Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Would a 9mm

I"m gonna say if you get a round or two off of either, and they hit the CNS, then the results will be the same.

Like I said, if you can shoot the boomers well, go for it. There is ZERO doubt in my mind that the 10mms we carry are more than enough IF we hit CNS. If we don't, there will still be damage but to stop any animal you have to hit CNS.
I'm actually overly impressed with non bear rounds on deer from the 10mm. I"ve yet to see a deer make it out of sight, and none have gone more than 35 steps.

Now I'm not inclined to carry the 9, because I can handle the 10 and the wife can too. But the stuff bigger than a 44.... I can't deal with accurately repeatedly. The fact the 10 penetrates so well and has 16 rounds before reload, vs the 44 having 6... well my mind is made up.

That said, if the OP asked about a 9, I'm just going out on a limb here and thinking he or she may be smarter than most and KNOW what they can or can't handle and asked a question so related. I'd rather have the 9 with hard cast heavies than nothing at all. And to be honest I'd rather have the 9 than the 500 S/W as I'm 99% my first round out of the smith would be close to the bear but no more confident than that as much as that round hurts to shoot. Now if we are talking hunting, where I can take my time and aim and squeeze I've no issue using the 500. Though it still isn't going to be my favorite choice.

OK, Jose. No, I have no experience with the grizzly I am from Georgia.
But, I spent the summer of 1973 up in the wilderness of British Columbia, near Fort Nelson and Manson Creek. I was staying with outfitters, guys who guide hunters on big game hunts. They kill a lot of moose, mountain goats, and grizzly.
Americans cannot hunt in Canada without being in the presence of a paid guide, at least, they could not back then.

These guys go out with a goofball American hunter, he screws up the shot on the grizzly, then the guide has to kill the grizzly. Or, they shoot a big moose at sunset, and they have to go back to the camp, and they arrive the next morning with the pack horses to get the meat and the rack, and a grizzly has staked out the moose. And you better be ready to kill a charging grizzly or you will die. This is what these guys did for a living.
I was working with and living with two of these guides that summer and talked to the guys who worked for them who are also grizzly killers.

And they all told me the same thing. Never shoot a grizzly in the head for the reason I posted above.
Now, to y'all who don't hunt grizzly for a living this sounds wild, but every one of these men told me the same thing and most of them had done it. When a grizzly is charging, he is on all fours and does not present a good target. Hold your fire.

When he is ten feet away, he will stand up and walk in, and swat you in the head. A griz can kill a horse with one swat to the neck.
When he stands up, the chest is exposed and you fire into the chest.

All these hunts are set out on, via horse back and these guy's lives depend on having a good saddle rifle. Thus they use the lever action because the bolt on a bolt action just gets in your way. Most of these guys used the Marlin .30-30. Never saw a Winchester. They loved the Marlin because it was very reliable, and you could get off a quick second shot and third shot. I talked to two guys who got off 3 shots from the Marlin .30-30 on a standing, charging griz, killed the big bear on the spot. Knew a couple of these guys who used the Savage in .308

I never heard of an American who went griz hunting with a .30-30, but, that is what the experts use.
In fact, the one guide I spent 6 weeks with is Larry Erickson of Alpine Outfitters in Manson Creek BC, I think he is still up and kicking, the other guy was Don Peck I think he was in Ft. Nelson.

I have killed lots of deer and hogs but I have never seen a grizzly. But I lived and worked with professional grizzly hunters for 3 months and I am telling you what they told me.

A lot of excellent data has been gathered in this thread along with a lot of excellent bullshatt! Y’all keep it coming.

I know I have seen, and personally sent, multiple bullets in multiple calibers, from pistols to shotgun shells, to rifles, right through (albeit skinned) bear skulls, both black and brown, in tests of my own. That 9mm will make a hole, if he is close enough AND the shot goes where you want it to.

Most people, in my experience, decide that handguns are worthless on bears because they, for some reason, only think you would shoot at them while they are still 20-30 yards or more away.

I, for one, would not stop shooting until he has eaten both of my hands (or worse) - and if he is close enough to chew on you, then you can all but Mafia style him in the temple, eyeball, or mouth, at a distance making it awfully hard to miss.

For my two cents, pistols are not great if you want to stop the bear while he is still far enough away that you can't spit on him. But as a means of potentially saving your life at Do or Die range (close enough to leave powder burns), it's a rare handgun that CAN'T penetrate a bears skull.

Yes of course, the pistol will penetrate the bear's skull, if you hit it at the right angle.
But remember, even a 30-06 will bounce off of the water on a pond, if you hit it at a glancing angle.

Well,...I've never experienced a Griz charge,.....but I've seen videos of them doing so. I don't think many people understand that they can sprint 40mph. That's how fast a damn good Thoroughbred runs,...and it looks like a Griz can go from 0-40 in about .5 seconds. They don't have 4 speed transmissions. They're direct drive with a turbo.

My real feelings on the matter is,...if a Griz rushes you and you're not ready for it, you're gonna have just enough time to chit your britches if you're lucky. Then you're going to be a Grizzly's Sushi bar just long enough to wish you could chit your britches again.

They're very badass animals.

A Griz is what a werewolf wants to be when it grows up.

That seems about right...😎

Thanks for posting all that bullshit..

GFY!

Good luck.

don't have a 9 but do have a 38 super 1911 comp gun and para 40 1911 plus a few 45 acps. think i would pick the 45 colt or s&w 629 over either, the 500 s&w has never been shot since it was bought 12 yrs ago. i'm pretty good with a 1911 though after shooting ipsc for about 10yrs when i was younger.

Bears that are stopped are hit in the head. Regardless of the shape of the head. Fairly simple actually. I'm not saying a bullet won't skid but you have to hit more than the chest. The chest will help, but you may well be dead by the time it helps. Aiming at the CNS, the stray shots should still help but....

I can see the point of the bolt being in the way on a scabbard, but you can run a bolt as fast as a lever... you simply have to practice... The bolt gunners we shot against in service rifle matches used to harass us because we shot M1A and AR15 platforms, and in rapid fire they used to joke that they were faster as we had to wait for the action to cycle... LOL, but they were not far off.

In the meantime a lot of things I heard from respected folks in the 70s of my youth have since been proven wrong and simply the only way they knew back then, and it just carried on from generation to generation. Even if it was not the best information.

Lastly, I will never be stupid enough to not carry enough ammo, such that I"m afraid to waste shots on a charging bear in the hope that he stops the charge at the end, stands up and strolls in... nope, I'm shooting all the way.... I tend to like that I have 16 rounds of 10mm for that situation.

And for some reason we sure enjoy seeing them in the yard up north. You have to respect em and realize you are not top of the food chain. That said, the chances are better of being hit by lightning I'd suspect.

Being able to spend time in places that contain grizz, wolves and pumas is my proof that there is no such thing as karma. Preparing to deal w/ nature is almost as much fun as being deep w/in it. Wild places are the best places, better to be a griz turd than die in a nursing home w/ a tube in your dik.


mike r

I have learned so much.

I’ll now continue hunting with horses but being a wiseass I’ll continue putting a bolt gun on my horse. Oh crap. I’m right handed so it’s on the off side. How have I survived?

I’ve lived in AK for 38 years and have not learned as much as Simon did in a whole summer. Good thing I got innanet.

Now we need someone to opine how thick, dense, and just huge bear bones are.

Anyone have an experts .30-30 for sale! I’m trying to make amends.

Just remember,...it your plan doesn't work you're going to be making noises like the guy in the audio above.

Grizzly Man before:



Grizzly Man after:

Serious situation:

I was camped in an Alpine meadow in Glacier National Park about a mile from where this occurred when it happened in July, 1980,...maybe a mile away as the crow flies. It was a while before I went back.

Jane Ammerman, 19, female
Kim Eberly, 19, male

Glacier National Park, Montana

Their partially consumed bodies were found near their campsite at Divide Creek in the St. Mary Valley. The bear was later killed by Native American hunters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America#1980s