articles in magazines of the time.. He mounted rifle scopes on all manner of handguns before long eye relief came around. One of his stories was about scoping an original Remington NMA. He said he killed a black bear with it but had to step around the cloud of smoke to make sure the bear was down.

Georg also wrote about making handguns out of the plentiful Remington Rolling Block rifles. The Treasury Agents came around and took them all away from him.

 

[Hellgate]

I suspect he hunted with dogs and shot treed bears with the C&B.

 

[mec]

Georg said that he was sitting on the ground There has been a story floating about a 19th century guy who would sit in a tree with his walker and shoot bears in the head as they walked under.

 

[Tom_AZ]

I don't see why not. I'd say from a stand or with dogs when the bear's tree'd.

The .44 was introduced because the .36 wasn't effectively bringing down cavalry horses...and if a .44 can go through a horse end to end, that means the bear's in trouble.

Yup. Far from the "perfect way to do it", but I see no reason it wouldn't work.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Yes it can kill a black bear. I grew up with an old man who filled his deer tags every year with an old Stevens 410 pump using 410 slugs.