.410 side arm for bear

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Chuckchapman1

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Planning on a Montana Wyoming elk hunt and wondering what would be a good self defense side arm for bear. Planning on carrying bear spray it thinking a side arm might not be a bad idea for a quick option. Is a .410 revolver sufficient or is it just gonna make things worse. Gonna be on a rifle season hunt so I will be carrying a.300 Win Mag bolt action rifle.
 
Personally I would just carry the bear spray and mount it somewhere where it's easily accessible for quick draw...ie don't put it in your pack.
 
After this latest story I would probably leave my rifle in my pack most of the time and think about leaving the .410 Judge at home and instead carry a 12 gauge loaded with alternating slugs and buck shot when in the thick stuff. I'm just not a pistol guy but have done enough bird hunting that I would feel very comfortable carrying a shotgun to defend myself, especially if the rest of my crew only had pistols.
 
.300 win mag in your hand is going to be more deployable than a pistol on your belt unless you are Bob Munden. Neither one will STOP a bear but both will kill one. Make sure your scope is on the lowest power.

I'd practice Fogging the bear spray and have the rifle ready if the bear keeps coming through. If the bear has ahold of you you are gonna drop the rifle or the pistol probably anyway.

This comes from Hunting Western Wyoming Since 2006 in GB country. 5 bear encounters in our group in that time no shots fired...
 
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I've said once and I'll say it again...the average person isn't likely proficient enough with a pistol for it to be a good option.

Buy an inert practice canister to familiarize yourself with how bear spray works.
 
The data is solid on this issue, reflecting superior effectiveness and efficiency in deployment of bear spray. I have hunted Montana all my life and now only bowhunt where the risk of grizzly encounter is much lower, and when I do I carry only bear spray. My wife and I completed a forty-mile, four day backpack in Yellowstone Park last week. In August we completed two long day hikes in areas of YNP known for bears. We carry a canister on the belt for quick deployment and one in the pack for backup, as a close encounter for me likely will involve deploying an entire canister of bear spray. We saw lots of scat and tracks, but no bears. Our primary mitigation is through noise, as we argue, sing, joke, debate, reminisce, and generally make enough noise to repel any respectable griz from the neighborhood. But that's not an option when hunting.

I understand and appreciate the desire to pack a large firearm, but I think it may create more of a risk than anything. To unsnap it the holster, draw the firearm, and fire accurately under duress is not easy for most. To fire at a bear mauling your partner is highly risky for your partner.

The real importance of the bear spray, as evidenced in what we know so far of the recent Jackson Hole story, is for a secondary person to be able to mitigate the attack on another person in the party being mauled. During a sudden attack it is seldom that the immediate victim can deploy the bear spray ... it is up to a partner to stop the attack by spraying the bear until it retreats. Yeah, everyone gets a respiratory attack, burns, hacks, coughs, and wheezes for awhile ... but it's better than the bear completing the attack. Anyhow, that's my take on it after lifelong hunting, hiking, and backpacking in Montana and considering the best safe and known practices.
 
If a 410 slug is (generally) considered to be insufficient for hunting deer, how on earth would it make a suitable bear protection round?

If you're carrying a 300 WM, you have all the protection you need.
 
.300 win mag first, bear spray next, and shoot yourself in the head with the .410 if those fail. When I hunt heavily griz populated areas I carry 2 cans of bear spray on my belt and a 10 mm. My thought has always been I will spray it first, then get chewed on, then pull the pistol and empty the mag point blank.. at least that’s how it goes down in my imagination. Luckily the bears I have encountered went the other way.

I have always wondered if you shot a bear right in the snout or mouth with just about anything if it would stop an attack.
 
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I realize that the .410 wouldn’t be enough for an instant fatal shot and yes bear spray would be used as first line of defense just thought a fog of bear spray and a face full off buck shot would be enough. I never hope to use either and have great respect for the awesomeness of the bear but in the end only the strong survive. Thanks for all the great advice everything will be taken into thought and or practice.
 
Chuckchapman1 said:
Planning on a Montana Wyoming elk hunt and wondering what would be a good self defense side arm for bear. Planning on carrying bear spray it thinking a side arm might not be a bad idea for a quick option. Is a .410 revolver sufficient or is it just gonna make things worse. Gonna be on a rifle season hunt so I will be carrying a.300 Win Mag bolt action rifle.
Click to expand...
Why not plan a hunt in a Griz free area?
 
Chuckchapman1 said:
Is a .410 revolver sufficient
Click to expand...

No. You'd be better off with the rifle you are already carrying, and a couple cans of bear spray.

Putting aside all the research that tells us people are extremely poor at effectively deploying a firearm during a bear attack, if you're going to bother carrying a defense weapon it better be capable of actually stopping a bear. Otherwise, what's the point? Might as well carry a BB gun.
 
Mthuntr said:
I've said once and I'll say it again...the average person isn't likely proficient enough with a pistol for it to be a good option.

Buy an inert practice canister to familiarize yourself with how bear spray works.
Click to expand...


During a conversation with some hunting friends some time ago when we were discussing handguns vs. bear spray for protection, one of the guys said a good way to see if you were good enough with a handgun to hit a bear charging you was to do this:

Find an old basketball and go to a steep hill with your handgun. Have your handgun in a holster (or however you plan to carry it in bear country) and then throw the basketball up the hill as far as you can. When the ball is coming down the hill shoot at it. See how many times you can hit the ball.

If you can't hit the ball with most, or all, of the rounds you shoot, then you most likely will not be able to stop a charging bear. I don't know of anyone that has actually done this but, it would be interesting to see how many folks could hit the ball consistently.

ClearCreek
 
Good suggestion, ClearCreek. If you don't throw the ball far enough the scenario may play out as it did for a friend bowhunting. Hiking on a brushy trail, his partner behind hollered, "Bear!" Before he could even unsnap his shoulder holster, let alone draw his hogleg, the griz had bluff attacked and gone right by him. The point is that the person facing a sudden attack will likely not even be able to unsnap a pistol holster or even a bear spray canister holster, so the person following is key in repelling a bear attack.

For most of us, the steep hill rolling ball exercise would probably be an adequate illustration of our ineptitude ... but add to that the stress factor facing a huge, snarling, fast approaching large grizzly and it's daunting.
 
ClearCreek said:
During a conversation with some hunting friends some time ago when we were discussing handguns vs. bear spray for protection, one of the guys said a good way to see if you were good enough with a handgun to hit a bear charging you was to do this:

Find an old basketball and go to a steep hill with your handgun. Have your handgun in a holster (or however you plan to carry it in bear country) and then throw the basketball up the hill as far as you can. When the ball is coming down the hill shoot at it. See how many times you can hit the ball.

If you can't hit the ball with most, or all, of the rounds you shoot, then you most likely will not be able to stop a charging bear. I don't know of anyone that has actually done this but, it would be interesting to see how many folks could hit the ball consistently.

ClearCreek
Click to expand...

Interesting idea. i might try that.

To the point, I wouldn't mess with a .410 pistol. Don't think the ballistics would work effectively and the .410 pistol i have is fairly heavy. I shot a coyote last year with mine at less than 25 yards and had to shoot all 5 shots to kill it. Marksmanship problem? Maybe, but I can't imagine marksmanship wouldn't be a problem with a bear charge.
 
Also should be mentioned that in a number of fatal bear encounters the victim was actually killed by his buddy trying to shoot the bear and having the round pass through the bear. If someone it's far safer to use bear spray than to shoot into the melee.

Seems like lots of dudes just feel cool carrying hand guns, but that's an extra 3lbs I don't need when I'm elk hunting.
 
I agree that with practice and immediate availability pepper spray is probably your best bet - but I am intrigued with some comments in the last year about using marine flairs. If it works as suggested, you have the bright fire, smoke and noise as a deterrent at medium distance and essentially a blow torch for close contact. But at this point it seems untested - any experience/thought about this from others?
 
I think the flare idea is as stupid as they come.
 
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