Weapon for Hiking in Bear Country

[RustyHammer]

I believe in the SFG theory of self-preservation in bear confrontations.


(What is SFG you ask? Slow Fat Guy = make sure you are hunting with at least one SFG you are sure you can out run. That way, you don't have to out run the bear, just him!)

 

[gun-fucious]

Web posted Monday, August 19, 2002
Man shoots grizzly at Russian River
http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/081902/ala_081602ala0040001.shtml

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- A fisherman shot and killed a sow grizzly as she charged him in the early morning darkness Saturday on the banks of the Russian River.

The encounter was the latest of several close calls between people and bears along Southcentral rivers and streams this summer. The Russian is thick with spawned-out sockeye that draw bears.

The grizzly surprised Garen Brenner and two friends about 2:30 a.m. as they packed up their gear at one of the Kenai Peninsula's most popular fishing spots, said Larry Lewis, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife technician.

Brenner heard his friend yell ''Bear! Bear!'' and looked downriver to see the sow a few yards down the bank. The bear lost interest in Brenner's friend after he backed into the water and threw his shotgun at the animal.

But then the bear turned, looked up at Brenner and lunged, said Lewis, who interviewed the three men Saturday.

Brenner fired twice at the center of the hulking shape closing to four or five feet away. The sow, estimated at 400 to 450 pounds, went down. Brenner then put three more bullets into her head.

He used a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol. Lewis said such a low-caliber gun ordinarily doesn't pack enough punch to kill a bear. But Brenner loaded the pistol with full-metal-jacket bullets that penetrated to the bear's vital organs, he said.

The bear most likely was protecting her yearling cub, which waited well behind her above the steep bank, wildlife officials said.

After the shooting, the cub ran up and down the bank near its mother's body, bawling in distress. ''It would stop and smell the bear, the sow, and then it would go into the water a ways, then it would come back,'' said Bill Shuster, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service.

Lewis later tranquilized the cub, tagged and collared it and moved the bear to the south side of Skilak Lake.

Authorities are looking into whether the dead bear is the same sow that attacked a Soldotna mother and son hiking Resurrection Pass Trail on Friday afternoon about three miles from Cooper Landing.

That bear, also accompanied by a cub, raked the woman's face with her claws and bit the son.

see also:
http://www.adn.com/front/story/1633810p-1751603c.html

 

[spacemanspiff]

on that russian river bear from last summer, turns out the bears shoulder was shattered from one or more of hte bullets. it was pure luck that the bear went down.

also, Garens brother had a sks rifle that was also used to shoot the bear. a total of 7 rounds were fired. those three are friends of mine.

 

[Cosmoline]

My bet is a handgun throwing a hardcast or solid bullet of sufficient BC could penetrate through to the brain, but that's a hard target to hit. If I HAD to use a handgun, I'd go with my security six loaded with 200 grain hardcast slugs. I'm most comfortable with it. My preference is to avoid the problem, and have a rifle with iron sights up and ready if I can't avoid the problem.

I still like the bit about throwing the shotgun at that bear

Also--keep in mind that that was a 400 pound sow, NOT a monster boar like the one in the picture. Against a boar twice or three times the size of a typical sow, I don't think a handgun would be much help at all. Thankfully those big boys almost never attack. WHen they do, you get situations like the McHugh Creek killings, where two joggers were killed in as many seconds by a boar defending a fresh kill. One died instantly from a broken back, the other died from a claw wound that punctured the sack around his heart. Neither were mauled at all. THAT'S how powerful the boars are.

 

[bogie]

What is SFG you ask? Slow Fat Guy = make sure you are hunting with at least one SFG you are sure you can out run. That way, you don't have to out run the bear, just him!

Then again, the HPOSFG defense works fine...

SFG shoots the Hunting Partner of Slow Fat Guy in the leg, and the SFG becomes the winner of the interminable dash to the truck/tree/cave by default.

Bogie
An SFG. With an attitude.
And since I like my huntin' buds, I'm building a .458 for bear...

 

[Cosmoline]

In other words, arm for the bears that are most likely to attack--overly familiar black bears and sows. The big guys probably won't attack, and if they do you're finished. Wounding an 800 lb bear with a handgun is just going to make him very, very angry with you.

 

[capnrik]

Not any grizzlies on my dock, so I've no clue...but what would be wrong with a 12 gauge pumpgun with a 20 inch barrel and seven rifled slugs?

Got an old Model 12 that would qualify...

 

[Baba Louie]

I've read about big bears being able to cover ground at 30 - 35 mph. If true that works out to what, 40 - 50 ft per second? Lets say you spot them at 50 yds (150 ft)... so you've got 3 - 4 seconds or so to react before bear meets ya face to face. Maybe 5 seconds. Take 1 1/2 second to figure things out...

Plenty of time to shuck 5 - 7 shells from a 12 ga... maybe... if its already mounted to shoulder and you don't get weak knee'd or excited.

I'd prefer seeing bears from afar using glass, if I had my druthers. But thats just me.

Adios

 

[Kampfer]

The bear lost interest in Brenner's friend after he backed into the water and threw his shotgun at the animal.

Thats funny!! So does anyone think slugs would do the trick?

 

[Ala Dan]

Greeting's All-

I think if I were bear hunting in the great state of
Alaska, my two choices of weaponary would be a
Ruger model 77-R in .338 Winchester magnum for
the rifle; and a Smith & Wesson 5" barrel 629-5
"Classic" .44 magnum, for the handgun.

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[stevelyn]

Up here everyone has a bear tale to tell.

I end up with a new tale just about everynight. (Mebbe I should start a thread on this theme) For some reason the brown bears have a propensity for coming into town. Most likely reason is foraging in the dumpsters and city dump between the time they come out of the dens until salmon start running in the streams. I had to deal with one yesterday morning and this morning there was a bear call including one I found digging in a dumpster.
About four nights ago another officer and myself went out purposely to get a survey of the actual number of bears wandering around here in the night (there are about 13 we observed 5). The second bear that came up to the place where we were watching came up to my passenger window (company car is a Crown Vic) he started licking and sniffing around the window leaving slobbers on the glass. I can assure you that his head filled up the window and all that I could really see was nose, tongue, teeth and beady eyes. I had my shotgun laying across my lap. Just as soon as he came up to the window I snicked off the safety and raised the barrel to his head level (first round on the launch pad is a Breneke slug). When his curiosity ended he just turned around and ambled away. BTW he couldn't see me sitting in the vehicle.
Some observations I made were that the younger bears have less fear of people than the older bears and are more likely to be a problem. All of the older ones seem to give humans and human habitation a wide berth when passing through an area. The bears we observed were circling and checking (the dumpster) what they think is a food source. None that we observed appeared to exhibit aggressive/roguish behavior or attempted to be destructive. If anything they seemed to be bored. Exiting the vehicle caused all but the youngest ones to run.
If you know you are going to be hiking in a known bear area, a shotgun loaded with slugs should be the minimum you should be carrying.
Sometimes circumstances prohibit or inhibit carrying a long arm and of course a revolver is going to be more convenient and more likely to be on your person when needed. If you have to carry a revolver, a .44 should be the minimum caliber and should be loaded with the heaviest hard cast lead loads you can handle. My personal rule is that it should maim on one end and kill on the other.

 

[Sport]

I will NOT post the referenced picture of what's left of the nature buff with the .38

Since the story turned out to be B.S. I guess it's okay to
post that picture now.

 

[Keith]

The picture of the victim is real enough. It just happens to be a picture of the victim of an entirely different bear, in Canada. It's been going around the Internet associated with the set up picture of the Hinchinbrook bear.

Brown bear victms are usually a pretty gruesome sight. Browns "pop" the head of prey as the killing stroke.

 

[brownie0486]

454 casull, 4 3/4" tube, magnaported, hard cast lead flatnose.

Shot placement

Thats all folks

Brownie

 

[jthuang]

Closest I've come to a bear in the pic attached.

Pic was taken in Glacier National Park, near Canadian border trailhead on the way to Cosley Lake, 1999.

I wanna go back sometime when I dredge up a new camping buddy. But we saw ~5 bears in one day ....

 

[ReadyontheRight]

I will NOT post the referenced picture of what's left of the nature buff with the .38

If our esteemed website moderators don't want us to swear, they certainly don't want me to post this picture. Also, I've already deleted it.

 

[JMusic]

I'm going to give this a bump. I was contacted by an Alaskan Ranger because of a statement made about the guy with his legs gone. I said in that thread it was determined it was a tiger attack from India. This is not THR I thought at the time we had conclusive proof but I can't find it. Interesting, never thought we may be diagnosing an open case.

I want to thank Cos for his help on this.

He may be a member (Ranger) of this site he won't say. But he is well versed on this and Treadwell. On this thread I talked about the tiger attack and Treadwells stupidity. The have Treadwell gropies on that site. So I'm still stopping the bleeding with superglue.

One point was about eating. He says he has seen this before, but not often.

But they, and I'm talking all the major organizations in the state also notices the vegetation they concurred but said their is some in the north west. I told him the grass was noted as elephant the only clear vegetation in the pic.
Currently it is closed out on a man killed in 1998 by a brown bear. The Feds do not believe it.
I hate to say this but I came near take care of it. But damn wouldn't be great to knock this out when some of our best coudn't.

Anybody have any memory about this.

Did I tell you I had my a$$ tore up over treadwelll cracks? All I said was I saw a program where his statements were this. Id die for these Alpha Males. ...... "I'm trying not to laugh" Few years later was AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! Get A STICK! GET A STICK.. Thus getting his grifriend one of most possibly worst
deaths ever imagine.

Jim

 

[Matrix187]

So based on general consensus here, I should start carrying my 12 gauge 870 /w 7 round extended tube, with all slugs or 3 slugs + 4 buck? I live in NW montana. I'm about to buy a glock 20 10mm, but is there really a point?

 

[hogshead]

You have to use silver slugs to. According to most bear threads its pointless to resist the mighty brown bear. Just take your revolver and and shoot youself its quicker that way. Why did the guy throw the shotgun at the bear ? I hope it was empty. I think I would still have used it for a club. If it bleeds it can be killed. A heavy 44 between the eyes will do it every time.
Double Madaro Ive seen footage of a game warden releasing a grizzly ,bear turns on him while he is on trap in truck. He kills bear with 357 5 shots I believe. [looking for reference]They are not dragons.

 

[lloveless]

Jmusic,
I didn't get anything coherent from your post
ll

 

[Justin]