The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - I've read alot of different opinions on which handgun would be best against bears?

ZeroJunk · August 28, 2006, 08:33 PM

Sorry,It's the Bob Marshall Wilderness.Part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.There are quite a few grizzly bears there.That same guide that was involved in that episode I related killed the last legally taken grizzly in Montana before the courts declared them endangered in the late 80's.I have been about 40 yards on one,could hear it and thought it might be an Elk coming in to a mineral lick I was hunting on.Luckily when it came in sight on the other side of the lick I was down wind and the Elk trails were so well worn that I could move away quietly.My cousin was hunting in a ground blind on the same lick a year earlier and had a sow grizzzly and two cubs come up on him.He took off up the tree above the blind and at about ten feet broke a limb and fell back into the blind destroying it.The bears took off scared to death.Bobby hit the ground like a rubber ball and right back up the tree he went.It took us several minutes to convince him the bears were gone and coax him out of the tree.Keep in mind we are bow hunting and only have a side arm.Mark got about 20 yards on one four years ago.He ran one way the bear ran the other.They are unpredictable as hell.The wildlife people will tell you in private that the bears in the Bob Marshall are not endangered and never were,and that as many are killed getting in to some mischief now as when there was a season,but that is another story.Sow bear with a cub and any bear on a kill is your most likely bad scenario.You stumble in to that and I don't know that any pistol is going to help you unless you are able to shoot the animal in the brain.

August 28, 2006, 08:33 PM	#30
ZeroJunk Senior Member Join Date: August 14, 2006 Location: Browns Summit NC Posts: 2,589	Sorry,It's the Bob Marshall Wilderness.Part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.There are quite a few grizzly bears there.That same guide that was involved in that episode I related killed the last legally taken grizzly in Montana before the courts declared them endangered in the late 80's.I have been about 40 yards on one,could hear it and thought it might be an Elk coming in to a mineral lick I was hunting on.Luckily when it came in sight on the other side of the lick I was down wind and the Elk trails were so well worn that I could move away quietly.My cousin was hunting in a ground blind on the same lick a year earlier and had a sow grizzzly and two cubs come up on him.He took off up the tree above the blind and at about ten feet broke a limb and fell back into the blind destroying it.The bears took off scared to death.Bobby hit the ground like a rubber ball and right back up the tree he went.It took us several minutes to convince him the bears were gone and coax him out of the tree.Keep in mind we are bow hunting and only have a side arm.Mark got about 20 yards on one four years ago.He ran one way the bear ran the other.They are unpredictable as hell.The wildlife people will tell you in private that the bears in the Bob Marshall are not endangered and never were,and that as many are killed getting in to some mischief now as when there was a season,but that is another story.Sow bear with a cub and any bear on a kill is your most likely bad scenario.You stumble in to that and I don't know that any pistol is going to help you unless you are able to shoot the animal in the brain.