Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game effectiveness of 375 H&H on grizzly

Anyone that doubts the effectiveness of the 375 on grizzly should read the attached story. When this guy's rifle wouldn't fire, He just poked the bear in the head with it!!!
Would a 270 have been as effective for poking the bear in the head?

By BRETT FRENCH - Billings Gazette - 08/27/08
BILLINGS � An adult male grizzly bear was shot by a Silver Gate resident Saturday night after the bear returned after trying to break into the man�s home on Friday.

�It was a problem bear,� said Kevin Frey, the Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear specialist in Bozeman. �We�ve been up there the last week trying to catch the bear.�

Frey said the bear had been tagged and radio-collared in Yellowstone National Park about four years ago near Pebble Creek campground after causing problems.

The bear kept a low profile until about two weeks ago, when it broke into a car near Colter Pass, northeast of Cooke City, to get food. FWP set traps to try to catch the troublemaker. Then last Monday a bear broke into a cabin where garbage was temporarily stored at Colter Pass. On Friday, another call came in that a bear had broken into an unoccupied cabin and raided its food stores over several days, so FWP set more traps.

Then the bear broke a door off a walled-in porch and attempted to enter Hays Kirby�s cabin in Silver Gate.

Kirby, the 65-year-old owner of The Grizzly Lodge, said he was asleep upstairs when the bear busted in. He woke up when his dog started barking. He came downstairs, grabbed his rifle and found the bear standing in his yard.

�I fired a shot into the grass and he crossed the river and wouldn�t leave,� Kirby said. �So that was kinda crazy.�

Following the incident, Frey said Kirby was given permission to shoot the bear if it threatened again. All told, the bear was responsible for about six break-ins, Frey said, based on tracks found at the break-in sites.

�It�s rather abnormal behavior,� he said. �But it�s also a warning to people that if bears get habituated to human food, they�ll do whatever they want.�

On Saturday night, the bear showed up at Kirby�s cabin again, this time breaking out a window as Kirby stood near it. Kirby couldn�t get his rifle to fire, so he poked the bear in the head with the rifle�s barrel.

The bear then broke down the door to the kitchen again, the same door it had broken into the night before.

�He ran up within three feet of me,� Kirby said. �But I didn�t want to shoot him in the kitchen.�

The bear retreated out the door and Kirby fired once from his Holland and Holland .375 rifle that he has used to kill Cape buffalo in Africa. The bear was hit below the back as it was quartering away, Frey said. Frey returned to Silver Gate on Sunday and found the bear dead from the single gunshot near Soda Butte Creek.

�We�ve never had a problem with a bear, ever,� Kirby said. �I didn�t want to shoot that bear, but this bear was really different. The thing I�ll never get over is the ferocity.�

�From the repetitive food rewards it received, this bear had no respect for anyone,� Frey said. �This thing was escalating to the point that you could see the bear getting more and more brazen.� If the bear had been captured it would have been euthanized, he said.

This isn�t the first bear problem in the Cooke City area this summer. On July 17, an Oregon man was attacked while in his tent at Soda Butte campground east of town. The man suffered bite wounds and a broken thumb in the attack. That bear, a female grizzly, was captured July 22 in a trap and sent to Washington State University�s bear research center in Pullman.

That same night, another grizzly bear jumped on the hood of a car near the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park, just west of Silver Gate. On July 23, a male black bear was shot by a Yellowstone Park ranger after it was caught breaking into hikers� backpacks. Earlier, on July 10, another problem black bear was shot near Mammoth by a park ranger.

Frey said the bear shot in Silver Gate was taken to the FWP lab in Bozeman for a necropsy, but it appeared to be a healthy 8- to 9-year-old bear, which he estimated to weigh more than 450 pounds.

Homeowners and cabin owners are reminded that bird feeders, barbecue grills and garbage attract bears. The Gallatin and Custer national forests require all campers to secure their food and grills inside hard-sided campers or vehicles. Backpackers should adequately hang their food in trees away from their campsite at least 15 feet off the ground and 10 feet away from the tree.

One virtue to living in Alaska is not having to wait for permission to defend yourself or your property.

On another note, I'd hate to have a rifle that I used for hunting Cape buffalo that I couldn't get to fire...

Dennis

Its only effective if its a 10K Holland and Holland double rifle

I wonder if maybe he was using one of those CZ's with the backwards saftey and in the moment of truth, he flubbed it? Can't fathom a company so silly as to make their saftey lever operate the exact opposite of nearly every other rifle on the market.

Good point, and one I share. I also think it's a poor idea to put a lefthand safety on a pump or auto shotgun..to me that makes them unsafe to all but the one person who owns it. I'm a leftie, and I'll gladly use a rh safety just to keep things uniform.

Anyone really think the .375 H&H isn't a bear gun? If so then you need to read more hunting books or start playing more checkers or jacks...:)

It also works well on elephant..contrary to what some folks might have you believe.

Maybe he used the same "pokem in the head" technique on the Buffalo?

Centerfire CZ safeties operate like every other safety on the market. Push forward to fire; pull back to lock the trigger. Just like a Remington. It's the BRNO sporting rifles that have a "backward" safety, though I believe the CZ rimfires retain that curious feature.

I suspect he forgot to chamber a round, or left the safety partway on, or some other midnight stress reaction...

Dennis

I think that'd depend on barrel profile. Skinny barrels won't shoot or poke well!

I think the guy got lucky the rifle didn't fire. Shooting a .375 H&H from inside the cabin would have left his ears ringing for a long time, even if it doesn't have a muzzle break.

So?

If a bear were trying to break into my home, ringing ears would be very low on my "things to worry about" list.

YMMV...

Dennis

I'd probably fire off a couple of rounds.

You think... ?

I'm guessing it would be like pretty much every other round I've fired at animals -- didn't hear a thing, didn't feel the recoil...

Dennis

Come on now! Skinny barrels poke better because you get more force per unit area! That makes those pesky bears feel more pain.

Somehow, somwhere deep down inside of me there is a little voice that questions the wisdom of poking a live grizzly bear in the head with a rifle that won't fire...

Fred

Somehow "ringing ears" gets my vote before "dead ears" does.