Handguns for Bear Defense

Comments · 2.2K

• KO

  @kodiakkeith · 3 years ago

  I was mauled twenty some years ago on Kodiak. After my recovery I wrote a book on Brown/Grizzly bear maulings, researching every attack where I could get details (A Kodiak Bear Mauling - Amazon) and in a hundred or so cases where I could get good accounts I learned some very important things.  All of this applies to browns and grizzlies, not black bears which when they do attack are very different (slow opening before attack).  Almost no brown/grizzly attacks begin with a threat display where you'll have time to ready a precise shot.  Nearly every actual attack begins when a bear senses your presence and for 'space' reasons moves downwind (they don't know we can't smell them) creeps within about 25 yards and then rushes you from the flank or rear. You will hear breaking brush and by the time you turn your head the bear is already on you. They are ambush predators on those fairly rare occasions when they actually want to attack a perceived threat.  The bear that puffs up and makes a threat display is almost never a danger unless you do something stupid. Just like the rattlesnake that rattles isn't the one that bites you, the bear that makes a display is also giving you fair warning.  As I said earlier, it's about space. Just lower your eyes (and yeah, keep a gun ready while doing this) and slowly back away.  The very fact that he is warning you should let you know that he doesn't want to fight. You will not see the brown/grizzly that attacks you. He has already decided to punish you and has circled around and comes in from close up at 25-30 miles per hour. The problem is that so many people have encountered these threat displays that a myth has been created that this is how bear attacks start.  I've been in that situation more times than I can remember (one brown bear per square mile on Kodiak), turn a corner along a trail and a bear jumps up, pops his teeth, pounds the ground with his paws. It's terrifying, and it is supposed to be.  Lower your eyes, speak softly (I could never help murmuring "nice bear, good bear") and back away.  If I had a piece of coal up my ass every time that happened I probably would have a small jar of diamonds now.  Don't prepare for the attack that never happens, the one where you have time to draw and put a 10mm in his brain.  You won't have that time.  I should also comment that the video thumbnail opening this vid is the precisely wrong place to shoot a bear.  A bear's brain is behind his nose and mouth.  When he comes at you his head will be low, his nose pointed straight at you.  That forehead on a brown/grizzly covers a big bone sagittal crest where the muscles for his neck and jaws attach. There's no brain behind that forehead.  All the brain is below the level of the eyes, so if you get a shot with a handgun that black nose centers the brain. Just remember that he is coming in at 25 mph or better and making that shot is pure luck.  Better to have a .45/70 or slug gun that will break bones and (if you're lucky) tumble the bear before he reaches you, and then be ready for additional killing shots.  I had a rifle in my hands stalking a blacktail when the one that got me came in from the side.  I did not have time to level that rifle before he was inside it and mowed me down.  That's how actual brown/grizzly attacks happen.

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• HE

  @Helm-w1q · 2 years ago

  Bears don't need handguns for self defence. They can fight with their bear hands.

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• 10

  @1001CP · 3 years ago

  Growing up in Alaska and being with the State Troopers as well as MANY encounters with bears and moose I can say we always carried 12ga shotguns with slugs, never pistols. While reading Kodiakkieths accounts- he is dead on. Most people have no idea where the bears brain is, how small a target it really is and how fast the attack happens. When we saw someone with a pistol we always advised them to save a bullet for themselves. A brown/grizz/kodiak bear is big, strong and fast. Its claws are made for ripping through your torso, tearing you into non moving pieces and then using its large size to come down on you crushing the wind out of you and smashing your spine. They like you immobile and barely alive so they can return at their leisure to begin eating you. A handgun is a last resort. It generally will not penetrate all the muscle/ fat/ bone these huge creatures have. I have had quite a few moose chase me- they are faster than us but do not turn well so keep going around trees and such and dont stop, dont fall or you are dead. With a bear you generally get this feeling, smell them and hear them- if you are lucky. Just a feeling brought guns up pointing at all quadrants they may be coming and moving quickly out of the area as a team. You are NOT going to scare these bears away like a black. They used to come down to the river, look at us so we got their idea then took our fish while we left. Growing up there gave you great respect for these dangerous animals. We are NOT the top predator or animal out there. I have seen them attack trains, tear up cars and airplanes, destroy cabins and camp sites and picked up the remains of people-what little was left of them. My old guy advice-no pistol- carry a 12ga with 3" slugs and still use the one thing God gave us, our brain, to see a situation developing and getting away. If not steady yourself and blast as accurate as possible at this fast moving, head bobbing, absolutely terrifying creature because its  come to a point where you HAVE to try to survive. How Kodiakkeith made it from a mauling means he had an angel on his shoulder and a fight for life. Stay safe out there.

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• RY

  @ryanreeves70 · 3 years ago

  I think if 3 Grizzlies want my Elk, they can have it...i'll head to town and order a Burger.

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• TI

  @timothyprice9064 · 3 years ago

  Most animals in the woods know where you are long before you know where they are.

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• JO

  @johnjackson2256 · 3 years ago

  Bears are where you find them, not where they say Bears will be.

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• WE

  @wesm3915 · 3 years ago

  Recently here in Montana a tagged grizzly  bear passed away from old age, when they did a necropsy they found six .357 rounds stuck in its skull. Precision is NOT always a guarantee for success,  power is what is needed first then it's accuracy.

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• SH

  @shirleylackey801 · 3 years ago

  Just grin and bear it !! 😁

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• MA

  @mafirearmsafety · 4 months ago (edited)

  In British Columbia around 1900 a man with a lever action rifle came around a bend in the trail and a huge Grizzly was coming from the other direction, it charged and he fired seven shots before it fell at his feet. After he skinned it the skull revealed six divots in the skull and one hole, his last shot evidently. All he saw for a target was that huge sloping head coming at him. It turned out to be the biggest grizzly on record at the time and held that record for decades. If that last shot had not penetrated we would not know the story, and somewhere in British Columbia would have been a grizzly with a massive headache….

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• DA

  @danielboone00777 · 3 years ago

  Best bear defense tutorial I've seen by far. I think people would be wise to adopt your strategy.

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• US

  @uscgalpha91 · 2 years ago

  I have been camping in the Cascades in WA state for 17 years. I always have my Glock 10mm and my Rem 870P with an 18 inch barrel with slugs. The most important thing is to observe and walk slowly .

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• RO

  @robertagusti3712 · 2 years ago

  This is the best report on handgun for bears ,very well done Sir.

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