Bear protection handguns?
- Thread starter jeffreyjwilliams
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Strictly for bear defense carry.
2 1/2" - 4"
Compact enough that you won't mind carrying it. They're only of use if readily accessible.
I carry my 454 Casull Ruger Alaskan quite often. It's so convenient. Even when I walk to get my mail. For bear, moose, dogs... and the greatest threat of all, loser two legged predators.
Wedgy
Well-Known Member
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Whatever gun you choose should stop a moose as well;
https://www.foxweather.com/lifestyl...oxweather_obtest&obOrigUrl=true&ucid=JlTQBaea
Moose attacks Iditarod sled dog team for nearly an hour
"Never felt so helpless," said Bridgett Watkins after a moose trampled her sled team and went after her.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - A routine training run for a rookie Iditarod musher in Alaska turned into the "most horrific" day of her life after a giant bull moose attacked them and spent nearly an hour stomping on the dogs.
Bridgett Watkins said she emptied her gun into the animal, but it withstood multiple rounds.
"As he charged me I emptied my gun into him and he never stopped, I ran for my life and prayed I was fast enough to not be killed in that moment," Watkins said on Feb. 4 of the ordeal. "He trampled the team and then turned for us."
The attack happened while the team was on a 52-mile run on the Salcha River trail system near Fairbanks. They had been training for the nearly 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which starts on March 5 in Anchorage.
Watkins, who operates Kennel on a Hill with her husband, said she and a friend sought refuge next to the snowmobile. The moose stopped "a mere 2 feet" in front of the snowmobile and she was able to cut six dogs free that were connected to the machine.
But the moose went back to the dogs still attached to the sled and began trampling on them "over and over, repeatedly" for nearly an hour, Watkins wrote.
"I have never felt so helpless in my life," she recalled. "He would not leave us alone and he even stood over top of the team refusing to retreat."
A friend later showed up with a high-powered rifle and killed the moose with one shot.
The injured dogs were taken to a veterinarian trauma team in the nearby community of North Pole, Watkins posted. A later update indicated that the four dogs badly injured in the attack were on the mend and that she would continue training.
"We truly believe there were angles among us and God's hand of protection spared ALL of our lives," Watkins wrote in a Feb. 6 update. "I am getting up tomorrow with my army of supporters and will do what we do, run dogs. I will love them and every moment I'm blessed to be behind them."
Watkins, a native of Arkansas who moved to Alaska when she was 5, is no stranger to dog sled racing or its dangers. Her father and stepmother are well-known mushers Allen Moore and Aliy Zirkle of SP Kennel.
In the 2016 Iditarod, Zirkle and four-time winner Jeff King were attacked by a man on a snowmobile near the community of Nulato. One dog on King's team was killed and two others were injured.
Another well-known incident of a musher's run-in with an angry moose happened in the 1985 Iditarod — when the late Susan Butcher came across one while she was leading the race. She used her ax and a parka to fight off the moose, but it killed two of her dogs and injured 13 others. Another musher came along and killed the moose.
She had to withdraw from the race but later won four Iditarod races. Butcher died in 2006 from leukemia at age 51.
Watkins said no musher would ever travel with a rifle or a large caliber gun, instead preferring to scare off animals with a flare gun. And with all the jostling of the sled, the larger guns could easily go off.
She did carry a .380 caliber gun because there are few people where she trains, and she keeps it to deter or scare off animals. She has since upgraded to a larger caliber firearm after it didn't stop the moose.
https://www.foxweather.com/lifestyl...oxweather_obtest&obOrigUrl=true&ucid=JlTQBaea
Moose attacks Iditarod sled dog team for nearly an hour
"Never felt so helpless," said Bridgett Watkins after a moose trampled her sled team and went after her.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - A routine training run for a rookie Iditarod musher in Alaska turned into the "most horrific" day of her life after a giant bull moose attacked them and spent nearly an hour stomping on the dogs.
Bridgett Watkins said she emptied her gun into the animal, but it withstood multiple rounds.
"As he charged me I emptied my gun into him and he never stopped, I ran for my life and prayed I was fast enough to not be killed in that moment," Watkins said on Feb. 4 of the ordeal. "He trampled the team and then turned for us."
The attack happened while the team was on a 52-mile run on the Salcha River trail system near Fairbanks. They had been training for the nearly 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which starts on March 5 in Anchorage.
Watkins, who operates Kennel on a Hill with her husband, said she and a friend sought refuge next to the snowmobile. The moose stopped "a mere 2 feet" in front of the snowmobile and she was able to cut six dogs free that were connected to the machine.
But the moose went back to the dogs still attached to the sled and began trampling on them "over and over, repeatedly" for nearly an hour, Watkins wrote.
"I have never felt so helpless in my life," she recalled. "He would not leave us alone and he even stood over top of the team refusing to retreat."
A friend later showed up with a high-powered rifle and killed the moose with one shot.
The injured dogs were taken to a veterinarian trauma team in the nearby community of North Pole, Watkins posted. A later update indicated that the four dogs badly injured in the attack were on the mend and that she would continue training.
"We truly believe there were angles among us and God's hand of protection spared ALL of our lives," Watkins wrote in a Feb. 6 update. "I am getting up tomorrow with my army of supporters and will do what we do, run dogs. I will love them and every moment I'm blessed to be behind them."
Watkins, a native of Arkansas who moved to Alaska when she was 5, is no stranger to dog sled racing or its dangers. Her father and stepmother are well-known mushers Allen Moore and Aliy Zirkle of SP Kennel.
In the 2016 Iditarod, Zirkle and four-time winner Jeff King were attacked by a man on a snowmobile near the community of Nulato. One dog on King's team was killed and two others were injured.
Another well-known incident of a musher's run-in with an angry moose happened in the 1985 Iditarod — when the late Susan Butcher came across one while she was leading the race. She used her ax and a parka to fight off the moose, but it killed two of her dogs and injured 13 others. Another musher came along and killed the moose.
She had to withdraw from the race but later won four Iditarod races. Butcher died in 2006 from leukemia at age 51.
Watkins said no musher would ever travel with a rifle or a large caliber gun, instead preferring to scare off animals with a flare gun. And with all the jostling of the sled, the larger guns could easily go off.
She did carry a .380 caliber gun because there are few people where she trains, and she keeps it to deter or scare off animals. She has since upgraded to a larger caliber firearm after it didn't stop the moose.
Something wrong with that article. First she states "no musher would ever travel with a rifle or a large caliber gun"? What kind of babble talk is that? Then the article states "she has since upgraded to a larger caliber firearm". So which is it?
Might as well carry a pack of Black Cat fire crackers, or a sling shot and a bag of marbles, as a .380 for moose or bear.
Big animals require big medicine.
Might as well carry a pack of Black Cat fire crackers, or a sling shot and a bag of marbles, as a .380 for moose or bear.
Big animals require big medicine.
A .380? That might be OK for Saturday night at Chilcoot Charlie's, but not in the bush.
wilkup
Well-Known Member
I think for safety in the Alaskan bush I'd be packing a big @$$ wheel gun minimum… more likely that and a 45-70 levergun with Garrett Hammerheads or Buffalobore hardcasts in a scabbard near my hands.
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This would be bad medicine for any critter 2 or 4 legged. 3 lbs 8 oz gets heavy on long treks though.
What is it?
500SW. Load up 500 gr pills and it will definitely give your wrist and elbow a workout.
wilkup
Well-Known Member
Years ago at my bachelor party, one of my dad's buddies who owned the ranch we partied on pulled out one of those big X frame Smiths. He handed it to me with a handful of GIANT .500 S&W rounds. We had just finished up our first round of bull doggin and I was feeling pretty badass, so I promptly loaded it up and touched one off…
If I'd been by myself, I would've put the gun down then, but with all my buddies watching I forced myself to empty the cylinder. That is the one and only time I've felt real pain in my hands from shooting.
Those big Smiths pack MASSIVE power but also hit pretty hard on both ends and I have no desire to shoot anything like that ever again.
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I'll stick to my 911 45 auto, I have some control of that
Not a target pistol for you!!!
I hear you
Wedgy
Well-Known Member
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- Feb 9, 2013
- Messages
- 3,276
In the case of the moose perhaps bear spray would have helped after the initial attack. Really not sure what a .380 was for but emptying it in his chest wasn't going to work.
Years ago I played hide in the close together pine trees for 15 minutes with a big bull near Sand Point ID. I could have shot him in the wind pipe, eye, or rib/lung with a .380 as I was safe only 8 feet away and could have safely picked good shots after the charge if I didn't dump the mag early. Friends up there had a few champ chocolate labs get stomped out and one bull did a number on his parked truck with the plow on it for some reason, never hit the other vehicles but the plow truck caught hell three times.
I think if my dogs were getting attacked for an hour I would have made a spear and rammed it into his belly, tough way to learn.
Years ago I played hide in the close together pine trees for 15 minutes with a big bull near Sand Point ID. I could have shot him in the wind pipe, eye, or rib/lung with a .380 as I was safe only 8 feet away and could have safely picked good shots after the charge if I didn't dump the mag early. Friends up there had a few champ chocolate labs get stomped out and one bull did a number on his parked truck with the plow on it for some reason, never hit the other vehicles but the plow truck caught hell three times.
I think if my dogs were getting attacked for an hour I would have made a spear and rammed it into his belly, tough way to learn.
