Update Of Pistol Defenses Against Bears 123 Cases, 98% Effective
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 8 months ago
Once again the greatest bear and firearms researcher in the world helps us with new data. I’ll let you go to Dean’s article for the scoop, but I’ll lift this out.
Of these 20 cases, 15 involve a single, known, pistol caliber. Here are the current numbers of cases for those calibers:
- 9mm – seven documented cases, all successful
- .38 Special – four documented cases, three successful, one failure
- .357 magnum – nine documented cases, eight successful, one failure
- .40 S&W – five documented cases, all successful
- 10mm – six documented cases, all successful
- .44 magnum – 37 documented cases, all successful
- .45 Long Colt – 2 cases, successful, this includes the .45 Colt/.410 revolver.
Caliber seems far less important than the willingness to use the firearm and kill the bear.
These were all newly found cases. I’m surprised to find no .45ACP in the list.
But it isn’t clear to me what Dean’s list means. This totals to 70 cases, not the 20 new ones he listed.
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On April 11, 2022 at 11:21 pm, PSULaxMan said:
I read it as: In the 20 new cases, 5 either used unknown ammo or multiple calibers. The remaining 15 each used one of the seven calibers listed. (some calibers were used in more than one of those 15 incidents, ex .44 mag) For those seven calibers, the list shows the current *cumulative* statistics for each. There was no .45ACP used in any of these 20 cases, therefore it isn’t in the list. I assume it’s a significant part of the 53 cases using a caliber other than those seven. (123 total cases minus the 70 represented by the list)
On April 12, 2022 at 8:02 am, Frank Clarke said:
I’m a big fan of 9mm, but I wouldn’t expect to use it against bear. I would want something noticeably heftier.
On April 12, 2022 at 8:13 am, Fred said:
“Of these 20 cases, 15 involve a single, known, pistol caliber. Here are the current numbers of cases for those calibers:”
Herschel, I think* he didn’t structure this paragraph well is all. I think the 20 cases are what he cited above this para, and then below he gives running totals for all instances he has documented in those calibers he just mentioned, I think. *?
maybe he’ll stop by and clarify.
On April 12, 2022 at 5:21 pm, Jeremy Hatfield said:
There was another article that undertook a similar study several years ago. It found .45acp was the most commonly-used caliber.
On April 12, 2022 at 5:24 pm, Jeremy Hatfield said:
Oh, btw, the article does mention .45ACP in two of the incidents. Just not in the list quoted.