I really like Dan Becker, and I especially like his faith commitment to Christ.

However, I think he got sold a bill of goods by interviewing someone who claims to have the last word on the gun versus bear spray debate.

It’s no debate in my book. I will never go into the bush without a large bore pistol. End of story. And all of what this “expert” claims are potential pitfalls of use of a firearm aren’t really pitfalls in my book, and I also think he ignores the potential pitfalls of the use of bear spray. If you’re worried about your ability to use a firearm under pressure, carry a revolver in a shoulder holster. A revolver is simple to use.

For my part, I’ve carried a .44 magnum wheel gun, but if I am carrying 450 SMC ammunition, I’ll carry it in a 1911 (with an enhanced recoil spring, i.e., 22#), with a round chambered and on safe, which is an advantage with the 1911 design. It’s easy to sweep the safety off while raising the pistol. A Hill People Gear kit bag worn on my chest puts this within hand’s reach of being able to deploy it.

Dan, if you’re listening, if you want another perspective on this by someone who has compiled the largest, most well-researched catalog of bear attacks and how well firearms do, contact Dean Weingarten (who writes at Ammoland).

Listening to this video I wasn’t sure I was listening to Chuke! He goes down a very long list of calibers that may be a potential deadly affect on large game.

I doubt some of this. Put me up against a large predator like a brown bear and I want a .45 SMC, .44 magnum, shotgun or semiautomatic rifle.

The Alaskan can weigh in since he is experienced with large predatory animals in Alaska. I doubt he will agree with Chuke on this video.

Cowboy State Daily.

A retired Canadian fish and wildlife agent has voiced concern that black bears are “hunting” humans more frequently in Alberta, but that’s not a big concern in Wyoming, some biologists said.

Veteran wildlife agent Murray Bates says he’s noticed a disturbing shift in the pattern of black bear behavior over the course of his 34-year career.

“Grizzlies were protecting their territory, young and food, but certainly, on occasion, killing a human,” he said. “The key word here is hunt. During my tenure I was starting to notice a shift in black bears attacking humans and grizzlies maintaining traditional patterns of attack or kill.

“The records and experts may state otherwise, but I found myself investigating more complaints of black bears tracking humans as prey, then killing and feeding on them,” Bates added.

[ … ]

“I would still rather encounter a predatory black bear than being involved in a surprise encounter with a grizzly bear at a carcass; time is not on your side in the latter whereas with a proper response a predatory black bear can be deterred (first choice is bear spray, followed by standing your ground and fighting with rocks, sticks, and etc.),” he said.

I’m not surprised.  When hunting is discouraged and guns are outlawed, the predators will roam free to do what they want.

Suck it up, Canadians.  There’s more to come with the impending laws against basically any firearm, including hunting with bolt action rifles.  Get used to it, change your government, or carry non-permissively.

And as for his advice to “stand your ground,” that’s not even done in America without a weapon.  The whole notion is legalization of the use of weapons in stand your ground cases rather than having a duty to retreat.

It’s probably not a big concern for Wyoming because they carry guns.

Dean Weingarten.

Before I graduated from high school, I overheard the older brother of a close friend talking about shooting a bear. The bear had been discovered in a den, during the Wisconsin deer season. As I recall, in 1968, such a harvest would have been legal.

I would absolutely feel safe anywhere in North America with an AR-15, including against bears, as long as I had a standard capacity magazine full of ammunition.

Dean Weingarten:

With no round in the chamber and no magazine in the pistol, the Glock was rendered useless, if Mark Uptain ever got to it.

Uptain had bear spray holstered on his hip. Chubon did not recall Uptain using the bear spray to the point where Chubon fled to get help. Uptain emptied the bear spray at some point during the fight. The 250-pound grizzly sow had evidence of bear spray on her. Mark Uptain was killed in spite of the bear spray.

Carrying a semi-automatic pistol with an empty chamber is known as carrying in condition three, terminology used by the renowned gun writer, instructor, and competitor Col. Jeff Cooper.   It is also known as “Israeli Carry”, because it is how Israeli soldiers are trained to carry semi-automatic pistols.

It can work well if the user trains to always load a round from the magazine when the pistol is drawn from the holster.  As a safety feature, if an untrained person accesses the pistol and tries to fire it, they may not know how to load a round into the chamber and can be stymied in their effort to fire the pistol.

First, use guns, don’t rely on bear spray.  Second, a gun is of no use to you if it isn’t on your person and ready to use.  Finally, whatever you may think about having a round chambered, this is one reason I carry 1911s and use the safety.  In one motion I can sweep the safety down as I’m gaining purchase on the gun.

Via correspondent Fred Tippens, NY Post:

GROTON, N.H. — New Hampshire’s Fish and Game Department says a 71-year-old woman suffered serious head injuries from an encounter with a bear in her home.

The department says the bear somehow got inside the woman’s home about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday in Groton, a rural community in the central part of the state. The woman, who uses a wheelchair, was hospitalized. Authorities haven’t been able to talk to her yet.

WMUR-TV reports evidence suggest the bear was trapped in the kitchen area before its encounter with the woman. The bear managed to get out of the home afterward.

Fish and Game officers said they are searching for the bear. They are concerned the bear may have rabies.

The moral of the story is that you’re not safe anywhere, and not just from two-legged threats.  How close do you have a gun in the house?

More:

This golden retriever has a heart of gold.

The loyal pup risked his snout to protect his owner from being bitten by a rattlesnake.

Paula Godwin, from Anthem, Arizona, was on a hike Friday morning when she almost stepped on the dangerous viper, she wrote in a Facebook post.

But Todd swooped in and saved her, she said.

“He jumped right in front of my leg where I surely would have been bit,” she wrote.

Todd, who is less than a year old, tackled the rattlesnake but ended up getting bitten on the nose.

I’m shocked that this dog is alive, but since my Heidi has been bitten by a Copperhead I know that dogs do better with snake bites than humans.  Still, this is a rattlesnake.

Got dogs?

Via TCJ Eastern correspondent Fred Tippens, this bear was pissed.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – A bear was spotted Wednesday afternoon walking around the parking lot at an East Knoxville Cracker Barrel.

Restaurant staff said the bear was spotted in the Cracker Barrel parking lot off of Millertown Pike near Knoxville Center Mall. They said the bear got startled by people getting out of their cars and began jumping on parked vehicles and scratching them, damaging several.

Mckensi Burchell, from Blaine, was at Cracker Barrel when an employee told them to look outside.

“As soon as we looked out the window, the bear was on a 4Runner, then it jumped on top of my car and dented the whole top in,” Burchell said. “What are the chances of this happening?”

Pretty high, I think.  Carry guns, boys.

And speaking of bears, Dean Weingarten at Ammoland has a really interesting article up where he mostly lifts citations out of prior exchanges between a bear expert and park rangers on the best way to defend against big-boy bears.  Spray or guns.

You be the judge.  I’ll carry a gun with me.  The moral of the story is the 3-second rule.  Be prepared, be practiced and be perceptive.

From reader Jack, this is by Dean Weingarten, who writes some of the best stuff on the web.

On the Internet, and in print, many people claim that pistols lack efficacy in defending against bear attacks. Here is an example that occurred on freerepublic.com:

“Actually, there are legions of people who have been badly mauled after using a handgun on a bear. Even some of the vaunted magnums.”

OK, give us a few examples. As you claim “legions”, it should not be too hard.

I never received a response.

[ … ]

I engaged in a search for instances where  pistols were used to defend against bears.  I and my associates have found 37 instances that are fairly easily confirmed. The earliest happened in 1987, the latest mere months ago. The incidents are heavily weighted toward the present, as the ability to publish and search for these incidents has increased, along with increases in bear and human populations, and the carry of pistols.

The 37 cases include one that can fairly be described as a “failure”.

The pistol calibers, when known,  range from 9 mm to .454 Casull. The most common are .44 magnums.  Here are the cases, sorted by caliber …

To summarize, we have found 37 verified cases where pistols were used to defend against bear attacks. Included, for complete data reporting, are two cases where bears were shot at with both rifles and pistols, making it difficult to determine the efficacy of pistols alone.

Of the 35 strictly pistol defense cases, one was a clear failure. That is the use of the .357 against an Alaskan grizzly by a geologist on 20 June, 2010. It is likely the bear was not hit in that incident.

There are four successful defenses with 9 mm pistols. The three grizzly bears were killed, the black bear was wounded and ran off.

Two of the three uses of the .357 were successful. One was against a grizzly that was stopped with one shot, but then escaped. The other grizzly was killed with six shots fired.

There were three uses of .40 caliber pistols, all against black bears, all successful, all of the bears were killed.

There was one use of a 10 mm pistol against a grizzly. 4 or 5 shots were fired.  It was successful and the bear was killed.

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

There were twelve uses of .44 magnum revolvers. All were successful. One was against a black bear, it was mortally wounded but finished off with shotgun slugs. Eleven were against grizzly bears.  Two were driven of with “warning shots”. One was driven off, without evidence of being wounded.  One was wounded and not recovered.  One was wounded and finished off at the scene with a shotgun slug. Six were killed without further assistance.

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.

I covered on of these incidents, the first such incident with a .45 ACP or any handgun at all after carry was legalized in national parks.

You can read the incisive and detailed analysis by Dean for yourself.  I recommend that you do.  Most pistols were effective, especially .44 magnum and .45 ACP (and if you’re shooting 45 SCM in your .45 ACP handgun, you’re approaching .44 magnum muzzle velocity).

So any time you hear that spray is more effective and a handgun doesn’t work, remember that the progs are engaging in myth-making and fairy tales.

News Miner:

“At least it’s sunny out,” Dybdahl recalled telling his hunting partner while the pair were waiting for a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to find them.

Dybdahl, 30, knew he was losing a lot of blood, he knew that there was a chance the helicopter might not find him and he also knew there were more bears in the brush circling them. But none of that mattered. He had already made up his mind that he was going to live.

Sitting up in his hospital bed Tuesday, Hoonah resident Dybdahl went over the surreal mauling he had suffered just three days prior while on a hunting trip near Port Frederick bay with his friend Anthony Lindoff, 36. The two had taken a boat out to an area just 10 miles southwest of Hoonah to look for deer. As they were getting ready to make deer calls, Lindoff said, he heard something. He hoped it was a deer, but then he turned and locked eyes with a sow brown bear running straight toward him.

“It didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to bluff charge, this was serious,” Lindoff said. “It chased me first, and as I was running, backing away, I was trying to swing at it with my trekking poll because my rifle was in my sling on my backpack. I immediately thought that was the biggest mistake I could have made. . I felt like the worst hunting partner.”

Dybdahl threw off his pack and headed farther down the hill, trying to get his rifle in position to help out his friend. Unfortunately, Dybdahl didn’t know that the same direction he was moving in was where the sow bear had left two of her cubs behind. In what Dybdahl said seemed like a single moment, the bear changed direction and Dybdahl was on the ground. His rifle no longer in his hands, he screamed for his friend to shoot the bear as it pinned him down, and had its teeth in his flesh.

Dybdahl said he had never been more “in the moment,” able to see, hear, and smell everything so intensely. Everything he knew about bears went racing through his head. He realized quickly he was angering the bear more by moving and screaming. His body went limp and he was silent. But even though he made himself appear harmless, the sow didn’t stop. For the next 10 seconds, he said, his whole body could feel the bear’s ferocity and rage.

“When she bit down on my leg, my thigh, she ripped so hard. . I could hear everything,” Dybdahl said. “It sounded like paper ripping and she pulled my thigh. I felt my whole thigh muscle move away from my leg bone.”

[ … ]

Although he flinched when Dybdahl recreated the sound of flesh tearing, Lindoff was not as unsettled on Saturday. When he saw the bear on Dybdahl, he went through six motions in approximately 10 seconds, never skipping a beat. He slung his rifle in front of him, took the gun sleeve off, took off the scope cover, chambered a round, aimed and fired.

“I’ve never de-slinged my rifle that quickly,” Lindoff said.

Josh was very blessed.  If you’re going to be in the bush, carry your rifle in hand, regardless of whether it’s comfortable or not.  Or if you don’t want to do that, carry a sidearm for self defense.  I think most Alaskan’s will tell you to carry a wheel gun, .44 Magnum or .454 Casull.  That’s probably good counsel for the entire Northwest.  Down South here, carrying .45 ACP is just fine.

I said earlier that I’m no fan of bear spray unless backed up by a gun, but this little example shows why (via Uncle).  Of course, this isn’t something a 230-grain fat boy won’t stop.

Prior:

Is A Gun Protection Against A Bear?

Backpacker Shoots Grizzly In Denali: First Life Saved Since Firearms Became Legal In National Parks

When Can You Kill A Bear?