Not many have ever HAD to it, Thank God!
Lead on an animal that is trying to make you lunch = ZERO!
More likely , one would be hard pressed to get the gun out of the leather in time to get it into his mouth before he chomps down.
Attacks happen so fast, the better use of the pistol is to put oneself out of his misery after the critter has left the scene.
Interesting. I just talked to a firend of mine at noon who is a retired guide and outfitter. I asked him about lead from about 25 yards in a full out bear charge. He said pretty much what you said, a person will never get their weapon out of the holster to fire the first shot at 25 yards or less and even if they did there's no hand gun on earth that will drop bear at that range before he gets you. He said the best bear stopper at close range is a twelve gauge shotgun but at that close range you might not even get the shotgun in play before the bear gets you. He said people simply do not realize how fast a bear is, inside of 25 yards. My friend, in the day, put down many a bear so he has some experience.
35mph is roughly 51fps; which means the bear will be there in about 1.5 seconds. A fast guy with a sufficient gun
could get off a shot in time; but I�ll agree with him that inside of 25 yards your chances of putting that ONE shot exactly on the spot are extremely slim. Your chances are much better with bear spray than a handgun; unless you�re Robby Leatham.
As to his assertion that a handgun won�t do that job�you should know better; that�s just BS. As for using a shotgun? More BS. Shotguns against dangerous game have been pretty much a disaster in Africa. And since a Grizzly bear is ABOVE anything on the food chain in Africa, I�d say that the use of something that has been a proven failure even on leopard is nearly guaranteed to be a failure on something like a Griz.
Your best defense against a Griz is not to encounter one. Put the damn bells on our clothing, make noise, and know where you�re going. For the most part the people who are mauled by bears are the incredibly stupid and ignorant. Just don�t be an idiot and you�ll be fine.
