Handguns in Defense Against Bears by Caliber - Beyond .44 Magnum - .454 Casull, .460 S&W, .500 S&W 7 Incidents

 .500 S&W Magnum courtesy of Rock Island Auction

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 calibers beyond .44 Magnum were used. There are 4 incidents where .454 Casull revolvers were fired. There was 1 incident where a .460 S&W Magnum revolver was fired. there were 2 incidents where a .500 S&W Magnum revolver was fired.  These cases do not include incidents where handguns were use 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.  Six incidents were against brown bears, one against a polar bear.  All were successful. The incidents are listed by caliber, chronologically within caliber.

We have found four cases where .454 Casull revolver was used to defend against a bear. They were successful.

November 1986, Kodiak Island, Zachar bay, .454 Casull, Grizzly bear.

George Malekos was confronted with a large grizzly bear at 10 feet away on a gravel ridge, covered with snow. He had nowhere to turn. He aimed at the bear’s eye, and shot. He fired two more times as the bear whirled around, and disappeared.

Later, he and his hunting companion shot the same bear with their rifles. They found the .454 round had creased the skull above the eye, then another shot had penetrated one foot of the bear.

From More Bear Tales, p. 104-107.

About 1993, Alaska, Kenai peninsula, .454 Casull, Craig Medred Grizzly Field & Stream February, 2003 Letters. (numerous mentions in Medred’s columns)

And here I thought the Kenai Penisula brownie I shot off my foot with a .454 Casull about 10 years ago got the worst of it.

December 30, 2007, Kodiak Island, Alaska, brown bear, .454 Casull revolver.

A rabbit hunter had a .22 rifle for rabbits and a .454 Casull revolver for bear protection. The bear got up near him. The sow kept coming toward him, even after he fired shots in the air with the .22 rifle. He shouted and waved his arms and drew the pistol. The sow kept coming. He shot her at 15 yards. Safe with Bears, page 324.

Additional source, From seattletimes.com:

ANCHORAGE — A rabbit hunter fired his pistol at a charging grizzly bear on Kodiak Island, badly wounding the old sow, which was later killed, as were her three cubs.

The hunter, whose name is not being released, was hunting rabbits near the American River on Friday about 15 miles outside Kodiak when the sow charged him, said John Crye, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, on Monday.

The hunter, who was carrying two weapons, shot the bear when it was about 10 yards away. It was the second time in a week that hunters had encountered the family of bears. The last time it was one of the cubs that charged a father and son out duck hunting as the mother and the other cubs slept nearby.

August 2, 2009, Alaska: Kenai Peninsula, Charging Brown Bear Stopped with Ruger .454 Casull

Because of many bear-related incidents in this area, Brush always has brown bears on his mind…even when walking a well-maintained road. On just such a road, less than 500 yards from his house, Brush stopped when he heard a twig snap behind him. Turning his head toward the sound, Brush saw a monstrous brown bear charging toward him. “There was no warning,” he stresses. “None of the classic teeth-popping or woofing, raising up on hind legs, or bluff-charging that you read about. When I spotted him he was within 15 yards, his head down and his ears pinned back. He was coming like a freight train…in total chase-mode.”

Brush instinctively back-pedaled to avoid the charge, drawing the Ruger from its holster. “I fired from the hip as he closed the distance,” Brush recalls. “I know I missed the first shot, but I clearly hit him after that. I believe I fired four or five shots. “

Brush finally fell on his back on the edge of the road. Miraculously, the bear collapsed a mere five feet from his boot soles, leaving claw marks in the road where Brush had–only seconds before–been standing. The bear was moaning, his huge head still moving, as Brush aimed the Ruger to fire a finishing shot. “By then my gun had jammed,” Greg says. “I frantically called my wife on my cell phone and told her to bring a rifle. When she arrived I finished the bear.”

We have found one case where a .460 Smith & Wesson magnum was used successfully.

May 18, 2018, Wyoming: Cora, 460 Smith & Wesson magnum Grizzly.

The two men with bear spray had fallen 50 yards behind. The dog alerted on something. Noah thought it was some sort of big animal. Then he saw the bears, a grizzly sow and cubs, uphill. He yelled at the dog, but it was too late. The dog came running back. The sow grizzly charged, moving extremely fast. His friend from Chicago bolted back down the trail. Noah had his revolver out, as the bear came to a stop, just a dozen feet away

We have found two cases where a .500 Smith & Wesson magnum was used successfully.

March 5, 2005 – Barents Sea Norway .500 S&W

On March 5, 2005, two people were attacked by a polar bear in the remote area of Kapp Lee, Edgeøya, in the Svalbard archipelago.

The .500 Smith & Wesson revolver had been on the market for just over two years when this occurred. The individual responsible for security had one of those big revolvers on his person.

This story was uncovered as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by AmmoLand. The names of the individuals involved were redacted. The original account is a translation with some grammatical and spelling errors.

What follows is the account, edited for readability. The names Paul and Sally have been substituted for the redacted names. This is what happened.

Paul, Sally and two more people were airlifted from Longyearbyen to Kapp Lee, Edgeøya, and landed at 2:21 PM. The helicopter flew the two other people a bit further away to install a digital camera to take pictures of Storfjorden….

The bear was very close. Paul used the handgun to shoot two warning shots, in the air, over the bear. The dog was barking at the bear at the same time.

The bear did not stop or react to the shots or the dog.

Paul felt that the bear would get into the cabin if he did not shoot it.

He had trouble closing the door, did not know how to lock it, and did not know the inside of the cabin.

In far less time than it takes to tell it, Paul yelled, “Dammit, I’m shooting,” and fired one shot at the bear, now only 1.4 meters (five feet) away.

He tried to aim at the heart/lung areas, but was not sure where he hit, other than that it was to the right side of the neck, from the front, toward the back of the bear.

The bear turned immediately and ran away. The bear collapsed 48 meters from where Paul stood.

31 October 31, 2008 (Halloween), .500 S&W Magnum, handloads, Juneau, Alaska. Lucas Clark.

This correspondent interviewed Lucas Clark.

The incident occurred on the bank of small river, The grizzly bear lunged at him from 12 feet out of the salmonberry brush. He had the handgun out in hand, and fired reflexively. He hit the bear in the chest at the base of the neck with 400 gr. Sierra bullet at 1350 fps. out of .500 S&W.

As he recovered from the muzzle flash, he saw the bear running 50 feet away, broadside. He fired again, and gut shot, the bear turned. As it was running away, he shot at its hind quarters. That shot broke the bear’s pelvis, it went down instantly. That is where it died.