Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Nope...don't need no handgun for bear defense...

Spring-set is just a rumor.... I used to teach with a retired mechanical engineer who had an article on springs... After the initial compression that then sets the springs LOA for the rest of its life, unless the spring rusts or is physically damaged it will work. What wears out a spring is "work"...as in compression...decompression...over and over again.

I have seen several articles where the author had found a fully loaded magazines from WWII in Lugers and 1911s and after 30+ years of compression the magazine fed just fine...

As to seating a fully loaded magazine with the slide down or bolt forward...depends on the magazine. AR metal magazines when loaded to capacity, as in 30 rounds in a 30 rounder, have zero compression left. When one tries to insert the magazine with the bolt forward many times the mag will pop out when the next shot is fired because the magazine catch didn't fully engage the notch in the magazine. I saw this at least once a course/shoot when someone would do a tactical reload with a full mag. Plastic mags don't have that problem...

Same thing on pistol magazines. The 1911 .38 Super was designed with a 9 round magazine. With 9 rounds in the mag one can push down on the top round and it will go a little deeper into the magazine body... Same thing happens when the magazine is inserted into the gun. The top round contacts the bottom of the slide and is compressed into the magazine body. When the shot is fired and the slide goes back as the bottom of the slide clears the round, the round then comes up to the top of the feed lips and is picked up by the bottom of the breechface, stripped off the magazine and into the chamber.

When I have tried the 10 round conversions there is ZERO compression left in the magazine. When the magazine is inserted with the slide forward there is no compression so the magazine catch doesn't fully line up with the cut in the magazine... Fire the next round and the slide cycles and then you get a "click"...because the magazine dropped down slightly but didn't drop out of the gun because it is being held in place by the magazine catch.

If you slam the magazine in to get it to seat then you are putting undue pressure on the frame rails...

Bob

I've had Magpuls exhibit the same problem.

Just saw this followup....

https://www.ammoland.com/2018/11/wy...LnyE4jWkMtLv1YYANLrXhYs-Vs#axzz5XbcAYX13

...once again proves that if one doesn't feel comfortable with a round in the chamber...carry a revolver.

Bob

Or carry a DA/SA auto. I ditched my Glock 10mm for an H&K USP 45 shooting .45 Super in large part because of the greater weight and travel of the H&K's trigger system over the Glock.

Thank you for posting the link to followup information. The initial story in the media didn't make sense.
By the way, my assumption was that the second bear was the sow's 2 year old cub, but the follow-up doesn't make that clear.
There was another average size sow a few years back that learned how eat people and she was training her yearling cubs. They trapped and killed her, but they sent the cubs to zoos.

Hope they hadn't learned the lesson yet.

One of the reasons so many people in Alaska carry a handgun for bear: https://www.johnlinebaughcustomsixguns.com/writings

Gotta be a Millenial hunting guide to think...."take out my phone"

So do you want 6 shots..........or a Mag full of good 10s? Tis the question in bear country?

Lucky guy!

Since one is likely to only get off a couple of shots anyway...revolver... That and if you end up in a hand to paw knock-down-drag-out fight a semi can fail to cycle...

I want my 475 or one of my 500’s.

The lower 48 grizzly range in weight from 200-400lbs females and 400-600lbs males. So these are not any where near the size of coastal brown bears or Alaskan/Canadian inland grizzlies. This is not to imply they are not extremely dangerous. The sow in the above article was 250 lbs according to the article.

Several years ago, a big boar was hit by a truck and killed near Lincoln MT -- it was estimated to weigh in the neighborhood of 800 lbs -- an extreme outlier. That bear was known to the locals for years.

Anyway, my point is that these lower 48 bears are not anywhere near as big as their northern counterparts and probably can be successfully defended against with less firepower (although I'd want as much as possible).

FWIW,

Paul

There are some exceptions, grizzly in the 900 pound range do exist in MT, not common but they are there.

Was that bear actually put on a scale?

Otherwise, we're back to the old saw that the heaviest bears are found farthest from a scale.

Golden Bison in 45-70!

Don't know, but 830 sounds like more than an estimate.

http://fwp.mt.gov/news/newsReleases/headlines/nr_2693.html

http://www.pbase.com/crichter/lincoln_montana_grizzley

There have been a few in the last several years that were weighed I believe that were around 900. Many of these seem to come in the area of the Rocky Mountain Front (east slope of the Rockies in northern Montana).

A 375 H&H would be good.