Bear Hunting/Defense Incident Tyce Ericson, Last week in May, 2024, Kodiak Island, 10mm

Tyce Erickson with bear and pistol, image courtesy Tyce Erickson

In the last week of May, 2024, Bowhunter Tyce Erickson used his 10mm S&W 2.0 handgun to defend against a large Kodiak brown bear. The 10mm handgun was loaded with Underwood ammunition utilizing 220 grain hardcast bullets. The hunt was on Kodiak Island in Alaska.

Tyce had wounded a large Kodiak bear in the last two days of the hunt, in a shot at a moving bear from 200 yards, with a borrowed rifle. The bear was tracked for two miles, when it decided to ambush the hunters. The guide was about 10 feet in front of Tyce, with a .375 magnum rifle. Tyce followed with his 10mm handgun. His hunting companion was out of sight, about 50 feet away in the dense alder thicket.

The following occurred in a few seconds:

The bear charged the guide from the front, appearing 20 feet away. The guide managed to get off one shot, which hit the bear in the chest/shoulder area, slowing the bear. The guide fired another shot as he backed away, tripping on the brush. The second shot missed as the guide fell backward, trapped in place by the tangled vegetation. The guide yelled for help. Tyce crawled forward to get a shot at the bear without shooting the guide. Alongside the guide, Tyce used the 10mm to fire three rapid shots at the bear, which was whirling around 12 feet away. The bear dropped, rolled downhill, and lay still.

In one account the guide yelled “Stop. Don’t shoot the skull!”  The initial wound was to the bears hind leg, leaving the bear mobile. The guide’s first shot might have proved fatal, eventually. Two of Tyce’s three shots from the 10mm hit the bear in the neck and back, incapacitating it.

When the guide poked the bear to see if it was dead, it groaned. The guide delivered a coup de grace through the bear’s chest, ending the bears pain.  Tyce details his adventure on backcountryhunting.libsyn.com podcast:

 Few men know whether they’ll have the courage to stand their ground and fight an irate Kodiak brown bear—or whether their defense gun will be adequate.

Backcountry hunter Tyce Erickson knows the answer to both, having recently proven himself when a wounded bear his group was tracking attacked at close quarters in thick alder brush.

The coverage of this story shows how the narrative on handgun defense against bears, and bear spray, has changed in the last few years, as more data has been collected and analyzed. From cowboystatedaily.com:

The debate over whether bear spray or firearms are a better defense in grizzly country might never be settled, and among those choosing guns, squabbling over which preferred firearm is best is likewise never-ending.

Previously, the narrative was bear spray is “scientifically proven to be a more effective defense than firearms”. Cowboy State Daily shows how evidence has affected media coverage:

Now he swears by the pistol and told Cowboy State Daily he’ll pack it in Wyoming if his hoped-for elk hunt here works out.

“I love that pistol. I just got it, and that trip to Alaska was the first hunt I took it on,” he said. “And I’m glad I had it.”

Similar sentiments were expressed to Cowboy State Daily by Lee Francis of Evanston, who tangled with a grizzly bear in the remote Gros Ventre range in October 2022.

The 10mm has become a popular handgun to carry as defense against bears. Light, with 8-15 rounds available, relatively easy to shoot compared to a .44 magnum, with power close to the .41 magnum, the round has shown itself to be adequate to stop bear attacks at short range. The 10mm cartridge, out of a pistol, has ballistics very close to the black powder .44-40 out of a rifle.

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

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