Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns High Point .45 Adequate for Grizzly

If you are a shaking it's hard to hit with anything.

believe you make a valid point Snyper, based upon my experiences with bears

he may have been lucky indeed that those 6 shots missed.


by and large, shooting a bear that's already received non fatal lead (and sometimes even fatal lead/copper etc.) is a whole nuther sport than putting a killing shot in one that's just going about their bidness.

even if their business at the time is trying to get into your foodstuffs in your cabin.

even had one bear jump into our boat, lol, fortunately we weren't in it at the time

You can discuss killing power etc. forever, but the bottom line is that the guy used what he had. It is a different conversation when someone carries an inadequate weapon into bear county on purpose.

Before being shipped overseas in WWII, my Dad patrolled the coast highway with a partner from CA to Canada. Up near the Canadian border, his partner was squatting, taking a dump, when a bear poked its head through the brush at him. The guy emptied his 1911 into the bear's head at about 10 feet from the squatting position with expected results. And the encounter helped clear his bowels at the same time. I don't recall if it was a griz or a black bear and Dad is now deceased.

LMAO

I was responding to a poster who was saying that 45APC is perfectly adequate for grizzles and that a friend of his chose to carry it for protection from big bears. Clearly it's not adequate protection from big bears and a 44 mag is the minimum for this purpose.

I said it'll get the job done at close range. .44 mag is better but a .44 mag is big and heavy and without a lot of practice which most people aren't going to do is probably worthless. Hence, a .45 ACP especially with +P loads will get the job done.

Now days if I'm going to be out in the woods and especially in bear country which in Montana is just about everywhere now I'll carry bear spray and my 1911 in .45 ACP.