Would a Bear Cartridge be Enough for Self-Defense
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Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
I am not sure if you are genuinely curious or trolling. You do understand that there is a difference between self defense and hunting, right?
At 30' with the largest Grizzly ever killed (at that time) and a worn out haphazardly repaired single shot .22 rifle with a .22 Long trust me it was self-defense not hunting.
PS I'm mostly poking fun at our "Caliber Wars".
Fine Figure of a Man
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Darn, we really needed a genuine bear thread right about now.
entropy
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Bears don't do crack or meth.
Man, some people are bad at probabilistic reasoning. If you hit a bear with a .22lr, it will incapacitate it some percentage of the time based on a bunch of factors, including where it hits and the anatomy of that particular animal. The percentage will go up by some amount as the wounding/incapacitation power of the gun goes up; by the time you're hitting bears with 120mm tank rounds, you're at a 100% incapacitation rate.
The fact that some small percentage of the time a .22lr happens to work doesn't mean that's a high-odds play. Just because your ace pitcher is batting .083 and not .000 doesn't mean he's a good choice as a pinch-hitter on his off days.
The fact that some small percentage of the time a .22lr happens to work doesn't mean that's a high-odds play. Just because your ace pitcher is batting .083 and not .000 doesn't mean he's a good choice as a pinch-hitter on his off days.
Zaydok Allen
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But how do you know?
Yes
Exactly
Also exactlyIt would probably over-penetrate
So you need more hobbies.
I doubt very much this thread will last very long since the premise is a joke.
huntsman
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Don’t know about you but I don’t consider providence my first line of defense.
Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
Nope, and it wasn't attacking and did not know that she and her partner were there. It was shot from a place concealment by a hunter who waited to take the best shot possible.
Choctaw
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My grandfather used to shoot trash-raiding black bears with a .177 caliber Daisy pellet gun. I've always thought Daisy built a superb self defense gun.
Maybe, Maybe Not.
They left the trail to avoid the bear.
It came to within 30' of where they were hiding and was searching for something by smell.
At this point she decided it was safer to shoot than not shoot. When the bear fell at the shot she advanced and reloaded and fired her single shot rifle repeatedly. She targeted the weak point between the eye and ear holes. All of her shots could be covered by half dollar and most by a quarter. Shooting something in defense of your life you were attempting to avoid is not the normal mode of hunting in my book.
We will just have to agree to disagree.
Enfielder
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I agree. I think that any Grizzly would fall to a .270 before it fell to a 30-06. But then again, 10mm would beat all of that at 35 yards since it takes more time for those small diameter rifle bullets to get up to speed.
Babbabooey
sequins
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Glock 20 is probably the best all around bear gun if you aren't hellbent on a revolver (where I'd advocate a 454)
I don't want to have the technical possibility to kill a bear in self defense, I want a reasonable degree of confidence and certainty.
I could get a grizzly with my bare hands- maybe... Sorry OP, this was an ill advised post.
I don't want to have the technical possibility to kill a bear in self defense, I want a reasonable degree of confidence and certainty.
I could get a grizzly with my bare hands- maybe... Sorry OP, this was an ill advised post.
Accounts of the incident, and the skull itself, indicate that she shot the bear in the side of the head. It's pretty hard to shoot an attacking bear in the side of the head with a rifle unless it's attacking someone else.
The circumstances indicate that the bear was not attacking the shooter, or even facing toward the shooter at the time it was shot. It seems reasonable to assume that if it was only feet away and wasn't facing the shooter, it wasn't aware of the shooter and, for the same reason, to assume that the shooter was concealed in some manner and that is why the bear didn't see the shooter even though it was at very close range.
https://www.ammoland.com/2017/06/be...-world-record-grizzly-and-more/#axzz5muclfgKM
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2...-little-woman-little-gun-big-bear-cold-front/
Wisco
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Exactly! That’s why I let my mechanic fix my cars with nothing but duct tape and vise grips...er...my tailor uses a stapler...I mean...my butcher uses a Swiss Army knife...
Real mechanics use proper tools. Real hunters use appropriate guns. People serious about their self preservation have the proper, mindset, skillset and toolset to prevail.
All that said, I wish about 7 billion of the excess people in the world would go hunting for brown bears with single shot 22s.
Trunk Monkey
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I'm not an expert but everything I've read and my experience around bears indicates that they have an acute sense of smell. If that bear was mere feet away from that woman it knew she was there.
I agree with the rest of your assessment just not that.
I don't advise anyone to hunt bear with a 22. But this is an example of someone getting the job done effectively with what they had. While not a traditional bear attack, I believe she feared for her life when she made the decision to pull the trigger.
AZAndy
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Christopher McCandless, the guy about whom Krakauer's Into the Wild was written, took both a caribou and a bear with a .22 rifle. It's surely not what I would choose. I'd want to step it up to at least .25ACP, which is my usual elk round.
Just...no.
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