Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska 9 foot bear .45 auto :)

All the talk on what caliber/pistol/rifle ....goes right back to shot placement >> http://www.adn.com/article/20140715/sterling-man-kills-9-foot-grizzly-trying-break-his-home

Too bad for the bear but he should have stayed away after being warned several times.

I wouldn't hesistate to blast a bear if it was trying to break into my home and there wouldn't be any warning shots either.

The blogs after the article state that it was a High Point and a single hit to the lungs.

Local fish wrapper says he fired 7 shots from the deck above.

FWIW

Yeah, the son posting on the blog says that dad shot 7 times but "only one shot hit in the directed area. One threw [sic] the lung dropped it." So, the reference to the "directed area" could mean he only hit it once or only hit it once where he was aiming, leaving open the possibility of more than one hit.

Dude said he doesn't hunt either, so that might be why he only hit it once.

Probably Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang.

Not Bang, re-aim

Bang, re-aim

Bang, re-aim

Bang, re-aim

Bang, re-aim

Bang, re-aim

Bang.

and held it sideways to boot

Misses from a 10mm would have left sizable craters in the yard.

Happy birthday Steve!

Thank you.

The man said he isn't a hunter so it must have been a steep learning curve for him when the game dept. told him to skin the bear in order to turn it in.

Jim

F&G sells those hides, so they may have helped him.

Thanks for the information. I was wondering what condition the hide might have been in if he had done it by himself.

Jim

I don't *know* if they did, but it seems logical to me. F&G would have a vested interest in the best hide they could get out of the deal.

It may be silly to be logical though.

no dog in this squabble, so..

Non-hunter, non-shooter too? Maybe a 230-gr FMJ through the lungs-one shot per the story.. Doubt said bear would have resigned from life so easily with that slight bodily insult. Possible? Sure, but not probable.

I perceive there's more than meets the eyes to this story.

I must agree with George. Altho I have known of similar flukes happening. However, with the brownie that wanted to eat me, was standing up right, at a distance of 7 ft., when I put 5 rounds of #7 shot into the heart area, could see day lite thru that sucker, and even tho he was no longer poppin' his teeth or coughing, he was still standing! Needless to say, I pizzed my pants' as I fumbled for more ammo. Fortunately, he fell over dead before I got reloaded! Yaaa, I suppose it coulda happened as stated---but-----

I don't doubt that a single, simple shot might have done the animal in. I've killed far less bears than moose but seen a higher percentage of bears go DRT at bullet's impact. OTOH, bears that don't, seem to react a lot more enthusiastically than does the typical moose. The problem with bears is that you just don't know how they'll react when hit and a good shot sometimes only makes them 'super-bears' for the short while before they expire. But I have seen bears go down quickly with lung shots - especially those where the plumbing is involved directly. That said, I wouldn't choose any semi-auto as an ideal bear weapon though the 45 is obviously better than throwing stones.

https://www.facebook.com/jim.landess

He did take time to pose with it.

Flanking the bear and shooting from the deck so to hit the exposed vitals and pass through both lungs seems a bit less taxing on a 45acp pistol bullet than a shot into covered vitals from a head on shot into a charging bear. It highly unlikely a bear would live too long with a hole through both lungs, and from a flanking position upon the deck, a CNS DRT kill would not be as pressing, than if the bear was a step away from knocking him off his feet.

I'm curious if he continues to keep his only firearm, the 45acp, outside in his truck at night. Doubt it.

Those Dimocraps would have been shooting over their shoulder while leaving the scene posthaste.

That is an awefully generous 9 ft. Even with the customary pose from 6 feet behind the bear!

A guy around here put away a fair size momma grizzly (got caught by surprise, by the cub); I think it was supposed to be about 800 lbs.

It took 14 landed shots from a .45 ACP with full metal jacket bullets. 13 of the bullets exited, and he did get ripped up some.

Not my first choice to tackle one, but his reasons were sound. If I had to, I would handload some +P with some heavy 250+ gr. cast, and a nice flat metplat.

Hmm, I think I have some 300s that I may try out...