Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Phil Shoemaker - A Bear Pistol Question:

Wow! At least you were well armed

That i was

The entire internet has heard about how Phil killed a charging brown bear with his 9mm.

Only the bear wasn't charging Phil. It was standing pissed off a few yards away broadside without knowing the shooter was even there. Then after he couldn't locate his intended target and started feeling bees stinging him he decided to make a retreat. Dying in the process.

Had the shooter and clients position been swapped the story very likely would have had a different outcome. Everyone involved got extremely lucky in how things played out. You might say dumb luck saved the day.

Can a 9mm kill a bear? Obviously. Can it save your life by stopping a charging bear? That remains to be seen and I remain highly dubious. Having people believe it's a perfectly adequate tool for the job based on the exaggerated facts of a single anecdotal event likely does more harm than good.

We all want to believe we're ready to face whatever happens but it doesn't always go as scripted.

Mike Adams grizzly attack is on u tube and according to him the video is pretty accurate. Mike was carrying a .44 mag with heavy XTPs though he called them hardcast xtp's so maybe not a handgun guy, however he shot the bear point blank while it was chewing his arm. They pulled DNA off his front sight to verify what bear it was. The bear lived.

All that said, ammo becomes more important than cartridge. Phil isn't telling everyone to carry a 9mm for bear defense, but did make the point about hitting better with it. If deep penetration is what he recommends regardless of caliber its likely for a reason.

Link below to Mike Adams story.

My wife and I have spent the last week hiking the hills both side of the North Fork of the Shoshone River between Cody and Yellowstone so this topic is pretty real to me right now. My "hiking gun" has been reduced to a G43 due to a herniated disc which caused my PT to advise not carrying >20 lbs.

My best comfort comes from knowing that I can dump 6 rounds of 147gr BB hardcast into 6" at 10 yards in <3 seconds from my HPG chest rig or Hydration vest. I think Phil's best lesson was to emphasize the importance of the performance of the actor rather than the props.

In our hikes I talked to several locals who were scouting and exercising their horses and they had more scary encounters w/ momma moose than w/ bears.

Where is the best place to shoot a phuggin pissed off woman moose?

Back home we only have to worry about tweakers and Mountain Lions. Griz and Moose up close are way more scary!


mike r

Again, easy to see why Phil gets a belly full of the “Experts” on this site. His point clearly boiled down to choosing a bullet that can penetrate from a gun you can hit with. He made no exaggerated claims whatsoever and backs his hard earned opinions with what he carries in harms way daily.

Just demonstrates a major unsaid fact here. It can be pretty dang handy for your partners in an excursion to be armed. I imagine anybody alone and being chewed on would welcome a friend with a 9mm.

Handguns are 98% effective ti defend against bear attacks


https://www.ammoland.com/2023/11/ha...s-170-documented-incidents-98-effective/

How much experience do you have with big bears?
Phil has been hunting and or guiding for 45 years.
Phil dam sure knows what works and you don't.

So exactly how many bears have you killed, and with what?

Would also like to know how many wild grizzly/brown bears you've actually seen?

I doubt anyone has lots of experience stopping charging grizzlies with a handgun. Probably lots of one timers and a few very unlucky repeaters. It would seem that the guide’s big advantage would be his familiarity with bears and their behavior. That should help him avoid lots of trouble, as well as maintain his composure in close range encounters.

One of our forum members just posted about his brown bear hunt with a 9.3X62 and it took FOUR shots. Keep thinking youre fine with a hand gun let alone a 9 and I haven't even seen one except in a zoo

Plus a 10mm coup de grace. In the aftermath comments the shooter stated the 200 gr. 10mm bullet had penetrated very deeply into and through the bear.

Reading comprehension.

It’s a thing.

I rarely carry a hand gun when in bear country because I almost always have a rifle on me.
When I do it's a Glock 19X stocked with 147gr BBA. I simply shoot it better than bigger handguns I've had. I have thought about a Smith mountain gun in with medium 45 colt hard cast loads, but I really don't use a hand gun in bear country all that much.

B: Do you fly cast in bear country with a rifle over your shoulder?

Justin, you are correct as far as your analysis goes, but you are ignoring the fact that unwounded bears are nowhere as determined and dangerous as wounded bears and that NO HANDGUN qualifies as a proper stopping weapon for previously wounded 1000 pound plus animals !
If the shooter is always capable of hitting a charging bear in the brain they can get by with any deep penetrating handgun, but I am certainly not and find the ability to get of multiple shots quicker with the 9mm outweighs the “power” of heavier recoiling handguns .

You may be the worlds best handgun shooter and perfectly capable of hitting small, rapidly advancing , erratically moving, targets when under duress and would be better off with a handgun of your choice.

And even if he's not the best he clearly thinks he is

Actually, Justin did raise some legit points and Phil responded fairly, and in a gentlemanly way. No pissing contest required. Good on both of them.

With apologies, I did not review the entire thread. What is Phil’s handgun of choice now for bear defense?