Originally Posted By: KizmoTranslation: He missed, but it was caught on camera, so we had to come up with something.
You hit it on the head amigo! Gotta love the "spin" that media will put on anything...
Here's a bunch of scattered thoughts from a Flatlander that has done enough hunting, fishing, hiking, working around the country in "bear country" to have seen a few things that have changed my opinions about bear defense. I don't tend to believe everything I read in gun mags or on gun forums, so I take the time to ask the locals whenever I have a chance to go somewhere. I'm no expert on bear defense (and I may not be convinced there is such a thing), but killed a pair of bear, and I've spent about 15yrs in and out of different bear country, talking to local folks, hunters/fishermen, and guides (hunting and fishing both), and 20yrs burning powder in big bore handguns, DGR's, and "mid-bore rifles". I've also used these weapons on game a lot heavier than bear enough to know how they perform.
There's a lot of "theory" out there, but there surely aren't a lot of folks that have real experience defending themselves against attacking bears... There's also a lot of cynicism out there to criticize any given technique. "File down the front sight so it doesn't hurt when the bear shoves it up your hind end..." "Guides carry rifle so they can shoot the bear from a distance while it eats their customer..." "Buckshot only [beeep] them off..." "Use pepper spray, bears like a little seasoning with their meals..." None of it is well proven OR DISPROVEN, because it just doesn't happen on a daily basis.
We also see that a LOT of what gets spewed around the lower 48 about what happens in Alaska just isn't true... "bush pilots carry Ruger Alaskans in 454..." "Guides carry Marlin 1895's..." I've done a bit of Salmon fishing off of the coast up north, and spent a summer working in a fish cannery in Naknek, as well as a bit of time hiking in parts of the southern Range (still need to get up to the northern reach of the Tanana Valley). After those experiences, I pretty much threw everything that the gun mags told me about bear defense out the window. While part of me still hangs onto those 'legends,' I guess I'm more prone to believe 99% of all of it is over-hyped, and have become more accepting that there is more than one way to skin a cat.
I'll also say that in the time I have spent around the US in bear country, the ONLY locals I have ever seen that carried bear spray were eastern US folks in black bear country. Maybe that's due to local laws about handguns, maybe it's because black bears are so unlikely to attack, or maybe it's just a cultural thing. BUT, I think it says something that everybody I've seen out west or north carry guns. I've drank beer with local guys that made fun of "tourists" for hiking with "bug spray and sleigh bells" on their belts. The guys I fished with in Alaska also said that if you ever see a "snubby in a chest rig" (i.e. Alaskan in a "Guide's Choice"), you can be assured it's not a local - as they said most of them actually carried 4-6" barreled single action revolvers, or hauled a long gun.
So, if you're just picking and choosing what YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE IN, then there's only really a few things that you need to consider when it comes to your decision. The reality is that only a CNS hit is going to immobilize a bear.
1) Missing means nothing you just did matters. Time is precious, ammo is limited, and blowing a big hole in the dirt won't save your life (other than hoping that the muzzle blast discourages the bear).
2) Only a CNS hit will immobilize the bear "instantly". Vital hits will assuredly kill it, but you might be dead first. The profile of the CNS when a bear is charging you is a pretty [beeep] good shot, especially with one panicked hand. Whether we all agree that a grizzly on "kill mode" LSD can keep fighting after its heart is blown out its hind end or not, any hunter knows that vitals hits aren't instant killers. Even if it's 30 seconds for the bear to drop, that's much longer than it takes for them to rush and inflict a killing blow on a human.
3) Standing still is the best way to shoot accurately, but it's also the best way to get caught. My line manager at the cannery said the best advice he could give in the event of a charge was "don't stand there with your d*** in your hand". Having spent a lot of my life fighting bulls, I can vouch for the fact that while almost ANY animal with 4 legs can outrun a human with two legs, it's simple fact that a human can TURN our 2 legs faster than they can turn 4. My old bosses advice was to get the F out of the way by moving to the sides (much like bullfighting), then if it keeps engaging - very rare after an initial charge, supposedly, then you have the opportunity to place your shots where you want them with better presentation to the SIDE view CNS (see note 2). Grizzly's predominantly aren't hunters, whereas running from a wolf might incite a predatory drive, griz are more apt to be rushing you out of territorial infringement (not that they won't eat you afterwards, of course), so they're prone to advance until the "intrusion" is relaxed. At least that's what they told me, I've been fortunate to never have to test it out.
4) One problem with pepper spray is that it means at least one of your hands are on something OTHER than a lethal solution. One handed shooting is less accurate than two handed shooting, and drawing a less-lethal solution first means you DIDN'T draw your lethal solution. So it would never, in my opinion, make sense to carry both. You're only going to have time to use one. Maybe you can use your handgun to shoot a bear off of your partner when his pepper spray fails/misses? Also, it's not a unidirectional weapon. I HAVE used pepper spray (and been sprayed in training as well), and whether you're the sprayer or the sprayee, your day sucks, and most of the next week...
5) Access speed to your weapon needs to be proportionate to the proximity that an attack could come from. If you're out fishing on a sandbar in the middle of the day and can see for miles in any direction, you probably don't need to have your weapon at low ready. When we were riding atv's on trails through thicker brush in hilly terrain with visibility measured in tens of feet, my buddy kept his 35whelen across his lap.
6) If you're in Canada, especially as an American, your options are shotguns and rifles, no handguns. So if you would spend much time in BOTH US and Canada, it might make more sense to pick a long gun than a handgun so you're not reaching for your revolver when your carrying a rifle over your shoulder instead.
7) Finally, the real reality is that the likelihood of needing ANY type of defense is less-than-minimal. The rumor-mill would have you believe that you're more likely to have a grizzly encounter than not, and of course, the stories make it seem like bears only have one speed - full on charge. As much time as I spent LOOKING for bears in the open, it's been a rare and fortunate chance to actually see them (not including guided hunts, of course). Even at the cannery when it was at least one or two bears a week would stroll through, they're just not that prone to attacking/charging.
When I've been fishing up in AK, I carried either a Marlin 1895 45-70 (because I bought the gun magazine hype that EVERYONE in Alaska had one) or a Rem 870 12ga, always with a 44mag on my hip (as I can be found most days that I'm OC'ing). The fishing guides we went with said it was overkill to have both, but never said anything negative about any of those options.
The hunting guides I have worked with to hunt up there have suggested 7mm RM, 300wm, or 338wm rifles as "standard," but I have asked 4 of them whether they would recommend AGAINST that Marlin 1895GS 45-70. None said there was anything wrong with it, just that the range might be short (with a confident FIELD range of 300yrds, they all conceded that I'd be just fine).
I'm not necessarily convinced, after owning them, that super short heavy magnum revolvers like the Alaskan in 480 or 454 make sense for that purpose. Rightfully so, as I mentioned, the local AK'ers criticized 'tourists' for carrying them, because they can't shoot them well. You more often hear local guys say they cut a Ruger SRH down to 4-6", rather than 2.5", if you handle one, you can see why. They're not really inaccurate, but they're [beeep] hard to shoot accurately, especially quickly.
Enough of my rambling. If you pick a 44mag and you can shoot it well, you'll be just as safe as you can be, considering the circumstance that you're facing a large animal that can kill you instantly. If you pick a bolt action rifle and can mount it fast, you'll do just as well as anyone can in that situation. If you haul a 12ga shortbarrel scattergun and can get it off of your shoulder quickly, same deal, it's a crappy situation, so your odds are as good as any...
