.41 Magnum Used To Thwart Bear Attack
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 11 months ago
From Dean Weingarten, the master chief of bear attacks and firearms.
Years later, Bridger Petrini gave me a lead to the person who had been attacked and had defended himself with a .41 magnum single-action revolver.
Early the next morning, Tanner woke, and before breakfast, accompanied by his dog, Ovada, he prepared to glass for sheep. He had seen signs of bears digging for roots on the mesa. Almost as an afterthought, he strapped on his Ruger Blackhawk .41 mag in its holster and pistol belt. The pistol was loaded with five rounds of factory ammunition. Loops on the belt held six more rounds. To Tanner, the pistol and rounds were another piece of gear. He wasn’t known for babying himself or his gear. His friends had kidded him about his old and abused ammunition.
There wasn’t much wind at sunrise. As he gained elevation to the top of the mesa where he would be glassing for sheep, the wind picked up. The visibility was excellent. He did not see any sheep. By 8 o’clock, he was thinking about heading back to base camp, a thousand yards away, looking forward to coffee and something to eat. A sound caught his attention. He looked toward the sound. There was Ovada, a sow grizzly bear and two cubs, charging full tilt at him from a hundred yards out.
Tanner drew the Blackhawk .41. He does not consider himself a pistolero, but the big revolver was comforting in his hands. He fired a warning shot over the sow’s head. It made no impression.
He fired again. A miss. The bears and dog were close, now. The sights lined up. A pause, perfect sight picture… click and misfire! He fired again. Another miss, but now the bears and dog ran off, out of sight.
One round was left in the Blackhawk. Tanner had six rounds in his gun belt loops. He reloaded. He decided to leave the area, in case the bear came back.
50 yards away, a narrow chute gave a less than vertical way done the mesa. He started into it. He had only descended 20 feet when he heard and saw the sow again. It had circled around the bottom of the mesa and was now coming up the chute, directly at him! He reversed course, climbed up, and scrambled onto a rocky outcrop. Sow, dog, and cubs all moved as fast as they could up the steep slope of the chute.
Tanner cocked the pistol and held it steady. As the sow’s head came to within two feet of his position, he fired directly into her forehead. Instant death. The sow tumbled backward and rolled over and over down the chute, with Ovada in pursuit. She came to rest 150 feet away.
[ … ]
On the way out, they located Ovada. She had treed a mountain lion, and held it, by herself.
Tanner says bear spray would not have worked, because of the wind. He says the wind is almost always strong at the higher elevations.
What a wonderful dog. And that was a close call for him.
Hey, I think we have a fan of the .41 magnum aboard here, don’t we?
On December 3, 2020 at 11:25 pm, Ozark Redneck said:
Big fan of the 41 Mag. Bigger fan of carrying the right gun for the job.
On December 3, 2020 at 11:50 pm, TheAlaskan said:
I’m more stuck on the 44 mag…mainly because ammo is always available in the bush shops and the more relevant reason that my shootin’ irons don’t fit 41 magnums.
I’m also pretty sure that my 44 mag, 325 bear loads would be an instant bear ender at two feet. Just saying.
On December 3, 2020 at 11:56 pm, xtphreak said:
any large bore pistol is better than no big bore pistol.
I carry a .44 Spl Charter Bulldog (early Bridgeport CT vintage) around my cabin in the WNC mountains.
2 CCI #4 snakeloads
3 210 SWC @ 875 fps
Small enough to carry on my belt in a Bianchi holster and not get in the way
I figure I’m good for Mr. No-Legs, Mr. Two-Legs and Mr. Four-Legs.
Granted there are no no Grizzlies in NC that I know of, but we do have Black Bears, coyotes, now we have wolves, bobcats and the “extinct” mountain lions (videoed in backyards almost every year)
On December 3, 2020 at 11:56 pm, 41mag said:
Happy ending!
Same pistol that I own. Feels just right in the hand, although I haven’t held a Bisley model yet.
Hotter the better for ammo. If you’ve never tried, and it’s crazy town now for ammo but really, if you’ve never tried it, the 41 Remington Magnum is a comfortable big bore magnum.
Liked the 41 so much I bought a Henry big boy steel in the same caliber.
If only primers would return to the market, I’d roll my own.
2-feet before he touched the kill shot off? Must have been flinching response to all the adrenaline for the last shots. The Blackhawk has a good break in the factory trigger.
He reloaded in the gunfight? Kudos to him for unloading and reloading 1 at a time.
On December 4, 2020 at 12:05 am, Elmo said:
My favorite caliber, my favorite revolver! It’s great to read a story about someone who thinks like I do and that has used his favorites to save his life.
On December 4, 2020 at 7:10 am, SGT.BAG said:
I picked up a BlackHawk in .41 a few years back for $250. It is great cartridge but so is the .45 LC. I know I am comparing apple’s to oranges and I will never abandon either caliber but these days I am dealing with nostalgia, availability and efficiency and for the foreseeable future nostalgia takes a distant third place.
On December 4, 2020 at 6:00 pm, Sanders said:
Good story! I’m a .44 mag guy, myself, but dang sure wouldn’t pass up a .41 if I found a decent deal on one. Just not in the market for a new caliber, though.
Bad enough that I got into the 350 Legend just before this panic hit and never got to stock up on it before it became unobtanium.
On December 4, 2020 at 11:31 pm, scott s. said:
Don’t own a Blackhawk but do respect it. I’ve put too much 44 special through my ruger vaquero and 44 mag won’t chamber in it (need some sort of lead removal kit).
On December 5, 2020 at 12:40 pm, X said:
It’s possible that the first two “misses” were ineffective hits and the head shot did the trick.
On December 5, 2020 at 7:48 pm, Some Cranky Old Bastard said:
My first handgun was a Ruger Super Blackhawk. I have a number of .44s and I yield to no one in my appreciation of the cartridge. That said, I happened on this post while wearing a Model 57, so I feel compelled to chime in.
The .41 is my favorite revolver round. With a flatter trajectory than a .44 but nearly the same bullet weight (215 vs. 240 grains) it seems to generate about 25% less recoil, on par with a hot .44 Special. .410″ vs. .429″ is a fairly trivial difference in diameter. Something for nothing? No, but maybe it’s just an optimization.
The .41 was Elmer Keith’s final contribution to handgun cartridges. Along with Skeeter Skelton and Bill Jordan, he struck a fine balance between power and recoil. That it failed in the law enforcement market was due to a milder “.41 Special” (~200 grains at ~900 fps) never arriving commercially. (I find it ironic that the original SD loading for the 10mm – “200 at 1000” – took another 20 years to show up and was promptly overshadowed by hotter loads. Marketing is a strange thing.) Elmer’s first outing with his .41 resulted in a nice Alaskan caribou taken at 100 yards with a head shot. With probably more experience with the .44 than anyone, he shot high on the first round, not yet accustomed to the .41’s trajectory.
I cast and handload. The caveat that .41 is hard to find is true, but in These Dark Times, you’re either loading your own ammo or you’re going to be out in the cold. Cases for the .41 are no more difficult to obtain than any other cartridge and casting puts another part of the supply chain into my hands, which gives me direct control over quality and a remarkable sense of satisfaction.
I haven’t had this particular revolver all that long, but long enough to dispatch a young, stupid coyote standing at about 70 yards. One round, a couple of flips and yips and that was the end of it. (For the first time in my life, I felt a little bad about that. I must be getting old.)
If you haven’t shot a .41, do yourself a favor and give it a try. You may be pleasantly surprised.