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 .44 Magnum caliber revolvers and one semi-automatic handgun were fired in defense against bears. The .44 Magnum has been used far more than any other caliber in defense against bears. These cases do not include incidents where handguns were used with other lethal means, or a mix of handgun calibers were used. If more than one handgun of the same caliber was used, the incident is included. There are 44 incidents with a .44 Magnum caliber handgun was fired (9 black, 30 brown, 5 polar bears). 1 incident was a failure with a polar bear, although no one was injured. It does not appear the bear was hit. The incident with Tom Sommers is considered indeterminate. The incidents are listed chronologically. The .44 Magnum is 98% effective.
Late 1960s, Alaska: From More Alaskan Bear Tales Page 270, .44 magnum, Alaska Magazine, January, 1980 black bear
The bear started to enter his shed. He took an aggressive stance and told her to get out. The bear showed no signs of leaving, so he stomped on the floor toward her. . Vic said, ” Her front bows moved like black lightning… the staccato of her claws rebounding off the door and frame…. The speed at which she could move was frightening. She was too fast for me to see the movement.”
She ground her teeth, and in a blur she came for him. He poped a cap and dropped the bear. What would have happened had Vic not had a pistol?
Late 1960’s, Stewart Island, Alaska, grizzly bear, .44 magnum
The bear charged Jerry Austin of St. Michael. Jerry stuck his .44 in the bear’s mouth as it lunged at him, and pulled the trigger. He went down, and rolled away, losing his rifle, but holding onto the .44. When he got up, the bear was already dead.
P. 277 More Bear Tales.
Spring of 1969, Alaska: Grizzly killed in self-defense by “Dolly” Walker
Dolly was walking along their grass runway to meet her husband who was about to land. She heard a small noise behind her, turned, saw the charging grizzly, drew, fired, and dodged the bear. She came up ready to shoot again, only to find the bear down and dying.
Spring of 1969 as detailed in Year of the Bear. Nizina Valley east of McCarthy in Alaska. Shot by Beverly “Dolly” Walker. Picture of Dolly with bear that attacked her. She is holding the Smith & Wesson .44 magnum she used to defend herself at the Alaskan homestead.
Fall, 1970, Alaska Grizzly, .44 magnum: From More Alaskan Bear Tales Page 269
In the fall of 1970, Al and his hunting partner Ron Trumblee had gone waterfowl hunting with their shotguns. Knowing there were bears in the area, they packed their .44-magnum handguns as defense against a possible bear attack.
The men heard brush breaking nearby and were soon face-to-face with an angry mother brownie. As she charged, Albert leveled his pistol and fired. He said, “She shook her head and kept coming. When she was about ten feet away, Ron drew and fired his pistol from the hip and the bear fell dead four feet in front of me.” Alaska Magazine, September 1971.
1978-79, summer, Cootenays Mountains, British Columbia, Grizzly Bear, .44 magnum, Alex Burton
I interviewed Alex Burton. The details of his cases are at the link on Ammoland.
Alex rounded a turn in the trail he was on to see a grizzly bear only 25 feet away. Alex drew his revolver as the bear stood up and roared. The bear dropped down and started running toward him. Alex fired a shot into the ground in front of it. The bear stopped, turned around, and walked away. Alex reloaded his revolver to ensure he had a full six rounds available and gave the bear a chance to put some distance between them. After a few minutes, Alex continued down the path.
1978-79, summer, Cootenays Mountains, British Columbia, Black Bear, .44 magnum Alex Burton
About 15 minutes later, Alex heard crashing in the brush and woods above the path. He thought he had crowded the grizzly bear by following too closely, and wished he had waited a more extended period. It wasn’t the grizzly. It was a black bear sow with cubs. The cubs were some distance off and above the trail. The bear ran between the cubs and a bank above the trail. Alex fired a shot in front of the sow as it approached the bank. That was sufficient. The sow turned around and took off with her cubs.
Oct 19-26, 1986, PII,t Churchill. Tourists In temporary camp were observed hand feeding bears for several weeks. Sardines and lard had been put in the willows surrounding camp. During the 6 days researchers were in the camp, 9 bears approached. At the sound of movement within the camp, one bear repeatedly charged the structures and pounded the walls. In the 6 days, 7 charges were initiated by 2 bears. The charges appeared to be directed at the people in the camp. One bear almost entered the stationary vehicles. It was deterred with a broom and bear spray in the face. Fours days later and 4 km SW, a bear with a red stain on its forehead, which may have been the bear spray, charged a group of 12 people. The bear ignored both “cracker shells” and shots from a .44 calibre handgun. The people involved were forced to climb a nearby tower or enter an adjacent building. This is probably the first account of bear spray being non-experimentally used under field conditions on a polar bear.
Oscar and a friend were staying at the cabin at Krosspynten. At 6 AM, a bear entered the cabin hallway and woke them up. The bear had been rummaging in there for a few seconds before they knocked on the wall to drive it away. The bear went outside. A few seconds later, it came around to the front of the cabin and smashed the window of the room where they were. The bear backed up, then accelerated and threw itself at the window. It destroyed the window bar and made the wall of the cabin bulge dangerously inwards. At that moment, Oscar thought the wall would collapse. The bear was halfway inside the cabin; its front paws, head, and a part of the upper body were through the window.
Oscar thought the wall would collapse if he didn’t do anything. He had no choice but to shoot the bear. He had his revolver by the bed and fired one shot into the throat of the bear. The bear tumbled out of the window. Oscar got up and fired one more shot with the revolver. The bear retreated. Oscar accessed his rifle. The bear managed to get about 100m from the cabin before Oscar was able to kill it with the rifle. The revolver was a .44 caliber magnum.
September 6, 1990, .44 magnum, Desert Eagle, 250 gr. Sierra full profile jacketed silhoette bullets; Wrangle-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Chitina River, Grizzly bear.
Bruce Brown had successfully harvested a brown bear with a bow. Another bear attacked him, his companion fired a shot from a shotgun, but missed. As the bear mauled him, he was able to draw the his Desert Eagle. From Some Bears Kill p. 145.
In that brief moment, Bruce freed his .44 Magnum pistol from its holster. He clicked off the safety and fired when the bear was at arm’s reach, hitting the bear in the front leg. He instantly fired a second shot, hitting the bear in the neck and breaking it. As the animal collapsed to the ground, mortally wounded, Bruce shot it once more for good measure, striking the animal in the shoulder area. The entire attack took less than fifteen seconds.
July 29, 1994, Moose International Airport Camp, 70 miles southeast of Cordova, Alaska, Grizzly, .44 Magnum page 127, Ellie Florance, Some Bears Kill, Larry Kanuit.
The bear, a three year old female, broke into Elconora’s tent. She was able to access a .44 mag, but was unwilling to fire. Mike Herder, a commercial fisherman was awakened by Elconora’s screams. He came running, and fired a shot with his .44 magnum over the bear. It started to move away, then began to return. Mike shot it in the chest, causing it to run off. Mike followed it, and picked up a 12 gauge shotgun from the office. When the bear turned again, Mike finished it off.
October 7, 1995, Alaska salmon Stream, Jack Muir, .44 magnum.
Jack started to video a distant bear when he heard the sow coming in from about 16 yards away. He yelled at her, and she chose to attack. Muir shot and killed the bear at eight feet, with his Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum, using a 328 grain hard cast bullet propelled by 21.5 grains of H110 powder. The bullet penetrated the bears skull and broke the vertebrae of the neck where it joins the skull. The bear dropped instantly. The video showed eleven seconds elapsed from the time he started the video, to the time the sow was dead. p. 215-216 “Some Bears Kill”
July 28, 1996, Arizona: .44 Magnum used to stop black bear attack, AZ Republic, page 39 -Newspapers.com Comprehensive article from Gun Watch published in 2017
Jul 28, 1996 The 16-year-old counselor, Anna – Knochel, was in critical condition. Brett Kramer drove away the 340-pound male bear by shooting it twice with a .44 Magnum pistol. The bear stopped attacking/eating Knochel and fled with mortal wounds.
About March 5, 2000, from the guardian.com, en route to the North Pole, .44 magnum, polar bear.
But then, part of Göran’s problem was talking so ingenuously. It left him wide open to attack in his home country. I asked him again about the killing of the polar bear.
‘So you had a rifle with you?’
‘No, a hand gun.’
‘What, like a Magnum?’
‘That’s right.’ He paused. He wanted accuracy, not approximation, just as he did preparing for his adventures. ‘It was a .44 Magnum.’
Göran held the gun in his bare hands for half an hour, risking frostbite in the freezing air, calculating precisely the moment when an attack became inevitable. And at that moment he pulled the trigger.
July-August 2000, Dawson City, Yukon, Geologist with Authority to Carry, Black Bear, .44 Magnum
I interviewed Alex Burton. The details of his cases are at the link on Ammoland.
Alex was setting up a tent to be used in the exploration. Other members of the team were sent ahead to clear a trail for smaller vehicles. While encumbered with the tent and ropes, in the process of finishing setting up the tent, he saw a black bear stalking him, low to the ground, about 20 feet away. Alex was in a tent. He said if he had been armed with a rifle or shotgun, he would have left it hanging at the entrance to the tent. He drew his pistol and shot the bear when it was only 5-6 feet from him. The bear was knocked down, then jumped up and climbed a large aspen tree, where it died.
Upon examination, the bear was old and in poor condition. It was thin, its teeth were black and broken.
July-August 2000, Dawson City, Yukon, Geologist with Authority to Carry, Black Bear, .44 Magnum
A month later, in another tent erected a short distance away. Alex found himself spending the night alone close to the location of the first shooting. He had disrobed and was in his sleeping bag next to the tent wall. His revolver and a light were laid nearby, easily available. In the middle of the night, he heard heavy breathing and felt a body press against him from the outside of the tent. He exited the sleeping bag, naked, accessed his revolver and light, and crept to the tent entrance. Upon exiting, he saw a black bear at the corner of the tent, less than 10 feet away. The bear sat down, as a dog sits, facing Alex. Alex admonished the bear not to disturb his sleep. The bear started to move toward Alex, and he shot it with the S&W 629 .44 magnum. The bear was knocked down, then ran off. It was found, dead, the next morning.
July, 2002, Alaska, Mantakusa River Cabin 100 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska, Brent Hughes, .44 magnum S&W, black bear. Page 160-161 of Safe with Bears, by Larry Kanuit 2018
Brent had several encounters with bears at the remote location. One bear viewed him as prey, and would not leave. He was forced to kill the bear with a shot from the .44 magnum S&W model 29.
2003 Alaska published 1 June 2003, Black bears, .44 magnum in Anchorage Daily News, republished here, also mentioned in Safe with Bears, page 182.
The first warning shot sent one bear scurrying several feet up a tree, Leslie said, but the others appeared unfazed. They just kept watching him.
“There were not scared of me one bit,” he said. “I had the wind at my back. I was making all kinds of noise. They knew it was me. I thought I was going to be dinner.”
The bear that had gone up the tree climbed down. Then all three started advancing on Leslie again.
“They didn’t make a sound,” he said. “They just started walking right at me. There was no huffing, no snapping of jaws, no bluff charges. They just kept walking at me, and I kept slowly backing down the trail.”
When the bears got inside of 100 feet, Leslie fired another warning shot with his handgun.
This time, he said, one bear jumped off the side of the trail, and a few moments later the others seemed to take that as their sign to leave.
24 September 2004, Alaska: Muldoon, Hiker Kills Charging Brown Bear from 20 feet with .44 Magnum, Original story from Anchorage Daily News
“I fired the first shot, and I aimed at its shoulders. When the first shot didn’t faze it, I fired the second time, and it turned into the ditch, and I shot three more times, and it went down,” said Boyd.
Boyd was down to one remaining bullet in his .44-caliber Magnum when he called Anchorage police for assistance. State trooper Kim Babcock helped Boyd finish off the bear with her shotgun.
July, 2005, Russel Gillespie, Seward, Alaska, as emailed to Larry Kanuit on 22 May, 2007, grizzly, .44 Magnum, S&W 29.
Two bears charging emerged from the brush at 25-30 feet near the side of the trail, roaring and moving fast at Russel and his dog, Thelma. He fired two warning shots, one in front of each bear. One bear stopped, the other continued charging. He fired three more shots at the charging bear, stopping the charge at 15 feet. He fired one more shot into the lungs of the downed bear, which rendered his revolver empty. Page 314 Safe with Bears.
July 6, 2006 – Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, United States, FOIA .44 magnum, Black Bear
Dinner had been cooked by the river an hour or so before. After dinner PII and PII were talking a German couple who camped with them. In the course of the conversation PII heard beavers downriver slapping their tails in alarm. A mature black bear was moving directly towards them. PII and PII walked towards the bear. At 30 yards the bear open and closed its mouth. A bean bag round was fired. It bounced in front of the animal and bounced up to graze its tail. At that point the bear headed towards the upland. As the bear moved, trapper PII fired three rounds from his .44 over its head. PII then pursued the animal, which circled the camp and jumped into Beaver Creek and swam across the river and disappeared.
September 7 2006, Alaska: Grizzly attacked Moose Hunters, Alaska, .44 magnum, The Longest Minute
When Reed distracted the bear from its attack on me, I had time to concentrate on the holster. I saw a buckle with a strap running through it. I could not figure out how it held the gun in place, so I grabbed the buckle and attempted to rip it off. To my surprise, the buckle was actually a snap and the strap peeled away. As I pulled the revolver out, a sudden calm came over me, and I knew everything would be fine. I looked in the direction of Reed only to once again see the bear charging at me. He was about ten feet away coming up and over the initial log that I had tripped over. That was when I pointed the revolver and fired at center mass. The .44 magnum boomed in the night and the boar fell straight down, his head three feet away from where I stood. As he fell, he bit at the ground and ended up with a mouthful of sod. I stood in a dumbfounded stupor. I had no expectation that the pistol would kill the bear. My hope was that the shot would sting the bear and help scare him away along with the flame and loud report. As his head sagged to the ground, I shot him three more times in quick succession, out of fear and anger.
September 17, 2007, Wyoming: Flying H Ranch, Bowhunters Attacked by 600 lb Grizzly, Stopped Charge with .44 Magnum
Byrum started to pull his .44 Magnum pistol out of his holster. After bumping into Byrum, Hambelton dove to the ground and curled into a ball, with his backpack facing the bear.
“I just gritted my teeth expecting the bear to bite me,” Hambelton said.
With the bear closing to within six feet, Byrum fired a shot into the bear’s neck.
“I kept telling myself, don’t shoot in the head,” said Byrum, fearful that a bullet to the head would glance off the bear’s skull.
As the pistol fired, Byrum tripped over a tree stump behind him. With Byrum on his back, the bear fell in front of his hunting boots.
“I thought, ‘Oh no, this is going to be bad,’” said Byrum, who could see smoke coming out of the bear’s fur where he had shot him.
October 6, 2007, Montana: From bozemandailychronicle.com: (Tom Miner Basin), .44 Magnum grizzly
It attacked a pair of bow hunters early Saturday afternoon. One of them used bear pepper spray and halted a charge within nine feet, but the grizzly turned and charged a second time. That’s when the second hunter shot it twice with a .44 magnum pistol.
(This incident happened on the same day, near to the Roman Morris incident. They are separate incidents.)
2009 Nevada City Nevada, .44 magnum, black bear, Reported by Nevada Bear Biologist Carl Lackey
Lackey said one resident reported shooting the bear right between the eyes with a .44 Magnum after the hungry giant lifted a sliding-glass door off the tracks and started toward him. The bullet glanced off and sent the bear whirling around the kitchen, and a second shot prompted him to scramble out the back door, according to local newspaper accounts.
31 May, 2010, Eagle River, Alaska, .44 Magnum.
When a grizzly bear charged Michael Weiman’s wife, Marianne, and their dog, Mojabe, Michael heard the screams and rushed to her aid with a .44 magnum. Three warning shots into the ground near the bear drove it off sufficiently for the couple and dog to escape into their house.
Later the bear returned. Weiman then killed it with one shot from a .30-30 rifle.
Safe with Bears, p. 231.
June 14 2010, Canada, British Columbia: A Grizzly Bear, a .44 magnum, and a brush with death
Link to video on Youtube
He kept one hand on the tripod and drew the other to his holster, pulling out the gun he’d never had to use. The grizzly zigzagged toward him, roaring the whole time.
Mr. Lorenz lifted the gun and set it off, just four feet above her head. The shot was enough to startle the bear and make her turn in the opposite direction.
“This was something that she wasn’t expecting, to get blasted in the face; that was enough to put a damper on killing me,” he said. “If I didn’t have the gun, I would have been dead.”
September 2 2010, Wyoming, Paint Creek, Shoshone National Forest, Bowhunter shot Charging Grizzly with .44 magnum
Paint Creek reenactment
A bow hunter reenacts for investigators how he fired a .44 Magnum revolver at a grizzly bear near Paint Creek in the Shoshone National Forest in 2010. Investigators followed a blood trail for half a mile, but could not located the wounded bruin.
Confirmed with Freedom of Information Act. The revolver was a Colt Anaconda. First “shot” was on an empty chamber, then another shot from 1 foot into the bear’s chest. Wardens lost the blood trail.
October 5 2010 Boulder Basin Wyoming, Grizzly Bear .44 mag birdshot!
AmmoLand request via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), p. 856.
At about 9 a.m., a guide and hunter were traveling in heavy cover, on horseback. A grizzly bear charged them from close range. The hunter started yelling at the bear as soon as it was seen. He drew a Ruger .44 magnum from the holster at the same time. As the bear charged the men on horseback, the hunter fired at the bear when it was 13 steps away. The revolver was loaded with .44 Special birdshot, in anticipation of shooting grouse for the pot. The bear ran off about 50 yards, then turned back and looked at them. It was uncertain if the bear was hit or injured, because the hunter and guide were having difficulty controlling the horses.
September 17, 2012, East Fork of Wind River, Wyoming. .44 mag Taurus, Grizzly bear FOIA page 276
A hunter was stalking elk on a game trail. He walked up on a sow Grizzly and cub, seeing them about 15 yards away, digging in the ground. He drew his Taurus .44 magnum as he quietly attempted to back out of the area. The sow sensed him, jumped uphill, then charged. He fired four times and she dropped about three yards from him.
Investigators found the physical evidence was consistent with his account. Three bullet wounds were found in the field necropsy of the bear, one through the heart.
July 24, 2014, Alaska: Eagle River, 200 pound Brown Bear Sow, .44 Magnum Revolver
“This is not in an Anchorage subdivision,” Battle said. “This is out in the big woods.”
Battle said the sow attacked the man, who in turn fired at it three times with a .44 Magnum.
“The last time, I think, he got it through the lung,” Battle said. “It ran back into the alders and he could hear it wheezing.”
March 19, 2015, Norway: Polar Bear attack stopped in Svalbard island, with .44 magnum handgun.
On Thursday, 19 March, 2015, a woman with a .44 magnum stopped a polar bear from attacking Jakub Moravec, 37, in the Svalbard archipelago. Polar bear attacks are expected there, and tourists are not allowed unless they carry a high powered firearm. In this case, the rifles were left outside the tents, but inside the protective alarm wire. The armed woman, mother of Zuzanna Hakova, shot the bear three times with the revolver.
June 21 2015, Alaska: Details on Charging Kodiak stopped with a .44 Mag Revolver
The bear was roughly 9 feet tall and started its charge at about 20 yards away. The man shot the bear by the time it moved half that distance, Svoboda said.
“It all happened in really tight quarters,” he said. “He shot at it five times before it finally stopped and then once it was on the ground, it was still moving. So he shot it one more time and then it died.”
August 15, 2015, Wyoming: Grand Teton National Park: Fisherman fires warning shots with .44 Magnum, Deters Grizzly Bear Attack
According to the angler’s report, he was fishing when he heard a noise behind him. He turned around to see three grizzly bears, one adult and two cubs, coming toward him. The adult bear stood on its hind legs, at which point the fisherman fired one shot into the ground to the side of the bear. The bears then turned around and departed the area. The fisherman noted that he was near the “worm hole” area of the Snake River located approximately three quarters of a mile downriver from the Jackson Lake Dam.
August 31 2015, Idaho: Bear Attacked Bow Hunter, Could not Reach Bear
Spray, Drove off Bear with .44 Magnum pistol shots grizzly
The hunter reportedly was carrying bear spray, but apparently couldn’t access it when the attack occurred. Fish and Game officials said the man was able to scare the bear off after he tried to shoot her several times with a .44 magnum revolver pistol at point-blank range.
The archer sustained injuries to his hand and wrist, but hiked out under his own power and was transported by ambulance to Madison County Hospital in Rexburg.
August 7 2016, Alaska: Successful Grizzly Bear Attack Defense with .44 Magnum
“We immediately found ourselves in a confrontation,” Kluting said. “She ended up turning around and for a split second we thought she would leave – but then she turned back and came at us full charge.”
Kluting fired off a warning shot into the creek. At that point the sow was 15 yards away.
“She ran through that without even flinching,” he said.
So Kluting aimed in the middle of the brown blur, now about 3 yards away.
“I barely had time to get the hammer back for another shot before she reached me,” he said.
She collapsed in the river about 5 feet – two steps – away from them.
One of the Fish and Wildlife personnel was sleeping in a tent. They had a .44 magnum. A fat and healthy boar polar bear arrived on the scene and attempted to enter the tent. The sleeper woke up, detected the polar bear, and shot and killed the polar bear with the .44 magnum. The shooter was not injured, except perhaps, for some lost hearing ability.
September 14, 2016 Ennise, Montana, sow grizzly, bear spray in left hand, .44 mag Ruger Super Blackhawk in right hand. FOIA Page 246.
A guide and three clients were returning from a day of hunting. They observed a sow grizzly and cub on the trail. The guide instructed his clients to dismount their horses and ready their bear spray. He held bear spray in his left hand and a .44 magnum Ruger Super Blackhawk in his right hand. The party made noise. As they did so, the sow stood up, then charged the group. There was a strong head wind, so bear spray was not used. The guide fired four shots, then the sow ran off. The guide believed he missed the first two shots, and may have hit on the third and fourth shots. At the third shot, the bear veered off the trail.
During the investigation, no blood trail or bear carcass was found.
October 28, 2016, Squaw Creek North and West of Cody, Wyoming .44 magnums, Grizzly bear. Page 299 FOIA
Four men hunting were hunting elk and deer in the Squaw Creek drainage. They had killed a nice elk and a deer, and were packing them out on horseback. They were all on foot, walking the horses through the heavily wooded creek bottom. At a narrow point in the creek, one of them saw a bear coming through the heavy woods. As the bear charged, the horse he was leading took off.
Two of the hunters shot at the bear as it approached to within 5 feet of one of their party. Both shot .44 magnum revolvers. One shot first, from about 15 feet. The bear turned, retreated, then stopped and came back. The second hunter had been able to draw his .44 mag. He fired two shots at the bear from close range. The bear ran off. Investigators did not find any bear carcass. One of the hunters had been mauled by a bear in 2010, and had $30,000 in medical bills.
September 4, 2017, Montana, bear spray and .44 magnum indeterminate
Tom Sommers and his partner Dan were bow hunting for elk when they saw the bear about 30 feet away. Dan put out a cloud of spray, but the bear charged through it.
Sommers was unable to get the safety off his spray can and dropped it as the bear closed with him. He then accessed a .44 magnum, but was unable to shoot before the bear swatted his hand down. As the bear attacked him, it stood on his hand/gun, so he could not shoot. Tom eventually was able to shoot, after his partner sprayed the bear from two feet away. When he shot, he could not see because of the bear spray and blood. From facebook.com:
(Tom Sommers) And partner Dan both pulled out pepper spray. Dan sprayed but Tom’s spray didn’t work so bear came after Tom. Tom ran behind a tree, the bear kept coming. apparently bear chased Tom around a tree twice, Tom got his pistol out turned to shoot, the bear knocked his hand down. Tom hit the ground. bear bit through thigh then put Tom’s head in his mouth. while head in mouth tom tried to shoot the bear in the neck but the bear stepped on the hand or gun. Tom said he could hear his skull cracking. thought that was it. Dan shot the bear at 2 feet with pepper spray. that’s all it took. the bear ran off and tom shot at it but said he couldn’t see anything from all the blood and pepper spray in his face. 4 hours later after several hours on the back of mule, he is alive and in hospital. great spirits. was laughing. hope I did his story justice.
More detail in Tom Sommers own words at a Field and Stream article
More detail in a video, Sommer describes event and has video of scene. (This recounting spells his name, Sommer) He shot at the bear from only a few feet away, He seems confident he hit the bear:
“I pulled my gun to confront the bear, he knocked me over and you can see where somebody was wrestled on the ground here. Then he got up and backed up around this tree and shot him right here,” Sommer explained in the video.
Because the bear may have been leaving after being sprayed, but was shot at and left, this is a combination event. It is considered indeterminate as to effect.
September 24, 2017 Montana: Father Uses .44 Magnum to Shoot Grizzly Bear off Son
Dave had closed to within six feet of Rory and the bear. Not wanting to hit Rory, hoping to get the bear to release his son, he shot the bear in the hip.
It worked. The bear dropped Rory and spun toward him. His next round was meant for the bear’s shoulder. The situation was dynamic. The 240 grain slug went through the bears neck.
With the bear coming at him, the bear’s mouth was within two feet of his .44 Taurus when he fired the last shot. The bullet went alongside the bear’s head, into its neck, penetrating the chest cavity.
September 24, 2018, Montana: Bowhunters used handguns to stop grizzly bear attack .44 Magnums
Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife Director Dona Rutherford says the man killed the moose on Monday and was preparing to move the animal when he was attacked by the bear.
Rutherford says bow hunters are allowed to carry guns and the hunter shot the bear with a handgun.
Detailed article From Rural Montana Magazine December, 2018
©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
