A friend of mine and I were talking guns this morning. He said he has a brother in AK that carries a S&W stainless 357 with a 2 inch barrel as his bear gun. I asked if that was enough gun to stop a big grizzly?

He said he asked his brother the same question and was told, if a grizzly gets ahold of you, you use it on yourself.

A 357 will make you feel safer, but I'd rather carry a 12 gauge or rifle than any caliber of handgun.

it will depend if you can put those 6 rounds where they need to be


here is an article that really took data into account to give you a better answer

https://www.ammoland.com/2020/03/up...ack-93-cases-97-effective/#axzz7B4cD01ti

it seems much like human aggressors bears may have different thresholds of fight.

in humans we talk about the 3 stops

1 mental this ranges from the gun came out and they saw it to the bad guy was hit and decided he had better things to do than attack you in bear it may be the noise of the shot fired or the hit

2 hydraulic - plum ran out of blood the muscles no longer got oxygen and nutrients , I have seen this a few times in deer , you shoot them you have a blood trail a blind man could follow then the deer stops bleeding 50-70 yards and you follow the scuffs in the leaves a while further the buck is nose in the dirt legs just quit working or went to hop a fence and just couldn't and was hung up on it. when you gut them they got basically no blood left in them.

3 CNS you hit the brain the brain stem , the spine

there is also a mechanical stop but much less common and it doesn't completely end the fight the most common mechanical stop is shooting the pelvic bone if you shatter the human pelvis people fall over unable to support their weight they aren't out of the fight but they are a lot less mobile .

there was a story out of Alaska a few years back kid with a 20ga saved his family , why , because dad hadn't gotten around to mounting his sling yet

he was the only one holding his gun , every one else had the gun slung over their shoulder bear cam down the trail bowling them out of the way the kid put a rounds in the bear

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/11-year-old-boy-saves-family-killing-charging-brown-bear-shotgun/

Just to clarify, his brother was joking. I have no idea what he carries as a bear gun, if anything.

Well Gene Moe killed a brown bear with a knife and punch on Kodak Island!

Absolutely even here. The .44 magnum carried on my chest is the last resort when it comes to grips. Not sure if I’d shoot the bear or myself.

Osky

I've posted this pic and mentioned it before. When you come around a bend on the beach and find yourself looking at this from ten yards away, then you'll know. My gut instinct was to throw my rifle at the bear and run. Seriously. And it's not even a particularly large bear as brown bear go.

Looks big enough to put some seriously hurt on you, if you ask me.

Maybe someone with more computer savvy than I can find the news report of the Montana Game Warden that had to kill a Griz with his .357 during a relocation about early 90s

That's only an option if u are completely sure u can out run ur hunting buddy lol

Lol, I was running before Forrest Gump made it cool.

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/26/us/grizzly-bear-killed-after-biting-warden-in-montana-forest.html

it was part of the data in the article I posted a link to earlier

It's a video. I remember seeing it as a kid...probably in the early 80s. He fell off the trap just as he opened the door. Bear was on top of him instantly and he managed to get his gun upholstered. When the other men pulled the bear off he was still pulling the trigger....click, click, click.

I had a few details wrong, so I must have seen an interview of the warden, since the images are all still photos. I remember the fact that he was still pulling the trigger vividly.

Grizzly Article

Won't hurt a bit. You'll be dead before you feel anything.

Thanks PETE & johral that is the one. Warden ended up with a busted leg, trap fell on it? Moral of the story?
If you are driving the truck with the trap in it wipe the mud off your boots so you don’t accidentally dump the clutch.

Posted the article above...bite broke his leg, and bear knocked the trap out of the truck bed.

Back when my FFL was current I ordered a S&W 500 performance center 8&3/8. Just because.
After pulverizing 9” of an elks neck vertebrae and over 20” of penetration with a 385gr coreloct @ 1700fps I would actually like to hunt them with it. To old and tired though now.

That's funny!

A true story from when I was in junior high. There was this kid in track who was really fast; out ran everybody. When asked how he could run so fast? He said every time he ran he pretended a bear was chasing him.
I wish I had thought of that. I'm sure I would have been a lot faster back then too.

Like Waggler says, a long gun is the best option. I carry a .44 magnum for back up or when I'm working and cannot carry a long gun. I cannot shoot larger caliber handguns very fast due to their recoil, and find them awkward to carry all day for days on end. You want to be able to shoot quickly and accurately when a bear is charging. My wife carries a. 357 Roger for her bear gun because she cannot shoot a .44 accurately. It is her berry picking gun. If you hit a bear in the foot with a .500, it don't do you much good. Try shooting at a target rushing towards you, and you will see what I mean. I recommend the biggest handgun you can shoot accurately quickly, and carry comfortably all day for days. Shooting at a charging animal is much different than poking holes in a target from a shooting bench or hunting. If I was using my handgun to hunt with, I'd use a bigger caliber, but I'm not. Ammo availability is also a concern in the Bush. .44 magnum is the most common caliber for handguns, in my experience. One of my life goals is to never use my pistol to shoot a bear, so far so good. My 45-70 or 9.3×62 rifles work much better.