Glaciers
Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
Well I’ve working on my first cup of coffee so I’m going to lay out a couple of opinions.
First off if it’s black bears, not brownies that’s certainly a consideration.
First off blacks are much smaller, but to me that is off set by the curiosity factor. Black bears can be clowns just not being threatened by anyone, until all of a sudden they are in a situation where they realize they’re feeling threatened by proximity of in this case a human. Now if you’re in the middle of the stream or river pretty open, but you have to get there stumbling through the woods.
Most problems are surprised encounters, Not comfortable for either party.
So when I was taking parties of customers to shore in coastal brown bear country I carried a substantial rifle in 45 caliber as in a Marlin 1895 45-70 or my 458x2, both were about 8 pounds and shorter carbine length rifles. But they always ended up it the skiff or leaning against a tree. I always carried a 4” S&W model 29 with 310 Sledgehammer slugs in a chest ridge. Out of the way and easy access. I graduated to a Ruger SRH 5” 480 with 410’s. Much more comforting.
Browns are big.
But my personal opinion is I don’t like shotguns. Period.
A 16” Rossi 44 with 250 to 310 grain flat points is good medicine for black bears, they aren’t hard to kill. But if you’re fishing it will probably be leaning against that tree I mentioned earlier. A friend and firearms instructor here in town used to carry a 357 Ruger Security Six loaded with 158 Remington soft flat points. It will penetrate the skull of a black bear. Actually it will penetrate a browns skull as well. You don’t want to shoot a bear unless you have no other choice. That means they are close. They are also very fast.
Around here I carry a 3 inch 357 with 180’s in my back pocket. I can shoot it well and it’s not in the way of going about my daily business.
Don’t get caught up in having a hand cannon with a 6 inch to 9 inch barrel as it’s unwieldily. And you don’t need hotly loaded fire breathing loads in a 44 or 45. Heavy is good, at moderate speeds, say 280 to 310 grains at 1000 fps will settle most anything on 4 paws.
Some folks recommend the 454 to me for my work on the islands, hard to control. I went with the 480 because it was controllable with 410’s and penetration was better than the 454 and hot 360’s. Some people can control a 454 quite well, I’m not one.
Keep the package down to 3 or 4 inch barrel with reasonable stout loads that you can handle.
Two friends had bad experiences with bears. One here in the interior of the state which is predominantly black bear country. Bob a now retired Gunsmith used to hunt black bears every year for food. He had a lot of kids and extended family and they ate bear, moose, caribou and fish. They ran a fish wheel for salmon. Bob would get his 3 bear bag limit and truth be known probably a couple more just to make sure that his bag limit was full.
Anyway Bob used a S&W 44 mag for his black bear harvesting. He was a believer in the 44. But he came into my shop one spring and we got talking bears and he said that he had a bad experience that spring. He had to run his Smith dry on a black bear that wouldn’t tip the scales over 300. The last shot was at bad breath distance and dropped at his feet. Point is you never know.
The other story is from a guide who I employed as a Captain of one of my Halibut charter boats. Mike guided for an outfit on Kodiak Island in the spring brown bears and guided for Moose down the Yukon in the fall. Mike worked for me for 9 years fishing. He was very good.
So he related a story of him and a friend deer hunting on Kodiak and in their camp Mike was in the camp out house or bushes in this case, and his friend was on the other side of the camp relaxing when a brownie came through grabbed the friend by the foot and started down the trail dragging Mike’s friend. Mike obviously heard the ruckus and grabbed his 375 and settled the bear and got his friend into town for medical treatment.
Anyway I’m getting long winded here so in summation I just think don’t over do the gun thing, just be reasonable in your choice of a firearm and that you are comfortable with.
As far as semi automatics go, 40 cal, 10mm would be better. I not a fan of semi automatics for woods guns. But I’m a Curmudgeonly wheel gun guy, so there you have my opinion. I need more coffee.
First off if it’s black bears, not brownies that’s certainly a consideration.
First off blacks are much smaller, but to me that is off set by the curiosity factor. Black bears can be clowns just not being threatened by anyone, until all of a sudden they are in a situation where they realize they’re feeling threatened by proximity of in this case a human. Now if you’re in the middle of the stream or river pretty open, but you have to get there stumbling through the woods.
Most problems are surprised encounters, Not comfortable for either party.
So when I was taking parties of customers to shore in coastal brown bear country I carried a substantial rifle in 45 caliber as in a Marlin 1895 45-70 or my 458x2, both were about 8 pounds and shorter carbine length rifles. But they always ended up it the skiff or leaning against a tree. I always carried a 4” S&W model 29 with 310 Sledgehammer slugs in a chest ridge. Out of the way and easy access. I graduated to a Ruger SRH 5” 480 with 410’s. Much more comforting.
Browns are big.
But my personal opinion is I don’t like shotguns. Period.
A 16” Rossi 44 with 250 to 310 grain flat points is good medicine for black bears, they aren’t hard to kill. But if you’re fishing it will probably be leaning against that tree I mentioned earlier. A friend and firearms instructor here in town used to carry a 357 Ruger Security Six loaded with 158 Remington soft flat points. It will penetrate the skull of a black bear. Actually it will penetrate a browns skull as well. You don’t want to shoot a bear unless you have no other choice. That means they are close. They are also very fast.
Around here I carry a 3 inch 357 with 180’s in my back pocket. I can shoot it well and it’s not in the way of going about my daily business.
Don’t get caught up in having a hand cannon with a 6 inch to 9 inch barrel as it’s unwieldily. And you don’t need hotly loaded fire breathing loads in a 44 or 45. Heavy is good, at moderate speeds, say 280 to 310 grains at 1000 fps will settle most anything on 4 paws.
Some folks recommend the 454 to me for my work on the islands, hard to control. I went with the 480 because it was controllable with 410’s and penetration was better than the 454 and hot 360’s. Some people can control a 454 quite well, I’m not one.
Keep the package down to 3 or 4 inch barrel with reasonable stout loads that you can handle.
Two friends had bad experiences with bears. One here in the interior of the state which is predominantly black bear country. Bob a now retired Gunsmith used to hunt black bears every year for food. He had a lot of kids and extended family and they ate bear, moose, caribou and fish. They ran a fish wheel for salmon. Bob would get his 3 bear bag limit and truth be known probably a couple more just to make sure that his bag limit was full.
Anyway Bob used a S&W 44 mag for his black bear harvesting. He was a believer in the 44. But he came into my shop one spring and we got talking bears and he said that he had a bad experience that spring. He had to run his Smith dry on a black bear that wouldn’t tip the scales over 300. The last shot was at bad breath distance and dropped at his feet. Point is you never know.
The other story is from a guide who I employed as a Captain of one of my Halibut charter boats. Mike guided for an outfit on Kodiak Island in the spring brown bears and guided for Moose down the Yukon in the fall. Mike worked for me for 9 years fishing. He was very good.
So he related a story of him and a friend deer hunting on Kodiak and in their camp Mike was in the camp out house or bushes in this case, and his friend was on the other side of the camp relaxing when a brownie came through grabbed the friend by the foot and started down the trail dragging Mike’s friend. Mike obviously heard the ruckus and grabbed his 375 and settled the bear and got his friend into town for medical treatment.
Anyway I’m getting long winded here so in summation I just think don’t over do the gun thing, just be reasonable in your choice of a firearm and that you are comfortable with.
As far as semi automatics go, 40 cal, 10mm would be better. I not a fan of semi automatics for woods guns. But I’m a Curmudgeonly wheel gun guy, so there you have my opinion. I need more coffee.
