Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .45 ACP for bear protection - what bullet?

that was a OH shist! moment if ever there was one. have always wondered what choice words he had for his friend with the camera merrily snapping away?

The photographer dropped the camera when he realized what was happening. The whole thing was over in a few seconds. In a way it's too bad the camera was dropped because there are no photos of the actual shooting, and the photographer was unarmed and too far away to do anything about the situation.

I remember reading about the bear attacking the warden after being released. There were more photos than the 2 above. That happened in Montana I believe in the 90's. The warden that was attacked suffered a broken ankle I believe from a bite. There was also another officer in the truck as well

I am a believer in bear spray. It wasn't invented when I worked in Alaska but I carry it now along with a Model 71 Winchester.

I used to work with a wildlife biologist from Havre, MT, also a former jet fighter pilot. His head professor at MSU in Bozeman had a grizz skull on his desk with one small hole in it...from a .22 pistol. He shot it in self-defense from 12 feet and was very luck to have survived.

It was in '87 and the Montana F&G Officer involved was Lou Kis. I suspect the story and pics are archived somewhere.

Ask and Thou shalt receive:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2008/01/grizzly-attack-caught-camera

Not much I can add that's technical or helpful, but these bear threads are always entertaining. Black bears in Oregon seem very timid in general. Most attacks I recall reading about here are hunts gone wrong.

Here's a couple of Oregon stories that have stuck in my memory. Just so happens that they both involved a 45 ACP. I know the OP asked about grizzlies, but some black bears are huge. The bear in the second story was a tank. I remember seeing the picture of the bear.


Not trying to make any points here... just thought someone might like to read them.

First one:

Man survives struggle with black bear in Oregon

GLIDE, Ore. -- Aaron Wyckoff didn't start to panic until his .45-caliber pistol quit firing, and the bear kept chewing on his arm.

So, he recalls, he tried to pull the bear's jaws apart. Then he tried to roll down the ridge where he and the bear were wrestling. But the bear grabbed his calf, pulled him back and went for his groin.

Wyckoff said he countered by shoving his pistol and his hand into the bear's mouth. But by then, the struggle in the Cascade Range in Southern Oregon attracted the attention of Wyckoff's party, and other hunters rushed over.

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.

"He was dead. He just didn't know it," Wyckoff said. "It was just all adrenaline."

Wyckoff was helping friends track a wounded bear May 31 on the last day of the hunting season.

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.

After the attack, Wyckoff sat still, not wanting to move for fear the bear had ruptured the femoral artery in his groin. Mustering the courage to look down, he saw his shredded jeans, but not much blood.

At the hospital, a surgeon sewed him up, astonished that the bear had missed every major artery, as well as Wyckoff's tendons.

After two days in the hospital, Wyckoff was discharged, with orders to stay home from work for at least two weeks.

His right arm remains bandaged. Silver staples hold gashes together.

His .45 is covered with teeth marks but still works.

The bear weighed more than 260 pounds after field dressing. It has since been sent to a taxidermist.

Wyckoff said he's grateful for his friends' quick actions and that he stayed firm when his 10-year-old son tried to go along that day.

Would Wyckoff hunt down another bear?

"Oh yeah," he said. "Fall bear season starts back up in August."




Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/arti...bear-in-Oregon-1276350.php#ixzz2Vb5PE9IP

Second Oregon story.

Jason



[i]�Bears always run away'

Published: June 4, 2008

Joshua McKim of Halfway shot and killed this approximately 400-pound black bear on May 28 when it ran at him while he was picking mushrooms in the mountains north of Halfway.
Submitted photo

By JAYSON JACOBY

Baker City Herald

When the bear just up the hill roared, Joshua McKim's first thought was that he had never heard a bear make a sound like that.

His second thought, almost instantaneous with the first, was that he was awfully glad he had brought his pistol on this mushroom-picking trip.

When he first glimpsed the bear through the thick brush, McKim had cocked the hammer on the .45 caliber semi-automatic Taurus, a copy of the famous 1911-model Colt.

The bear didn't move.

McKim, 22, who has picked mushrooms and hunted deer and elk in the Wallowa Mountains above his hometown of Halfway since he was a boy, has seen maybe 20 bears.

And every one had fled, rumbling away from him in that awkward but oddly efficient gait peculiar to bears.

But this bear just stood there, no more than 35 yard away, staring down at McKim.

"I was saying, why isn't he running away � the wind's blowing right at him so he must be able to smell me," McKim said, recounting what happened a week ago today, on the evening of May 28.

"This is really weird. Bears always run away. Maybe I should holler at him."

The bear hollered first.

Then, finally, the bear started moving.

Right at McKim.

McKim yelled.

"He kind of hesitated for a second," McKim said.

"Then he came on. Faster."

McKim fired the first of the eight bullets in the .45's clip.

"The first shot hit him in the shoulder."

The bear tumbled, rolling for about 10 feet until it came to a flat place.

The bear righted itself and kept moving, not directly at McKim but in his direction.

The bear was closer now, 15 yards or so.

McKim pulled the trigger until the clip was empty.

"I knew I was hitting him; I didn't know where," he said. "I wasn't about to let him get any closer."

The bear careened into a patch of brush and McKim couldn't see the animal.

"I wasn't about to go into the brush with a wounded bear in there," he said. "I couldn't see much."

Besides, he was out of bullets. [/i]

Cool stories there for sure.

As a side note, Incident #1 eludes that the shooter's gun may have malfunctioned sometime during the event but didn't provide any details.

If you carry a semi-automatic pistol for protection or defense, make it part of your mindset to refrain from making contact with the target (or anything else) with your gun during the pistol's cycle of operation, as it can readily cause a stoppage.

Lying on your back with a bear trying to chew your gonads off isn't a good time to bone up on your clearance drills .... especially with one hand.

Says he accidentally released the magazine. It happens.

Thanks for pointing that out - I didn't read far enough.

Lefties inadvertently depressing magazine catches on guns designed for righties is a common problem I'm afraid, and Murphy was obviously up this guys azz.

https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=214

Reviewer: Lee Hoagland
03/24/2011 03:53am
These are what I carry in my 3" Kimber while in the woods. A .45 ACP is a poor excuse for a black bear/wild hog gun, but if there's one load commercially available that would do the job, it's this one. The meplat does not have the surface area of a WFN or SWC, but it's radiused sides aid in feeding. Many 1911s are unable to feed WFN/SWC bullets, but my Kimber handled these just fine. These are extremely accurate. I was able to put three rounds through the same hole at 10 yards. Recoil is a bit stiff, but very manageable and not nearly as strong as the BB 230gr loads. Have not had the opportunity to test them in water or ballistics gel, but I would imagine they would easily perforate 24" or more.

*At one point, I was unable to chamber these in my Kimber. The feed ramp had become very dirty from 100 or so rounds of CCI Blazer and neither sling-shotting the slide or depressing the slide stop would chamber the round as it stuck on the feed ramp. A sharp slap to the rear of the slide did the job, and subsequent shots chambered with no hiccups. As with any ammunition, be sure it functions in your weapon before carrying it. I just wanted to note that it's possible that you will have trouble chambering the first of these but have no feeding problems beyond that. Just to check, I stripped the pistol and wiped the feed ramp clean and the issue was resolved, so be sure your feed ramp is clean when carrying this load.

Bear incidents are the last place you want to have to worry about reliability. I like revolvers and lever action rifles.

A solid 1911 is a very reliable handgun, proven in multiple wars and used by the FBI SWAT teams. That being said, can't argue with your choices either. My preference is a stainless synthetic 375 H&H bolt action ...

Lots of interesting reading here. Just for reference, here's what the real thing looks like, and how fast it happens:



The point being the OP, or anyone in the same situation, is going to have to be ready to act quick, if they get attacked.

The OP has a .45, and I'd agree with the hard cast suggestions, or a FMJ, if it won't feed a blunt hard cast.

But I'll also ask a question, if it's at sho'nuff bad breath range, what is the best target? that sloping forehead? Or maybe down the throat, hoping to bust the spine, or bust his jaw?

I'd aim for the nose, center mass cranium.

Over the years, the takeaway I always have when I view video footage of animal encounters is the speed and violence of the attack. If you truly do venture into places where bears, cougars or wolves (or coyotes or wild dogs) are a reality � you�d better be pretty boned up on your presentation skills. With some of the holster rigs I�ve seen touted as defensive appropriate, a lot of folks would be up their eyeballs in critter before they ever got their gun brought to bear.

I can only speak for myself as to where to aim, but it�s been my experience that no animal (or human) tolerates much gunfire directed to the face and eyes. I even heard one guide in Alaska say that he loaded the first round in his SG with #4 or #1 buckshot. He would direct that first round to the eyes/face as a momentary distraction with Brenneke slugs as a follow-up.

Putting a round in the mouth will take his mind off of eating that's for sure

Actually, I think a 250 LFN would be better; "better" being a subjective, paper "better"....