Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Backpacker shoots, kills grizzly in Alaska park

He may be rethinking the side arm but I bet he was glad he had what he did as it worked. Sounds like he was armed for human encounters rather than animal.

Anyone want to trade their 44mag for my 45

?? Because...??

pm's full yet ?

My Alaska friends told me they recommend you file off the front blade sight of the 44 mag revolvers, make it easier to retrieve it after the grizzly gives it to you in the form of an enema.

Well, its a good thing it weren't a Black bear... Jesse and Al would be up there in a heartbeat....

Bears are people too, in little fur coats.

I was thinking about this very subject the other day. I shot my .45 into a 6x6 post from about 15' and it went clear through and left a ugly hole on the back side. My thinking is that unless you do some severe brain or spinal damage to a pissed off Bear it ain't going to stop no matter what you shoot it with. Could be I don't know what I'm talking about either. I do know that if you shoot them in the heart with a 165gr NP that they quit running real quick. Maybe I need a real long magazine for my Kimber. Ken

I have seen several bears run well over a hundred yards with a destroyed heart...

Take out the plumbing and leave the pump alone and they expire fast...

The bull moose that I killed in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness when he was attacking my wife (1960) had charged me twice before (on two other days).

Each time, I'd turned him with a shot fired just over his head as he came at me. I was shooting a .44 Magnum, but I suspect that a .22 Long Rifle would've been enough.

The .44 did the job on his third charge when I finally had to shoot to kill. Shots fired just over his head from the side failed to turn him. On the first two charges (at me), he was looking right into the muzzle flash. On his third charge (at Carol Anne), the muzzle flash was of course well off to his right, not close right into his face. The sound was the same, off to the side as well as right in his face. Apparently, the muzzle flash in his face is what turned him both times when he charged me.

Carol Anne wasn't packing � had no way to turn him.

Funny thing �
Ever have a fast action "freeze-frame" one instant in the middle of a movement? I still have a vivid mental image of pine needles floating away in a light breeze about ten yards beyond him, cut by my .44 bullet, the second time when he charged me. That image is strangely much stronger than the much closer, moving image of that big critter's ugly mug coming right at me. Funny what little insignificant things you notice in such moments of extreme stress and fast, fast, fast action.

I'll be forever glad that Earl wisely forbore shooting the big boar brownie that was standing over me after it had clobbered me (cf Smokelore, "A Brownie Got Me"). He'd been holding his .375 Alaska (Skinner) Magnum on that bear, ready to shoot if necessary, but he knew that even as that bear were dying from a heavy Barnes .375 bullet, it could fall onto me and shred me a bit with a death twitch or two.

This is similar to the Katmai park where the late great Timothy Treadwell made his infamous video "Grizzly Man" about grizzlies, before he got et by one. He did some incredibly stupid things with them under the assumption that they're just big pets.

I remember reading that.
And many others.
I'll say agian, always enjoyed your writing and the subject matter.
Thanks.

I have read of a .454 Casull stopping a Griz, but not a .45. If it was a 1911, with nine shots fired, that report would suggest at least an eight round mag + one in the chamber.

I met a hiker in King's Canyon NP, who had been roughed up the night before by a black bear. The four prominent scratches on the side of his face and neck, from the bear's claws, were a pretty good testament to his close call. I'll wager he packs nowadays, if he goes hiking.

The same trip (before I met the victim) I had one pawing my tent at 2:00am, even though I had my food in a bearproof container, a good distance from the tent. After I quit screaming like a girl, he walked away. The next day at mid-afternoon, a cinnamon colored smallish bear wandered through came, eyed me from 40-50 feet away, and kept going.

Outside the park, a few miles away, I stalked one who was rooting around. I finally decided it was too small to shoot, and lowered my rifle. It saw me and bolted like a racehorse to get away. They learn fast to not to fear people in parks, but to run like hell when they can be hunted.

Better to be wrong than be dessert. I'll take my chances with a jury thank you over a brown bear any day.

The down side of carrying �

Unless you carry constantly, long enough that you quit thinking about its being there when you don't need to use it (and long enough to remember it when you need it), carrying can exacerbate existing apprehension.

I remember one old-timer � experienced hunter, familiar and comfortable with rifles and shotguns, better than average marksman � who borrowed a sixgun for a long carriage trip one dark night in a lonely and unfamiliar area. He couldn't escape worrying that he might have to use it. Said that returning it to its owner had been a great relief.

He'd made a lot of such trips unarmed and cautious and alert but able to think about other matters. Carrying, he couldn't get carrying off his mind.

Having never had ANY experience with bears I will say this with deference to anyone who thinks otherwise. I would think that bears are totally without conscience. The jury is the way to go.

Alan

Nine from a .45 auto...I wonder if that emptied it, or did he save one for himself?

Beats Hell outta praying!

Speaking of .45 ACPs and bears....

When I lived in California, my wife and I owned a vacation cabin on the western slope of the southen Sierra, southern Tulare County, at about 6,000' altitude. It was in what had been an ancient homestead which had been turned into a "vacation spot" with lots, cabins, etc., at around the turn of the century.

There were about six families who lived there all year long and I became acquainted with an older man, retired, who lived there year round. Sometimes we talked about bears, etc., as there were a lot of Black bears up there in the Sequoia Nat'l. Forest, which surrounded the old homestead. It was not unusual for them to be around the cabins.

He told me that Black bears didn't bother him too much, but did not care for Grizzlies. He'd had to kill one once when he was working in Alaska, after WW II, around 1950. He was hired by a large logging company to cruise timber in remote forests.

He said one morning at his cabin where he and his wife lived, he went outside to get some firewood from his stack. As he walked toward the firewood, a Grizzly suddenly appeared from behind the stack and charged him. He pulled his Colt's Govt. Model .45 ACP and emptied it into the Grizzly, killing the bear at about his feet.

He showed me some old Kodak pictures his wife took of him and the Grizzly. He was kneeling beside the large bear, with the Govt. Model in his hand. The cordwood stack was nearby in the picture's background. I asked him, "Why did you use that .45??"

He kinda laughed and said, "'Cause that's all I had."

You do with as with what you have, seems to me.

Oh, BTW, this man had been a paratrooper with the 101st Div. (Abn.), and had jumped at Normandy, Holland, and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. So I guess you could say he had a bit of experience at dealing with stress while "under fire."

L.W.

Yes, just because......grin