Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Grizzly Defense With A Handgun: Doable?

"And I had [bleep] my pants so much that I was squishin' when I ran to the tree that my rifle was leaning up against...I plumb forgot about the hogleg on my hip"!

jaysus....now we go from Outdoor Life to freaking Soldier of Fortune.

uh, these are bears, not Taliban, Spetznaz or Narcos.

Oh, and just BTW, in CQB speak, in terms of weight for lethality, one more mag for an M-16 is a far better weight investment than any handgun.

John, friend, I think you're out of you element here...really!

Quoted by John Burns...



Dude, were talking about elk hunting here, not battle.



Now I'm really laughing!! LOL!!!

I don't want a handgun in a bear fight.
I want a rifle! period! Just a rifle!.
A hundgun will just get in the way.

Do you see guys packing handguns in Africa to back themselves up? (if it was legal?)



To bad they weren't carrying a rifle.
And if they were not carrying a rifle at least they could of had the common sense to have the proper holster otherwise why were they carrying in the first place? Dumb!

You "Dudes" struck with paranoia who want to carry the extra weight while hunting with a rifle have at it. I'll be laughing at you. In the mean time, I'll stoke the 300 WSM with a 220 NP at 2,700 mv.

LOL...not that is funny!

Nobody ever said it was. The question was about self defense and whether or not to carry a handgun in that context.

Many here feel that carrying both is stupid or silly yet the overwhelming consensus of armed professionals is that a smart guy always carries a handgun if there is a possibility of conflict. He may also pack a rifle if the possibility gets greater but no respectable trainer advocates leaving the handgun home because it is too hard to carry.

If you think a bear attack is not going to be at close quarters or that it will not be a battle then you are mistaken. Guys who have been in lots of Close Quarters Battle pack handguns, every one of them.



Yet contrary to your uninformed opinion the handgun is a universal tool carried and recommended by essentially every single real world shooter. Strange, I wonder why they didn�t get the memo.


Yes I have seen it and know of it happening.

Ted Nugent killed a previously wounded cape buffalo with a 10MM Glock on video.

My friend and mentor Ross Seyfried killed a cape buffalo in full charge with his old original Linebaugh 45 Colt. That revolver killed an absolute truck load of previously rifle wounded game while Ross was a PH in Africa. It was always on his hip and he could shoot it with precision.

These days it would be almost impossible to legally carry a handgun but I thought it was pretty common knowledge that in the past these types of things were done.

Larry Kelly and JD Jones have also written extensively about dealing with dangerous critters with handguns. I don�t personally know either.

Look I understand some guys are looking for an excuse to lighten the load but at least be honest and admit you are placing your comfort ahead of security and not that those who are prudent are somehow stupid, silly, or paranoid.


Really??

John, elk hunting is not a CQB with azzholes shooting at you.

the task of the special operations soldier setting out to deliberately find, engage, and kill armed enemy soldiers, intelligent armed humans, and that of the elk hunter who may possibly, but very unlikely, have an encounter with a hostile bear, are so different that it is kind of ridiculous to try to incorporate the tools and tactics of the one into the other.

Just sayin'

BTW, nice bear....what's the snipery looking smokepole?

i suppose if i were to expect a bear ecnounter while i was driving a humvee or sweeping a neighborhood, i'd probably pack a handgun...

in the boonies, it's the rifle. the trick is this: keep it with you.

I am eminently qualified to comment on this thread. I once pointed a rifle at a bear. I lowered the rifle when I realized he was as tall as my knee

I think I'd vote for taking the revo, for the simple reason that if you are jumped by surprise by a bear (or lion, or woof) and are actually getting attacked, you can bring a revo into play with one hand. That's not necessarily possible with a rifle.

If I see the bear start to come my way from a 100 yards out, then hell yes take the rifle instead. But can you choose when you are going to get attacked? No. In that regard it's additional insurance. Insurance costs money in civilization, and weight on a hunt. Sucks if you need it, and don't have it.

Does that include Phil Shoemaker?
Does he pack a handgun while rifle hunting Brown Bear? (lets ask him)


Nobody thinks that, but I'd still rather have my rifle in my hands than a handgun.

Question, if you have a bear in the bush would you, John, rather take your handgun in after him or your rifle?

If you were hunting griz with a handgun would you rather your guide back you up with a handgun or a rifle?


My son, a Marine, was in plenty of battle in CQB while in AFS. He and his fellow enlisted Marines never packed a handgun.
NOT one of them.


I would rate that as a stunt, not the norm and certainly not the norm for most hunters.



And every hunter who packs a handgun along with the rifle is of "Ross Seyfried" ability? What percentage of hunter could handle accurately the recoil of a Linebaugh?



Nobody here is saying it can't be done with a handgun. Let's keep the main thing the main thing here.
We're talking about packing a rifle and a handgun. Not just a HAND-RIFLE.

And since you're citing examples of men who kill with handguns why didn't you kill that Griz with one? Not your element?
Show us a pic of a griz you killed with a handgun. Then I'll yeah! he is.

I always carried a 5" model 29 when hunting simply because you NEVER know, and chances are the bear will be on you before you know it is there!

Maybe paranoid but you are NOT the top of the food chain in bear country!

Never needed it but still don't regret ever having it.

So are you better off with rifle in hand or handgun in holster?

For what it's worth, I seem to remember Phil Shoemaker saying that he sometimes carries a .22 revolver on his belt when he's out in the alders.

Well I never have killed a grizzly with a handgun. I have knocked over a few critters with a revolver and I am not worried that a handgun will be ineffective on a bear.




Here is a video that a buddy of mine made while bowhunting in Alaska. Pretty hard to have a rifle in your hands while paddling a raft and momma grizzly comes callin.

LOL...Yeah! he is!

Nice pics!

Raft, horseback, in camp, yes, handgun.

Out hunting with a rifle in hand. No.

seen footage of a griz attack on a raft repelled with a shotgun recently, so it aint that hard.

you'd think having two friends roughed up by bears while packing handguns should be a clue.

if you are the kind of guy that leaves your rifle 'leaning on trees' or such, you are probably the kind of guy that puts too many clothes over the handgun.

Awesome looking grizzly, John.

nice moose, too.

from another thread here, maybe the pistol packers should add this accessory...you can never be too careful, or too well armed: http://laserlyte.com/Pistol_Bayonet/PB-1/PB-1.html

but, seriously, if we really were really in a war with grizzly bears, we'd be wearing night vision goggles and carrying hand grenades, too, not just carrying hand guns. Hell, let's go belt-fed and make sure of this deal.

this boils down to a "do what winds your clock" and it's probably best to leave at the personal choice level, since nobody is going to convince anybody else.

John looks like he doesn't need to bother with the rifle anyways.

I can recall plenty of times while hunting where my rifle was leaning against a tree, or what have you.

PS The only times I've carried a sidearm while hunting have been while boar hunting, and I had a rifle each time too (which is what I shot my boar with). One time the handgun was a holstered S&W M57 (loaded with Federal CastCore) and the other time it was a holstered S&W M329 (loaded with jacketed soft points). Never had need of the sidearms, but like T Lee said, I didn't regret having them with me.

PPS I can remember another time, but that was whitetail deer hunting, and the handgun (a Kahr P9) was only carried out of habit, not with the intention of defending against critters, though I guess it would have been better than nothing if my rifle wasn't handy, and there were plenty of black bear in the area.