Via EDNO, some guys go bear hunting and despite a high degree of lead ingestion, the bear just keeps coming. Full story.
Fifteen-year-old Chris Moen of Glide, who had drawn the tag, hit the animal in the shoulder with a .338-caliber rifle round, but he and his father couldn’t pick up a trail of blood.
They called on Wyckoff and friends to help track it. A few hours later, Wyckoff went up a hill for a view.
He heard a rustling in the bushes behind him, then a grunt. The bear had apparently circled around the group.
“We never even heard him,” said Wyckoff.
Wyckoff said he fired a round into the bear’s forehead, but the animal kept coming and climbed on top of him. From beneath, Wyckoff said, he got off three more rounds.
Then he tucked the gun beneath the bear’s chin. But it quit. Wyckoff, left-handed, said he had accidentally released the ammunition clip.
Odd that a .338 to the shoulder didn’t drop him. I’d be curious to know if there was an entry wound, if the shoulder joint was shattered, what the path through the bear’s body was. Very strange.
Then lots of .45 shots. I’m sure it was a .45 ACP round, and again I’d like to know if there was actually any penetration into the skull. My guess is the bullets glanced off the forehead.
Justin Norton fired a round from his .44-caliber pistol into the black bear’s stomach, to no avail. He approached the bear, put the gun behind its ear and fired again. It finally rolled away.
“I walked right up to his head, and he didn’t even look at me,” said Norton, 26.
With the dying bear still struggling, a final round finished him off.
And so… this demonstrates why I continue to look for a good backwoods sidearm — my 9mm might be fine for social purposes, but is an inadequate tool for the woods. While .460 Rowland certainly has much appeal on paper, the above situation demonstrates a couple good reasons for revolvers: 1. you’re not going to accidentally hit the magazine release on a revolver (unlikely with a good revolver that you’ll hit the cylinder release and drop your cartridges), 2. you can do contact shots with a revolver. There’s also 3, if there’s a malfunction, just keep pulling the trigger… when a bear is gnawing on you, you really don’t have time to do remedial actions.
Things that make you go hrm.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Get a Magnum BFR in .45-70 Gov’t. Sure, it’s not the latest caliber but it’s been killing all sorts of dangerous game for well over 100 years.
Funny you should mention that. Was just reading some magazine article on some lever gun in .45-70. Thought that’d be pretty cool to have. 🙂
I’d like to try shooing a BFR. Got one? 🙂
Pretty sure the BFR is single action, which I really would not want if a bear was on top of me.
Ruger Alaskan is what I would get.
Even better than that is to have a rifle you can get into action quickly.
FWIW, I read a story about some hikers killing a bear in Denali with a .45.
Of course a rifle would be ideal, but the intention here is when I’m out doing things that preclude me having a rifle, e.g. camping with the family and going on a hike. One might wonder why should should preclude a rifle, but it’s just not always possible… don’t need some ranger thinking I’m out to poach or some such thing.
I did hear about that bear and .45 story too, and I’ve seen other game taken with .45 ACP. But still… it’s harder for something like a bear to argue with .44 Mag or .454 Casull. 🙂
I get that.
But, I mean, hell, you’re hunting bear! Why is your rifle not at the ready?
If *I* was hunting bear, sure… better be a big-ass rifle already in my hands. But again, I’m not hunting, it’s a backwoods “shit happens” sort of thing.
As for the guys in that article, looks like they were just helping friends track. Of course, maybe they should have been packing a rifle too. 🙂
I don’t have one you could try, but, you could buy one to give to me, then I could lend it to you to try. 😛
Sure, Beavis. I’ll get right on that. 🙂