Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 22 cal CF and bears

"My friend Jack Holliday used the .22 Varminter on a nice mean grizzly up in British Columbia and came back all n one piece. Using the 41 grain Sisk bullet loaded to a velocity of 4,500 feet a second he broke the animals shoulder on the first shot and put the next one in the chest cavity for a KO. These two bullets certainly didn't blow up on the surface as many claimed they would. Jack O'Connor, who was on the trip, opened up the bear for a firsthand look at the results and found that the lungs were well scrambled."
From The American Rifleman dated January 1950, authored by Carroll Lemon, " A Hotshot .22 on Game."
I have read of P O Ackley's experiments with tiny fast bullets, but this article was something new to me. Apparently the light, fast VS big, slow bullet argument is not new.

A 22 might do, a 338 will do.

It only works in Montaina

Tell you what. You get into shooting range with a 22 and shoot a grizzly. I'll stand back (with a 338 Win. Mag) and watch. I'll report to all on the forum how you did.

I reread your post. It seems that the cumulative IQ of mankind has risen over the past 74 years. Perhaps the dimwits that lowered mankind's IQ have been eliminated by the bears.

If someone wants to pick up the tab I'll volunteer right now to go prove a grizz can be taken with a .22 hornet.

Never having faced a grizzly in the wild, I will guess that at that moment whatever gun you are holding in your hand won't seem big enough. A typical eastern black bear at 150-300 pounds would be a fair target for anything that'll handily kill a deer, including .22CF's shooting a properly constructed bullet for the task.

They do and have for many years.

In 1960 (at age 18), I was treed by a grizzly in a national park (I was a park employee). The previous week, there had been a terrible mauling of a ranger, the 12 year old son of another ranger and, a park visitor. That weekend, I went into town and bought a Ruger 44 Magnum (flat top Blackhawk) and started carrying it in an old WW2 backpack.

We'd run into grizzlies every few weeks or so, so I wasn't alarmed until it came toward me; I was hiking solo checking out a trail at the treeline.

Once treed for a few minutes (was it 2 minutes or 20? - I don't know, time goes fast when you are having fun), I shot the grizzly (probably a 400 pound female) 5 times from a distance of about 4-5 feet. She dropped from a standing position to the ground and I reloaded and fired another 5 times (probably not necessary). Now, if you want to use a 22 Hornet on a grizzly, go right ahead. I now carry a heavier handgun than a 44 magnum for back country hikes.

I'll be back in the same park in 2014 for a Smokejumper trail crew project and I won't be carrying a 44 Magnum. I learned my lesson 50 some years ago.

Where in the body were you shooting her? Ammunition used?

I'm curious, how many rounds had you fired through said 44 Mag before the bear incident?

You .22CF on big game guys really need to get with it and move down to .17 cal.

The Ruger Flat Top Blackhawk was very light (aluminum grip) and I was shooting Norma loads (they apparently exceeded SAAMI pressure specs due to differences between US and European testing procedures - Norma later reduced the loads). When I got the pistol, I got a half box of the Norma loads (apparently the original owner only fired about 20 shots before trading it in).

I also bought a 50 round box of Remington loads that I shot in the St. Mary's (MT) dump that Sunday. They were stiff, but tolerable. The Norma loads were not very much fun to shoot.

So, I fired 50 rounds of the Remington loads in the dump and then loaded the Norma rounds of for carrying in my backpack. Certainly, 50 rounds do not constitute a large number, but from 4-5 feet, acceptable accuracy is not had to achieve, even if holding onto a tree limb with one hand! Remember, carrying a firearm in a national park was a felony (at the time) and killing any animal (regardless of reason) was also a felony.

I know of two other grizzlies that were killed in the park in 1960; one by rangers and the other by a trailcrew with dynamite - the Park Service didn't want to remove the bears from where the guys were camping in tents. This latter event (dynamiting the bear) resulted in the crew chief not being rehired in 1961.

In 1961, I had another encounter with a grizzly while fishing in a backcountry lake. I avoided it by wading into chest deep water of a lake just below a glacier and waiting until the other trailcrew members arrived - God, it was cold!!

I went on to be a Smokejumper in Idaho to get away from bear incidents.

I'll refrain from getting into this time honored winter debate except to say, "...there is a distinct difference between what is possible and what one should do."

Well said...

If I could hunt grizz from an armored vehicle, I'd go .22 short

I shot one of those Aluminum Frame Flattop .44 Magnums once - it was the most uncomfortable handgun I have ever encountered.

Where's Dober?

+1.

not many people here go hunting specifically for bear with a .22 CF.

what usually happens is someone is deer hunting with a .22 CF and the bear presents itself, either as a threat or a target of opportunity.