Bear protection handguns?

We got close to hitting a moose one night, they definitely fill up a windshield.

How close? Close enough on the passenger side I could see he was as puckered as I was.
Back in 2002 coming out of south gate Yellowstone towards Cody about 8pm pitch black I saw a mama griz run across road about 70 yds. From me. I hit brakes and slowed down and the two cubs ran across me at about 25 yds. Ok. Close call. 2009sane scenario same time pitch black different truck thank God with 4 wheel disc brakes two buffalo can from right to left in front of me at about 70 yds. I hit bakes and they crossed in front of my truck at about 5 yds. I went to Wapiti Inn for dinner and watriss said her husband worked for park and hit a buffalo and they tried to fire home. What bs.
 
View attachment 283486View attachment 283489View attachment 283490
Few nights ago coming back from fishing. Hit a yearling doe whitetail. It exploded. I couldn't see out of windshield from the blood . Turned on washer/wipers. Im glad it wasn't an adult let alone a moose. I'd be dead. I saw a picture of a cow moose that went through drivers side window of a mini van and all the way through and hanging out the back of van. I'm sure the driver died. Google moose/vehicle accidents. It's gruesome .
Off the bear handgun topic, but following up on the moose topic!

Glad you weren't hurt! I hit a moose in the "caboose" with my future wife's '88 Honda Accord!

It was a 1989 February night, driving south through Bondurant Canyon and snowing pretty good as we were headed to Kemmerer. It was Sunday night and we both had to work the next day. I was making good time through a couple of inches of fresh powder....when "it" happened! Two moose came out of the timber to my right, crossed the snow plow drift along the roadside, and started across diagonally in front of us. It would be impossible to stop, so I tried to force the Honda between the moose's stern and the packed snow berm. I clipped the berm with the bumper, spun the Honda to the right....whereupon I struck the 2nd moose squarely in the hams with the driver's side window and windshield pillar! At the moment of impact, my glasses came off, the windshield pillar post was relocated to the right about 10 inches, the driver's door glass exploded inward ruining a new wester shirt, and the moose left a sizable deposit in my lap!

I don't think that I even knocked the moose off of it's feet! This much I can attest to.....the remaining 100+ miles to Kemmerer, while pretty much sitting on the console trying to see out of a shattered windshield was a darn cold drive! memtb
 
Off the bear handgun topic, but following up on the moose topic!

Glad you weren't hurt! I hit a moose in the "caboose" with my future wife's '88 Honda Accord!

It was a 1989 February night, driving south through Bondurant Canyon and snowing pretty good as we were headed to Kemmerer. It was Sunday night and we both had to work the next day. I was making good time through a couple of inches of fresh powder....when "it" happened! Two moose came out of the timber to my right, crossed the snow plow drift along the roadside, and started across diagonally in front of us. It would be impossible to stop, so I tried to force the Honda between the moose's stern and the packed snow berm. I clipped the berm with the bumper, spun the Honda to the right....whereupon I struck the 2nd moose squarely in the hams with the driver's side window and windshield pillar! At the moment of impact, my glasses came off, the windshield pillar post was relocated to the right about 10 inches, the driver's door glass exploded inward ruining a new wester shirt, and the moose left a sizable deposit in my lap!

I don't think that I even knocked the moose off of it's feet! This much I can attest to.....the remaining 100+ miles to Kemmerer, while pretty much sitting on the console trying to see out of a shattered windshield was a darn cold drive! memtb
Holy Cr$p !!! I'm glad you didn't hit the moose head on.. you'd of had a engine in your lap. In Nov. 2002 coming out of Yellowstone the last Sun. before it closed, I had a herd of buffalo coming around a turn on the climb out to the east gate. No railings then. I had just driven 120 mi. From south gate thru park on Two rack road in the snow. Around turn towards me come a heard of buffalo . I was in center of road in the snow .they were going down both sides of me. I pulled my mirrows in. They were bumping both sides of truck. Girlfriend was touching them. Told her to quit ! I don't want a horn in side of truck ! I was afraid of being pushed of road way down into river. Dead. After that on road we passed a wolf going other way. Out of park about 10 mi. (In dark) a sow grizz with 2 cubs ran across the road. Almost hit cubs. The very next year almost same spot where bears crossed , in the dark, two buffalo came up on hwy about 75 yds from me. Thank God I had new truck with/4 wheel disc.. when I stopped the buffalo in the rear was 5 yds. Crossing in front of my truck. Change my shorts time
 
65yr old lady killed in Montana by a grizzly bear 2 nights ago. She was a registered nurse, tent camping with another couple. She alone in her own tent. The couple she was camping with in their separate tent. Bear came in once earlier that night and the 3 of them they scared it off. They removed their food items from their tents and go back to bed. The bear comes back again. This time bear drags the woman from her tent and kills her. Her camping friends sprayed bear spray and the bear left.

Yikes, talk about fair warning! Sad ending. I suspect she knew very little about bears and bear behavior. She was from California on a bycicling sort of a vacation in Montana.
 
Last edited:
65yr old lady killed in Montana by a grizzly bear 2 nights ago. She was a registered nurse, tent camping with another couple. She alone in her own tent. The couple she was camping with in their separate tent. Bear came in once earlier that night and the 3 of them they scared it off. They removed their food items from their tents abd go back to bed. The bear comes back again. This time bear drags the woman from her tent and kills her. Her camping friends sprayed bear spray and the bear left.

Yikes, talk about fair warning! Sad ending. I suspect she knew very little about bears and bear behavior. She was from California on a bycicling sort of a vacation in Montana.
Terrible way to die. Makes me think of what cave men indians , mountain men, etc.had to deal with. I wonder if the ever hunted bears or bears just hunted them . Just think, if they did hunt then may have instilled a little fear of human
 
Terrible way to die. Makes me think of what cave men indians , mountain men, etc.had to deal with. I wonder if the ever hunted bears or bears just hunted them . Just think, if they did hunt then may have instilled a little fear of human
Just men dealing with issues like men. A shame we don't see much of it any more. Still happens but isn't newsworthy, lots of mass shootings stopped etc.

An image I grew up on, a man standing in the middle of the street in front of his neighbors, law enforcement, and children to protect the community.


I wonder what the collective campground reaction would have been to me ending that tent raiders penchant for early morning picnic baskets, with an old school -06, and some 220 grain Noslers, during it's first raid.
 
I know you want a new pistol...I fully support that! But you won't need it hunting deer in Arkansas. There are only few thousand black bears in the state and you probably won't trip over one. I would be more concerned about running into a meth lab or weed operation so getcha a fightin' pistol!
There's a lot more than a few thousand partner.
 
Black bears mostly avoid humans. Campsites with food are different. I always have a firearm for protection in camp, but when hiking I carry bear spray. You can sweep an area vs. rely on a single shot. I keep food locked in vehicles to minimize the possibility, but they still smell it and occasionally hang around, but I believe the strong human scent does act as a deterrent. I never have food in a tent I will sleep in. On winter hunts, we have had a cook tent, but the risk is much less due to hibernation. But if they were to visit to cook tent, I am sleeping 50 feet away or more.

During archery I carry a pistol as well, mostly in case I find a crazy 2 legged threat. I still have the bear spray. Rifle season I dont normally carry a sidearm, but still have the bear spray.

I can honestly say in the years of hunting and camping I have seen maybe a dozen bears. All but one were passing by or running away. The one that wasn't spooked as soon as we saw it and approached it. I had a bear tag and my dad and I were at camp, dad said "oh sh!t a bear, get your rifle". By the time I grabbed it and went to the backside of the camper it was running away. It came in and dad said it was smelling behind the camper. He went around back to secure some gear for an incoming snowstorm and the bear was back there. As soon as it saw him it started to run away.

Cats actually make me more nervous than black bears because they will follow without you seeing them. Bear attacks on people in Colorado are very rare. I can't speak to other states where people deal with more aggressive species.
 
Last edited:
Two guys I work with got attacked by a grizzly. They both carried 44 mags. Neither thought or had time to take them out of the holster. One used bear spray while the bear had the others' head in it's mouth. Bear turned on him and used bear spray again from a few inches away while bear was chewing on his leg. Bear left after that.
 
Two guys I work with got attacked by a grizzly. They both carried 44 mags. Neither thought or had time to take them out of the holster. One used bear spray while the bear had the others' head in it's mouth. Bear turned on him and used bear spray again from a few inches away while bear was chewing on his leg. Bear left after that.
If there's time time grab bear spray there should of been time to pull pistol . So the guy that had his head in bear's mouth got sprayed also. If a bear was chewing on my leg I would surely give him some lead to the head. When and where did this happen ? Did he survive ?
 
There's a lot more than a few thousand partner.
"Although black bears are difficult to count in forested habitats, the black bear population in Arkansas is currently estimated at over 3,000 animals. Black bears are prized game animals. About 200 are legally harvested annually in Arkansas. Besides using the fur, bear meat is considered highly palatable by many wild-game fanciers. Black bear hunting license and harvest information can be found at www.agfc.com or contact your local..."

3,000 is a few thousand.
 
I guided bear hunts there . My zone had a 200 bear quota . Usually filled that quota in a few days. first year I had 11 hunters kill 9 bears on opening day. I have thousands of videos and pictures of bears. One bait station I ran had 13 bears coming in . we had so many bears eating out of our stations we bought a 40 yard dumpster of rejected Tyson chicken products the second year we guided. We bought pallets upon pallets of damaged little debbie products.thousands of pounds of corn, dog food and sunflower seeds and out of date bread. Hauled hundreds of gallons of used cooking oil. My personal spot was where the fish and game relocated trouble bears. i fished and hunted with the game warden in my area. Although some say the population is around your numbers, the fish and game estimated roughly 20,000 plus bears in Arkansas. but you probably know more about Arkansas black bears than me. You can check out my YouTube page. It's bearhunterark. I have a few videos there.
 
Top