Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game shot placement for charging grizzly

As a new member to the forum, I live up in Alberta and do alot of wilderness camping with my boys very close to the rockies.
I always carry my reliable 870 12ga. pump with magnum slugs and 00buck, and always wondered exactly where to place the slug with a charging grizz within 25-50 yds. Anyone experienced this rare confrontation, or know of anyone who lived to tell?
With the panic of a racing heart and shakey hands, compounded with the grizz bouncing up and down, any thoughts on the best placement to disable Mr. Grizz within a 2-4 second window, upper chest, shoulder or square in the middle head area?

aceman.

I have zero experiance with a charging griz but I can tell you one thing, he's probably going to get it in the noggin.
That way if I did miss I might still hit the frontal chest region.

Zero griz in florida, but remember the old mafia slogan.."two in the head, then he's dead"

Id be aiming for an area from the tip of the nose at the upper edge down to the upper chest where the neck starts and useing THESE SLUGS

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=00129PB127RS

at 20 yards the 1oz weight and 70 cal dia. at the typical velocity from a shotgun will get any bears attention, and once I started shooting Id sure keep punching holes looking to destroy the viotals and CNS and neck

Oh yeah! and he wouldnt just get one shot either..........I will keep shooting until he drops.

340
"Id be aiming for an area from the tip of the nose at the upper edge down to the upper chest where the neck starts..."

Do that and you will be Treadwelled. Bears are far closer to the ground than most think. A normal male human will stand far taller and a shot missing the nose, or going through it will hit dirt. On a charging bear you see the top of the head and neck in front and shoulders way beyond... They have long necks.
art

aceman-for me it would be all about CNS and which CNS spot was aquired first.

I personally not a hugo believer in shooting one in the chest in the hope that it'll either put them down and or turn them. 4 me and my hide I want one in the brain pan, just under the chin and or in the spine.

I've never had to face off with a griz did have a show down with a blackie that my client had wounded. He came at me from 9', one shot just under the chin as he was coming very fast did the job (25/06 and a 100 grn coreloct).

Lastly I'll end with these couple of things. First off I would only shoot as a last ditch my butt is about toast kind of situation.

And, a fella I know who trains grizz's for movies and such has timed one of his 600 lb capitive bruins (IE not as wired and in shape as a wild one). In a timed 50 yd event the griz came in with times of 2.9 seconds to 4.5 seconds....

Just some things to think about. Oh and one last thing, this is just my way but if I was carrying a BB gun (what I call a shotgun) it would have the bestest and toughest slugs and I'd leave the birdshot for the birds.

Dober

Thats right Mark, and if I remember correctly a griz can outrun a thoroughbred race horse in a short sprint......thas fast!

Ya but how fast can they run when they're slipping on the manure running down my leg as I hot foot it away?

I came face to face with about 9 grizzly bears this last fall in the NWT, with the closest being 20 feet. Luckily they all high tailed it the other direction. Hopefully I never have to drop a charging grizz, but if I do, I'll be aiming right between the eyes. If I miss, I'll still hit something important

You shoot a bear at 50 yards and tell the warden so, I think you won't be happy about what he tells you...

L

Be able to shoot from the hip and pray your not handicapped by a scope at that moment.

Having shot charging bears with 3x and 4x scopes and the last Kodiak bear I killed was at 24 yards with a 3.5-10x set at 6x... Scope handicaps are not something I sweat...

That 24 yard Kodiak was in tight alders, too... Did not feel the need to shoot from the hip, either...

Sitka deer, where would you aim at a charging bear? I have never had the experience.

In my personal experience of using ordinary 1oz slugs and buckshot in law enforcement and generally being unimpressed with their performance on barriers I would go with something else.

A couple that jump to mind are the partitions sabot slugs, the Brenneke KO or the Barnes slugs.

Federal/Barnes
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=600665

Brenneke KO
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=540197

Winchester Partition
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=150399

GreyHunter
Dead center of mass is all you can really hope for. You would be looking down on the bear's head and it will be coming straight on. When the neck breaks the show is over. The head is harder to hit because lead is hard to calculate on an incominng target. Missing the neck puts the bullet down into important stuff that will probably kill the bear eventually...

Do not mean to imply the Kodiak bear I shot at 24 yards was charging... It was anything but charging. It is the bear Rick Bin was backing me up on and Muley Stalker was taping.
art

Shot placement for a charging Griz should be as follows: Make a sweeping motion 10 degrees of either side of the charging bear until all fuel is spent. Then drop your flame thrower and run like hell!

Hemi

I'll just add that depending on the situation there may be no time to aim for a CNS shot when a bear emerges going full blast from thick cover 15yrds away. More like point, look over the scope and pull the trigger! At least thats how it was during a wounded black bear charge I experienced with a friend about 6yrs ago. And both of us missed any CNS areas, luckily the big bear turned after the second close-up shot but still had plenty pep to do the tasmanian devil gig in the nearby brush. If we would have been facing a tougher, meaner grizzly we would have been toast!

And yes, the bear's head was down as Art describes, a big, fast approaching chocolate blurr!

MtnHtr

I realize this is a really different charge but perhaps a story of interest;

Partner and I were on a long river trip and had stopped for the day after catching a few grayling for dinner....after dinner we poured a good McClelland's Islay and sat on the beach enjoying the evening......I saw something enter the water across the river [150 yards] and start swimming toward us.....binos revealed it to be a medium grizzly....I got the 12 ga and slugs and sat down for another sip.....when closer, we stood up and hollered at the bear to make ourselves obvious....he never wavered as he swam toward us....before he could touch bottom, I put a slug through his head at about 20 feet.....and partner and I lived happily ever after.