Anyone know pistol caliber of recent grizzly kill?

[Jeffpatton00]

News reports say a 72 year old man was picking berries on national forest land in the Flathead National Forest in Montana the other day when he was charged by a grizzly. He killed it with a pistol, and I'm curious if anyone has heard what type of pistol that was. There have been discussion threads on the best pistol for grizzly protection, with lots of opinions, but this fellow was probably surprised, had to react quickly, and it was successful, so I'm curious what he was carrying. thx

 

[K9TXS]

I read several articles on that attack, they were all about the same. They never mentioned the handgun.

 

[bdlesh]

Sadly, no matter what he used, it won't be the best for the job....even though it was by many.

 

[wvbearhunter]

I read several articles, none mentioned caliber

 

[brcfo_outdoors]

He was successful but still hospitalized so not that successful.

 

[Jeff Heeg osoh]

I was told to use solids with the 45 to penetrate the bone mass versus what most folks take for granted - self defense hollow points on grizzlies in the Montana range

 

[sp6x6]

Right by property we have.my son and grandson picking berries and fishing there last weekend.SIL camping there last night

 

[RichCoyle]

I was told to use solids with the 45 to penetrate the bone mass versus what most folks take for granted - self defense hollow points on grizzlies in the Montana range

Larry Kelly said he unloaded .44 Mag six shooter into a griz. The guide killed it with a .338 Win Mag. Not one of the hollow point bullets made it through the griz's fat. He switched to hard cast and successfully killed one.

 

[Idaho Lefty]

Heard it was, a Glock 20, 10 MM with, Hot Loaded, Hard cast Bullets AND, a SWITCH on, the Back,.. Held,.. sideways !
SORRY,. Couldn't,.. Help myself !

 

[comfisherman]

Heard it was, a Glock 20, 10 MM with, Hot Loaded, Hard cast Bullets AND, a SWITCH on, the Back,.. Held,.. sideways !
SORRY,. Couldn't,.. Help myself !

Funny, but 10 years from now it will be told as gospel to every 21 year old kid that transfers up to jber at the gun counters across the matsu....

 

[Akredneck]

For those of us who pick berries in grizzly country. Trying to peel a shotgun off your back and get a shot off on a charging grizzly. I will take my 10mm spray and pray glock(lol) I also do carry a shotgun just in case I do have time seeing bear in distance, or after I have put rounds on target. There is something to be said about going after a wounded grizzly or even a black bear with a shotgun. You still don't think you have enough gun for the task. Just my 2 cents.

 

[comfisherman]

Having spent a fair whack of time picking salmon berries in heavy bear country, can't think of a time one snuck up on us. Granted the old ladies we went with as kids talked so much they sounded like a disturbed chicken coup. By middle school we went out on our own but usually around the village (back then Chanel 6 on the vhf was like low rent facebook) and we usually knew of bear sightings. Never really remember big bears popping the sneak on us berry picking. Certainly had problems with them in the spring when the smoke houses used to go... or fall on bad fish years when the old or young started raiding targets of opportunity around the village.

Remember having some hair raising walks in the fall when it started getting dark between my house and my friends. Didn't have a lot of scares, but had one roll out of the alders one early sept.... man that got the heart pumping.

Back then we carried pretty much whatever we had, lots of 30-06, a few 12 gauges, a 7 mag and some revolvers. Remember my youngest uncle kept a 357 with half 38 in it. Most our interactions were in the fall on beaches and river banks and a few 38 made enough noise to scatter them. Did it enough he downgraded the noise maker rounds to save money. Kinda a different way of looking at it, but probably the more pragmatic approach for folks who are around them all the time.


As brcfo outdoors mentioned, he still got hospitalized, curios if he shot and got rolled or rolled and shot.

 

[Troutslayer2]

I'm eagerly waiting for the rest of this story to come out myself. Sounds like he was getting chewed on while he killed the bear, that's how I always imagined it would go down.

 

[comfisherman]

Not a great way to get a close shot.... but you get to use the mv number...