Why you should be armed in the woods/wilderness

[David]

45 FMJs are even more better.

Now that I'm back into 45acp with the HK USP 45 I'm leaning towards this being my woods carry pistol. I'll need to see if it fits in my Maxpedition Versipak (I keep forgetting to try it out). If it does then great, if not then I'll probably stick with either the USPc40, P2000 in 40 or the Glock 22.

Well, I know that everyone has been breathlessly waiting for the last five weeks for me to actually remember to try the USP 45 in the Maxpedition Versipak to see if it fits....it does! Just barely, but it fits.

[David]

A member of another board I’m on had to shoot a dog that was attacking his donkeys. Multiple previous incidents but finally had to shoot one that turned on him.

[David]

Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber

https://www.ammoland.com/2018/02/defens ... z6gMRQmQsp

Excerpt:

But then the bear turned, looked up at Brenner and lunged, said Lewis, who interviewed the three men Saturday.

Brenner fired twice at the center of the hulking shape closing to four or five feet away. The sow, estimated at 400 to 450 pounds, went down. Brenner then put three more bullets into her head.

He used a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol. Lewis said such a low-caliber gun ordinarily doesn't pack enough punch to kill a bear. But Brenner loaded the pistol with full-metal-jacket bullets that penetrated to the bear's vital organs, he said.

[David]

There were four uses of .45 caliber pistols against bears. All were successful. One was against a black bear, which was killed with additional shots, probably from another handgun. The other three were grizzly bears killed with multiple hits from the .45 caliber pistols.

There was one use of a .45 Super pistol. It was successful. The grizzly bear was killed with one shot.

This helps to solidify the choice of the HK USP 45 as a viable woods carry pistol.

[David]

Update: Handgun or Pistol Against Bear Attack: 93 cases, 97% Effective

https://www.ammoland.com/2020/03/update ... z6HnoK4xli

All methods of defense against bears have similar problems of access. A failure to use a handgun or bear spray in a pack, or a rifle slung over the shoulder without a round in the chamber, should not be counted as a failure of the method to defend against bears. All of the methods can be carried for easy access. It is not a fault of the method if the user did not have the item available for use, or if the attack was too quick to allow use.

[David]

Of the 93 strictly handgun defense cases, three classified as failures. There was the use of a .22 handgun against a polar bear in 1995, in Svalbard, Norway. There was the use of a .357 against an Alaskan grizzly by a geologist on 20 June, 2010. It is likely the bear was not hit in that incident. The third was the 6 September, 2015, New Mexico incident with a black bear sow and cubs, where the defender climbed a tree and used a .38 revolver. An official reported the defender said he shot in the air and at the bear. The bear backed off twice but did not immediately leave.

There were five successful defenses with .22 rimfire. Four black bears were killed. One ran off and was later killed by officials. One defense with a .22 rimfire against a polar bear was unsuccessful.

There was one successful defense with a .380 handgun. The black bear ran off.

There were seven successful defenses with 9 mm pistols. Four grizzly bears were killed, one grizzly ran off and was not recovered, one black bear was wounded and ran off, the other black bear was killed.

There was one successful defense with a 9.3X18 Makarov handgun. The grizzly was killed.

There was one failure and two successful defenses with a .38 revolver. One black bear was killed, the other was not captured or recovered. One grizzly ran off and was not recovered.

Seven of the eight uses of the .357 magnum were successful. One was against a grizzly that was stopped with one shot, but then escaped. One grizzly was killed with six shots fired, another with seven shots fired. Another grizzly walked off, and was found dead, two shots had connected. One was a failure against a grizzly bear. Two were successful against black bears; both were killed.

There were four uses of .40 caliber handguns, all against black bears, all successful, all of the bears were killed.

There were three uses of a 10 mm handgun, two against grizzly bears, one against a black bear (cinnamon color phase). They were successful and the bears were killed.

There were two uses of .41 magnum revolvers. Both were against grizzly bears, both were successful and the bears were killed.

There was one successful use of a .44-40 revolver against a black bear, which was killed.

There were twenty-eight uses of .44 magnum revolvers. All were successful. Eight were against black bears, one was mortally wounded but finished off with shotgun slugs, five were killed, another ran off, superficially wounded, the eighth ran from a warning shot. Nineteen were against grizzly bears. Ten were killed without assistance. Four were driven of with warning shots. One was driven off, without evidence of being wounded. Two were wounded and not recovered. Two were wounded and finished off at the scene with a shotgun slug. One was against a polar bear. It was wounded and driven off, then euthanized by local authorities (most likely with a rifle).

There were eight uses of .45 caliber semi-auto pistols against bears. All were successful. Four were against black bears. Two were killed, one was killed later, with additional shots, by responding authorities. One was driven off and not recovered. Four were against grizzly bears. All were killed with multiple hits from the .45 caliber pistols.

There was one successful use of a .45 Colt/.410 revolver, the Taurus Judge. The black bear was driven off, fled up a tree, and was finished off with a rifle (the pistol was a Taurus Judge).

There was one use of a .45 Super pistol. It was successful. The grizzly bear was killed.

There were three uses of a .454 Casull revolver. All were grizzly bears. Two were killed without assistance, one while biting the victim's leg. Another grizzly was shot while charging. It was finished off at the scene with a rifle brought by the defender's wife.

There was one successful defense with a .460 Smith & Wesson magnum revolver, against a grizzly. The bear was killed.

There were thirteen cases of handgun defenses against bears where the handgun caliber was not identified. All were successful. Eight were against black bears. Six of those were killed, one ran off and was not recovered, one fled after a shot was fired. Five were grizzly bears. Three ran off and were not recovered. It was not determined if they were wounded or not. Two grizzly sows were killed. Two juveniles with one of the sows ran off; one two-year-old juvenile with the other of the sows was wounded and later euthanized.

There were two cases where both .357 magnum and .44 magnum revolvers were used. Both grizzly bears were killed.

Including the combined arms handgun cases, there were 39 defenses against black bears, 52 defenses against grizzly bears, and 2 defenses against polar bears.

Three failures out of 93 handgun cases where handguns (not handguns and long guns) were used to defend against bears translate to a 97% success rate for the use of handguns against bears.

[David]

Alaska woman using outhouse attacked by bear, from below

https://apnews.com/article/alaska-woman ... c152f9dabb



Being armed may not have prevent this bizarre incident, but it could have gone south really quickly had the bear left the outhouse.

[David]

39-year-old Colorado woman killed in likely bear attack

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/05 ... 56/?spt=su

[David]

Man Shoots Bear who Pursued Him up Tree in Washington


https://www.ammoland.com/2019/08/man-sh ... z6tfjJmLT1

[David]

Bella Twin, the .22 Used to Take the 1953 World Record Grizzly, and More

https://www.ammoland.com/2017/06/bella- ... z6tjh5yo9m