Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bear protection: 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP?

Probably the best advice you will get is to learn to carry and deploy BEAR SPRAY effectively.

I have used bear spray on a number of occasions and do recommended it -- but in this situation, where the bear came at a full charge through the brush and only appeared when he was within 6 feet of me and was between me and the clients within a very tight space, I am not so sure how effective bear spray would have been.

I admit it probably would have been better than than nothing

Any three would work fine if you wanted to avoid the agony of being killed by a bear, that is if you were planning on shooting yourself. Be sure to open your mouth wide. Stick the barrel into the mouth pointing upwards. Squeeze the trigger. Don't jerk the trigger and miss.

I haven't ever been around bears, but have hunted where they live without incident. My question is why do people think that a handgun is more effective than bear spray-which, by the way, is 90+ percent effective from everything that I have ever read.

It is pretty easy to say a pistol is better, if you have never used it and are not absolutely confident in your abilities. Bear spray, is easy to master and effective when used APPROPRIATELY.

I would sure like to see a study of results compared after reading all the input from the Wyatt Earps on here.

Pepper spray might work in many situations.

I'll save the pepper for my food.

I was just telling our local biologist about it yesterday. It was quite interesting. But I am not yet ready to give up my guns for a tazer with a blue dot lazer

These two statements sum it up for me. I've never had to shoot a bear but have been in a couple of weird situations at close range. A gun feels much mo' better than a can of spray. A person really needs to be within 20 feet of a 500+ plus bear to grasp how insecure a guy can feel - especially when there's no where to go.

Here is another photo showing the distances we were talking about. This is where we were standing and the dead bear can be seen in the background just left of the client

As I said, this only happened a few days ago and the clients have left and I still have to turn the hide, skull and paperwork over to F&G in King Salmon this week. Like any shooting incident, it will take a little time for all involved to process and is not something to seek notoriety for. But it can be used as a learning experience and I have yet to decided how much and where I want to share it.
It is a coincidence that this forum topic, , my recent testing of 9mm and 357 Buffalo Bore ammo and then this incident came about at the same time.

The quick takeaway is to use common sense, listen to advice gained by experience, and take time to become comfortable and confident with your weapon of choice.

Tim Sundles, the owner of Buffalo Bore ammo, designed ammo for the "lessor" handgun calibers specifically for people who didn't want to expend the money and time to gain profeciency with large caliber handguns but still wanted something that gave them a resonable chance of surviving highly unlikely encounters like this with a handgun that they already own and are familiar with.

I had originally offered my article of my testing with the ammo to Lee Hoots, the editor at Wolfe Publishing, but he says he is not interested as there is not sufficient interest in the subject. I will eventually explore the possibility of working with AK F&G or somewhere where the topic is relevent.

Oh, and as much as I appreciated the light weight of the little 9mm, it's larger magazine capacity and ability to rapidly make multiple hits, I am not yet ready to give up either my S&W M-65 357 or my S&W 44 Mtn Gun ! And the jury is still out on whether a pistol like my son's Hamilton Bowen 475 Linebaugh would have been an asset or a detriment as complete pass throughs could have endangered others. Plus I was able to achieve 3 hits with the 9mm, each eliciting a response from the bear, by the time it would have taken me to recover and shoot a second shot from the SA Linebaugh.

I haven't ever been around bears,

from everything that I have ever read

Bear spray, is easy to master and effective when used APPROPRIATELY.

Same here, if I had but a 9mm in my hand when a grizzly appeared at 6' I'd probably start shooting myself with the damn thing, there is NO replacement for experience!

Had it been someone like me the only thing that wasn't injured by gun fire would have been the bear.