.357 Mag vs. Griz

[GF.]

I was looking for more info on that hot, 110-grain load for the '06 and came across this one:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2008/01/grizzly-attack-caught-camera

A game warden was trying to relocate a boar griz, which turned on him after the trap door got opened for the release.....

[Bushman]

What would it take to secure that trap into the bed of that pickup? "Unsecured" is a rather major over-site IMO. I was in Kalispell last summer and it is a fairly metropolitan good sized town for MT. Say the unsecured trap with 500 pounds of bear slid out the backside at the stop light outside the Kalispell Walmart, now what?

[swamp]

everyone lost on that one... I hope that they now use a more reliable realease method... a 357 worked in that case but it certainly isnt the best handgun choice, better yet choose a 44 mag and a 454 casuall would be a better choice yet

[Just a Hunter]

On viewing the photo's I will agree a stout 357 may be suited to stopping a bear when the distance is under 2ft.

I for one dont wish to repeat these events to see how well things turn out the second time.

[Hi Ball]

Just a Hunter, In 1986 I met a man (conservation agent) who gave me directions to the local hardware store, as my motor home needed a gas propane line replaced. This man carried a .357 magnum pistol on his hip. The department and others figured it would be sufficient for just about anything including a grizzly bear attack...........WRONG~! However, he found out the hard way, face to face with a bore grizzly that was ticked off and figured it would teach him a lesson or two about bears up close and personal like. Yes, that bear reached up and snatched that cage out of the bed of that pickup truck, once the gate was pulled upward freeing the bear. The bear pulled that cage off the truck with him on the top of the cage, like you would pick up a 10 pound sack of dog food out that truck bed. The bear was on him faster than you could say Jack Robinson!!! He did eventually empty his .375 mag into that bear killing the bruin but not before it mauled him good. Now that pistol was purchased off of him by his department members and they had it engraved.

Once he got healed up, he went to the .44magnum as his side arm and in my eyes that is minimum for bears. This man is retired now and the mistake that day can be given to the young new driver, put on a set of ear phones to listen to his music and never heard the yells by the conservation agent to GO GO GO forward with the truck once the signal was given.

[GF.]

Hi Ball - are you saying that you met the guy in this story, way back when?

It has been so long since I first ran across this that I was looking at it with some pretty fresh eyes, and looking at the bear, I have a feeling there are powder burns on one side of its head... The CO is lucky he didn't blow is own foot off, but it would have been worth the risk, under those circumstances....

So yeah, what JAH said....

[Hi Ball]

GF. Yes, my we met him in the town of Kalispell in 1986, the year after purchasing the Holiday Rambler motor home. I was very much serprized to hear what had happened to the man months later, he is a very experienced agent with at least 18 years in with the state. He was the designated person to remove trouble some bears when they had to be relocated. Now for some reason, his regular driver was not their that day he had to take that bore grizzly out to the wild. The had a partime young man (college kid I think) do the driving and he had never done this procedure of letting bears lose before that day. Not a good thing to mix a "rookie" in on a grizzly bear event~!!!

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

One of my Great-grandmother's brothers was a very fine pistol shot. He competed back in the late 40s and 50s and was, I've been told, one of the top five pistol shots in the nation. In addition to his competitions he hunted with a pistol also. He killed a grizzly with a 357 magnum. I don't know the particulars of the hunt but the head hung on the old farmhouse wall for lots of years. I don't think it would be something that a guy would want to get too comfortable doing, but a 357 will certainly kill big bears.

Alan

[T2133]

I suppose you can shoot grizzly bears with a .357 Magnum if you aren't particular about who bleeds out first.

[swamp]

357 Mag 800 ft-lbs of energy vs 454 casul 1600 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle... using round figures

[alphie]

Anyone know what load the ranger was carring?
alphie

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Although the 357 Mag is not the first choice of most accomplished pistol toting bear hunters, there is nothing puny about it. Loaded to its full potential it will punch proper holes in most North American game critters. There are certainly fire arms better suited to Grizzly hunting but If I were to find myself in hair singing range of one I'd like it to be a 357 Mag as opposed to something lighter and easier to carry.

Alan

[Just a Hunter]

I agree 100%.

[dave-t.]

With a .357.... I'd choose the 180grn or 200grn load from cor-bon and a fresh set of trousers.

[Dennis Keith]

I carried a mod 66 smith for a year toting other folks money to the bank. It may intimadate a bunch of two legged critters, but from what I've read of bears they don't care much for looks of a firearm they only give a hoot about results. I was talking to a man that was a sniper in Korea who had just come back from Alaska. He tells us he shot the bear through both sholders at some distance away, maybe two hundred yards with his .300 win mag. The guide told him SHOOT THE BEAR AGAIN! Ed said that bear's dead, Guide says I know, shoot him again anyway. Bear got up , ANGRY, and deceided to GET EVEN with the man that killed him. I guess the guide shot the bear twice with his .338, and Ed shot the bear three more times with his .300 before the bear finally deceided he was dead, about fifteen feet in front of the two rifelmen. No Sir, I want as much gun as I can manage if I deceide to take a walk in Bear Country, because like sharks, Bears like Grizzleys and Browns don't know that THEY are not the top of the food chain, perhaps a 870 with sluggs. to hell witih reliance upon a pistol. Ed didn't say whether or not he and the guide needed clean underwear.and no, I didn't ask him. He did brag on the knife we made him to take on that trip, and that was all I cared to know.

[Hi Ball]

Dennis that is why I absolutely refuse to hunt any type of bear unless I have my .416 Rem mag or bigger caliber rifle! I was told years ago (decades as matter of fact!) that if you want to hunt the big bears, in Alaska then you need to get yourself a model 70 Winchester in the .375 H&H caliber.........Mr. Morris Tolfison bear guide.