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Side Arm for Grizzly Country
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<blockquote data-quote="Castloader" data-source="post: 1916991" data-attributes="member: 112020"><p>I talked to a Park ranger a few years back who worked in bear country. He said that he always kept a road flare in his pocket. When I acted surprised, he said that a road flare presents a lot of things to a bear that they don't like. It's bright, it hisses, it can't be easily extinguished, it burns at over 2,500 degrees, and it smells like hell. I'm sure that the context was bear nuisance, not bear attack as mentioned elsewhere, but I'm sure it would make a great addition to whatever else you are planning you do.</p><p></p><p>In my mind, the revolver you have is probably your best option for several reasons:</p><p></p><p>1) A .357 with proper ammo can produce the penetration necessary to definitively kill a bear. Even a grizzly. Myriads of people hope that more energy will make up for poor shot placement. Make no mistake, a clean shot is the only hope you have if the bear intends to eat you. (I'm not suggesting that this is easy, only that it is necessary) The best way to ensure that clean shot is practice and weapon familiarization. I'd wager that less than 1 in 100 shooters actually practice shooting moving targets, and this is the kind of practice you need for a bear attack.</p><p></p><p>2) If you have prior warning, and are on your guard, you are more apt to take better aim and hit a vital area with the first few shots, therefore negating the supposed advantage of the larger calibers(as well as the capacity of the semi-autos). What I mean is, a .357 crossing the cerebral cortex is just as effective as a .500 along the same terminal route, provided that your ammo selection is appropriate to penetrate that far, as mentioned above. As others have said, your follow-up shots will be faster with the .357. </p><p></p><p>3) If you have no prior warning, and are surprised by a sudden close encounter, the 15 round magazine of a semi-auto won't help you because only the first few rounds will get fired anyway. Large magazines were invented for combat and police shootouts, and their value in this context is pretty limited unless you get attacked by several bears at once. In that case, God is clearly planning to call you home, just embrace it. But I digress. If contact shots are necessary, the revolver also wins. I will take the route of trusting the gun I know and shoot regularly, over a new hot rod. In any case, I wouldn't take ANY gun into bear country that I hadn't put at least a couple hundred rounds through on my own. I've had new guns that failed in the first box of ammo, (1 revolver and 1 semi-auto, so far).</p><p></p><p>4) According to my ballistic calculator, a 10mm and a .357 are so similar in terms of velocity and energy for the same bullet weight that it's hard to produce a solid argument for one over the other, and you already own the .357.</p><p></p><p>All this is meant to say simply that you certainly don't NEED to get a bigger gun in bear country. If you WANT to get a bigger gun, well hey, have at it, just practice with it a bunch first.</p><p></p><p>As mentioned by several posters, overlapping defensive plans (Gun, Buddy, Spray, Flare) are more effective than any one single factor.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Castloader, post: 1916991, member: 112020"] I talked to a Park ranger a few years back who worked in bear country. He said that he always kept a road flare in his pocket. When I acted surprised, he said that a road flare presents a lot of things to a bear that they don't like. It's bright, it hisses, it can't be easily extinguished, it burns at over 2,500 degrees, and it smells like hell. I'm sure that the context was bear nuisance, not bear attack as mentioned elsewhere, but I'm sure it would make a great addition to whatever else you are planning you do. In my mind, the revolver you have is probably your best option for several reasons: 1) A .357 with proper ammo can produce the penetration necessary to definitively kill a bear. Even a grizzly. Myriads of people hope that more energy will make up for poor shot placement. Make no mistake, a clean shot is the only hope you have if the bear intends to eat you. (I'm not suggesting that this is easy, only that it is necessary) The best way to ensure that clean shot is practice and weapon familiarization. I'd wager that less than 1 in 100 shooters actually practice shooting moving targets, and this is the kind of practice you need for a bear attack. 2) If you have prior warning, and are on your guard, you are more apt to take better aim and hit a vital area with the first few shots, therefore negating the supposed advantage of the larger calibers(as well as the capacity of the semi-autos). What I mean is, a .357 crossing the cerebral cortex is just as effective as a .500 along the same terminal route, provided that your ammo selection is appropriate to penetrate that far, as mentioned above. As others have said, your follow-up shots will be faster with the .357. 3) If you have no prior warning, and are surprised by a sudden close encounter, the 15 round magazine of a semi-auto won't help you because only the first few rounds will get fired anyway. Large magazines were invented for combat and police shootouts, and their value in this context is pretty limited unless you get attacked by several bears at once. In that case, God is clearly planning to call you home, just embrace it. But I digress. If contact shots are necessary, the revolver also wins. I will take the route of trusting the gun I know and shoot regularly, over a new hot rod. In any case, I wouldn't take ANY gun into bear country that I hadn't put at least a couple hundred rounds through on my own. I've had new guns that failed in the first box of ammo, (1 revolver and 1 semi-auto, so far). 4) According to my ballistic calculator, a 10mm and a .357 are so similar in terms of velocity and energy for the same bullet weight that it's hard to produce a solid argument for one over the other, and you already own the .357. All this is meant to say simply that you certainly don't NEED to get a bigger gun in bear country. If you WANT to get a bigger gun, well hey, have at it, just practice with it a bunch first. As mentioned by several posters, overlapping defensive plans (Gun, Buddy, Spray, Flare) are more effective than any one single factor. [/QUOTE]
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