Handguns in Defense Against Bears by Caliber - 10mm, .41 magnum, and .45 Super (12 cases)

Many readers are interested in how various handgun calibers have performed in defense against bears. This is a complicated subject. Sometimes, any caliber will do. Sometimes a level of power may be required. Sometimes, a level of accuracy or speed may be required. Many permutations exist.  The most important aspect, if a confrontation occurs, is to have a firearm available, easily and quickly accessible. The specific caliber is less important. These updates include all the incidents we have been able to document to the date of the update, after several years of intense searches. We have always asked for examples of failures. Only four failures have been documented. Link to three failures. Link to fourth failure. We appreciate readers who help us document cases.

Here are all the cases which have been documented where 10mm, .41 Magnum, .45 Super caliber handguns were fired in defense against bears. This grouping includes the three calibers to provide enough incidents to be illuminating.  These cases do not include incidents where handguns were use with other lethal means, or a mix of handgun calibers were used. There are 7 incidents with a 10mm caliber handgun (1 black bear, 6 brown), 4 incidents with .41 Magnum  revolvers (1 black, 3 brown), and 1 incident with a .45 super handgun (brown bear). All were successful. The incidents are listed by caliber, chronologically within caliber.

We have found seven cases where a 10 mm pistol was used to defend against bears. 1 black, 6 brown bears, All were successful. 

August 18, 2002, Western Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska, 10mm grizzly bear. Personal interview with Jack Jefferson in 2021. Included in AmmoLand article on 10mm.

He attempted to haze the bear away from the lodge, and fired six shots near the bear, which indifferently moved a little way away. It came back quickly and tore up a bunch of empty coolers.  

Jake looked for another firearm, but did not find any close to hand.  

Jake heard “hey bear” from the other side of the lodge.
As he came around the corner, the grizzly was quartering toward him at 10-15 yards. He only had two shots left. He fired one into the back pair of ribs, which later showed to have missed the chest cavity, and traveled through the abdominal cavity to the hide on the other side.  

The bear immediately ran off. It was nearly 11 p.m. with a fair amount of light, but getting darker. Jake decided to wait for morning to track the bear.   

Next morning, Jake found a very sick bear on top of a beaver food pile, in the lake, with only its head above water.
Jake used a rifle to finish off the bear. The boar squared at 7 1/2 feet.  

Jake had a tag for the bear. It was listed as a hunting kill, not a defense of life and property.

May 16, 2016, 10mm  Black Mountain in Wyoming East Fork WHMA Grizzly. Included in an AmmoLand article. FOIA page 426.

On May 16, 2016, a man was looking for shed antlers on Black Mountain in the Wyoming East Fork Wildlife Habitat Management Area. A sow grizzly with two cubs of the year charged him. He fired several warning shots at the sows feet, but the bear kept coming. He shot seven or eight times, and emptied his pistol, as the bear rolled past him and hit a tree. He left the area. The grizzly bear was never found. Rain had washed away the evidence. No blood or hair was found.

July 29 2016, Alaska: Kim Woodman Kills Charging Grizzly with 10 mm

On 29 July, 2016, about 4 p.m. Kim Woodman was attacked by a sow brown bear at Humpy Creek.

Kim had a Glock model 20 10 mm pistol with him. He was able to stop the attack by shooting the bear as it charged at him. While backing away from the charging bear, Kim tripped and fell backward. He instinctively attempted to fend off the bear with his foot, while he concentrated on firing the shots that saved his life. The last shot was just short of contact. It probably hit the bear in the chest, but also took off the tip of one of Kim’s toes.

July 25, 2018, New Mexico: Man stops New Mexico bear attack with 10mm Glock 20

Bridger Petrini is attacked by a near 400 lb cinnamon black bear. He kills the bear with his Glock 20 10mm during an extended fight. I interviewed Bridger. The case is detailed at the link.

September 18, 2018 Alaska, 10mm Grizzly Bear Pictures Defense on Archery Moose Hunt, Anthony Reyna Relates story, “Jimmy” is the shooter.

At this point we haven’t spotted the moose yet but has seen the crows kick up, and less then a second after that you hear the roar, from our 12 o clock, and boom freaking 7 1/2 foot brown bear yards 10 yds away and full charge, my buddy Jimmy who was leading yells ever so calmly “Oh fuck bear” draws his Glock 20 and without hesitation drives two bullets into the charging bore at roughly 10 feet from him. One to the head, one to the chest “Perfect.” At this point, and it being so fast it’s hard to comprehend what had just happened.

Immediately afterward I call fish and game, and report that we had to drop a brownie by self defense and nobody is injured, while on the phone my friend Ron had located my moose. Completely buried, ear ripped off, stomach and genitals ripped open. But from what we could tell all meat looked salvageable.

September 23, 2021, Island Park Idaho, Grizzly Bear 10 mm from AmmoLand article on 10mm defenses

Then, on 23 September, a sow grizzly, reportedly with cubs in the area, was shot and killed when it attacked archery hunters near Island Park. The hunters deployed both bear spray and a pistol. The incident is still under investigation, but it appears the bear was shot at very close range. It is elk archery season in Idaho. A source inside the investigation informed this correspondent the pistol was a 10mm.  From idaho.gov:

On Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, Idaho Fish and Game received a report of a sow grizzly bear that charged two elk hunters in the Stamp Meadows area near Island Park. As the bear charged, one of the hunters deployed bear spray while the other discharged a firearm at close range, mortally wounding the bear. Neither hunter appeared to be injured during the encounter.

October 21, 2022 – 10mm, Grizzly bear Wyoming

On October 21, 2022, Wyoming dentist, Dr. Lee Francis, 65 years old, was hunting elk with his 40-year-old son, in the area near Rock Creek, in the Sawtooth Mountains, east of Bondurant, Wyoming.

In this video from KSAL-TV, he gives an interview and explains what happened. Dr. Francis is an avid hunter and outdoorsman. He successfully collected a large grizzly bear with a bow and arrow in 2013. Several attempts to contact Dr. Francis have been unsuccessful.

Dr. Francis had separated from his son when he unintentionally stepped in front of the entrance to a bear den. He saw the fresh dirt, had drawn his Glock 10mm, chambered a round, and was backing away when the bear charged at him out of the den from 10 feet away.

The best interview about the encounter appears to have been in an article at cowboystatedaily.com.  The article says Dr. Francis used 130-grain hardcast bullets in his 10mm Glock.

“He came right at me, and he came on full blast,” the elder Francis said. 

Counting the cartridge already in the chamber, he had 14 rounds loaded with 130 grain hard cast bullets in his Glock. 

“I just remember shooting three or for times, right before he hit me,” he said. “Then I went down on my back.”…

Hard cast bullets will punch through a bruin’s body, instead of rapidly expanding and expending their energy in massive, shallow wounds the way that hollow point bullets do, he said. 

“Hollow points are meant for stopping people, not bears,” he said, adding that it was also fortunate for him that his weapon was loaded with hard cast bullets. 

“A hit from a hollow point would have probably just exploded my whole foot,” he said. 

He also said he favors the high-capacity, semi-automatic Glock over magnum revolvers.

We have found four cases where .41 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. All were successful.

July 16, 1981, Circle Lake, Alaska, black bear, .41 magnum single-action revolver.

Wade Nolan was with his wife, Hazel and Randy Poteet on a wilderness arctic trip, using Klepper Kayaks, 400 yards from Circle lake. The float plane had dropped them off, and left. They set up camp, and a brazen black bear came into camp and started stealing gear.

The big black bear kept coming at Wade. He shot it at eight yards, in the chest. It ran a short distance and died. They cut short their trip as a result. Another bear stalked them on the way down the Alatna river.

Death Dance, Wade Nolan, page 134 – 140. Bob Marshall mapped Alatna in July, 1931. Nolen says the event happened 50 years later, in 1981.

Last week of June 2003, Montana: Grizzly Bear attacked, man mauled, used .41 Mag to stop the second attack

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Then the bear attacked again, he said, moving incredibly fast, and that’s when Johnson, still on his back, reached for the pistol he wore in a holster on his belt.

“I had my hand by my side,” he said. “I pulled the gun and went boom. Tell me how fast that is.”

The bullet struck the bear just below the snout and it collapsed immediately and almost landed on him, he said. Then he rose to his feet and put three more 240-grain slugs in it.

July 19, 2009, Wyoming: Clark, .41 Magnum, Grizzly

Jerry Ruth saw the grizzly for just a fraction of a second before it was on him.

Within seconds, the 275-pound animal had crushed the Wyoming man’s jaw when it bit him in the face, fractured his rib and punctured his lung and left deep bite wounds in his calf and scratches across his back.

After the attack, the bear left him for her three cubs that Ruth saw for the first time as he lay bleeding on the dirt. When it reached the cubs about 15 yards away, the bear turned toward him again, “squaring off” as if to charge, Ruth recalled Friday.

Ruth grabbed for the .41-caliber magnum revolver he was carrying in a hip holster and relied on his training and experience as a police officer to save his life. He fired three times, saving three bullets in case his first shots failed.

But the bear dropped and didn’t move, ending the furious encounter as swiftly as it started.

August 8, 2009, Ishawooa Mesa, Wyoming, Grizzly, .41 Magnum.

He fired a warning shot over the sow’s head. It made no impression.

He fired again. A miss. The bears and dog were close, now. The sights lined up. A pause, perfect sight picture… click and misfire! He fired again. Another miss, but now the bears and dog ran off, out of sight.

One round was left in the Blackhawk. Tanner had six rounds in his gun belt loops. He reloaded. He decided to leave the area, in case the bear came back.

50 yards away, a narrow chute gave a less than vertical way done the mesa. He started into it. He had only descended 20 feet when he heard and saw the sow again. It had circled around the bottom of the mesa and was now coming up the chute, directly at him! He reversed course, climbed up, and scrambled onto a rocky outcrop. Sow, dog, and cubs all moved as fast as they could up the steep slope of the chute.

Tanner cocked the pistol and held it steady. As the sow’s head came to within two feet of his position, he fired directly into her forehead. Instant death. The sow tumbled backward and rolled over and over down the chute, with Ovada in pursuit. She came to rest 150 feet away.

We have found one case where .45 Super pistol was used to defend against a bear. It was successful.October 6 2017, Wyoming: .45 Super Stops Grizzly Bear Charge

The hunters jumped up and separated. The bear momentarily halted. Kelley fired a warning shot from his .45 Super. The bear moved away a little, behind some fire killed trees and brush, then came in again, fast. Kelly fired again, and the bear went down, rolled down slope and came to a halt, motionless.

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch