Found this elsewhere, sharing here for us who venture into big bear habitat out West.
![Image]()
Excellent compilation of stopping bears with a pistol. The pistol has been more successful than I thought.
Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber
Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/2018/02/de...s-rate-37-incidents-by-caliber/#ixzz5sS36vLdL
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
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Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber
Ammoland Inc. Posted on February 19, 2018 by Dean Weingarten
![Bear With Salmon]( "Bear With Salmon")
Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber
Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- 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:
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:
We have found four cases where 9 mm pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful.
1. Alaska, Russian River, Grizzly Charged Fishermen, 9mm 17 August, 2002
I interviewed both sources. The attack was reported to Fish and Game, but was not published.
It was at the end of the day, and was getting dark. Two bow hunters, were returning from their bow hunt. They both had bear spray and pistols. They had agreed that if forced into defending themselves, one would use spray, the other would back up the spray with his pistol.
The male grizzly bluff charged several times, blocking their return to camp.
Warning shots were fired in the air with a 9 mm pistol. The bear ran off, then came back. Bear spray was utilized but only extended 10 feet into a light head wind and did not reach the bear. The bear would not disengage. It kept coming back and getting closer. The aggressive bear was finally shot with the 9 mm pistol at close range. It ran off. The report was made to Fish and Wildlife, and the bear was found dead the next day. Eye-witness believes it was one shot to the chest of the bear.
We have found three cases where .357 revolvers were used to defend against bears. Two were successful, one was unsuccessful.
1. MT: Grizzly Bear Killed After Biting Warden in Montana Forest June 26, 1987, .357 Magnum
Pictures at Field and Stream Article here
1. Black Bear broke into Anchorage home, AK Glock .40 , 2 June, 2006
AK: Kim Woodman Kills Charging Grizzly with 10 mm 29 July, 2016
1. Montana: Bear attacked, man mauled, used .41 Mag to stop second attack April, 2008
Bozeman daily Chronicle
1. AZ .44 Magnum used to stop black bear attack, AZ Republic, page 39 -Newspapers.com, July 1996
Comprehensive article from Gun Watch published in 2017
Original story from Anchorage Daily News
Link to video on Youtube
1. Grizzly shot with 9 rounds of .45 from a Glock 21 from gunnerforum.org reported August 22, 2009
WY: .45 Super Stops Grizzly Bear Charge (Oct. 2017)
AK, Kenai Peninsula, Charging Brown Bear Stopped with Ruger .454 Casull, 2 August, 2009
1. On the same day, another bear attack (Tom Miner Basin) and pistol defense of Roman Morris From mtstandard.com: October 6, 2007
1. Black Bear, wounded with .338 rifle; Glide, Oregon 31 May, 2008 .45 pistol and .44 magnum revolver
2. September 2010, Elk Hunters at Bruin Creek, Thorofare Country, Wyoming .44 magnums, .45-70 rifle
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.
There was one use of a .454 Casull revolver. 4 or 5 shots were fired and the grizzly bear was finished off at the scene with a rifle brought by the defender's wife.
There were three cases of pistol defenses against bears where the pistol caliber was not identified. One was a grizzly, which ran off. It was not determined if the bear was wounded or not. The other two were black bears that were killed with the pistol fire.
There was one case where both .357 magnum and .44 magnum revolvers were used. The grizzly bear was killed.
In total, there were 8 defenses against black bears and 27 defenses against grizzly bears.
One pistol failure out of 35 cases translates to a 97% success rate for the use of handguns against bears.
Successful bear defenses with a pistol are probably under-reported, much like successful firearm defenses against criminals. If a predatory black bear is shot and runs off, there are strong incentives for the shooter not to report the incident. Incidents, where no human is injured, are seldom considered news. This creates a strong selection bias against successful pistol defenses against bears.
Predatory black bear attacks are the most common fatal black bear attacks in North America. Only 8 of the pistol defenses listed above are defenses against black bears or 23%. It is reasonable to believe there should be about twice that number. Black bear predatory attacks often give potential victims good opportunities to use a pistol effectively.
I have two reported instances of successful bear defenses with a .38 special revolver. One against a black bear, and one against a grizzly. I have not been able to verify either. I have found two more reported cases of the successful use of the 10 mm pistol, and one more for the .357 magnum, but have not been able to verify them.
Even in the age of the Internet, reports can become difficult to find after a few years. I recall an incident where an Alaskan State Trooper killed a grizzly bear with his duty pistol, while an associate with a 12 gauge shotgun did not fire. I have not been able to find that report. It may have been the 2013 incident where unarmed Thomas Puerta was killed and eaten. I am not certain.
If anyone has sources for that incident, or of others not recorded here, either successes or failures, please let us know.
Pistol defense failures against bears should be widely reported. When humans are injured by bears, it is news.
In this compilation of incidents, one was a failure. The .357 magnum was fired three times. The shooter was mauled after the first shot and after the second and third shots. It seems likely the shooter missed all three shots. It is the only bear defense with a pistol, that failed, that we have found.
One failure out of 35 incidents is better than a 97% success rate for pistol defenses against bears. Using a pistol to defend against bear attacks seems to be a viable option.
The often cited Efficacy of firearms for bear deterrence in Alaska by Tom S. Smith, Stephen Herrero, and others, included 37 instances of a handgun being present when a bear attacked a human. The instances collected were from 1883 to 2009. They recorded 6 failures to stop the attack out of the 37 instances. That is an 84% success rate. Pistol and ammunition technology have greatly improved since 1883.
The authors of the Efficacy of firearms have not released their data. There could be as many as six instances of overlap between the Efficacy of firearms data set and our collection, so a combination of the data is not useful unless the Effficacy of firearms data set is released. We cannot know how many of the six “failures” of the efficacy study might be because the handgun was never attempted to be used, was unable to be accessed because it was buried in a pack, or for other reasons.
All of the instances cited in this article can be verified independently.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Excellent compilation of stopping bears with a pistol. The pistol has been more successful than I thought.
Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber
Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/2018/02/de...s-rate-37-incidents-by-caliber/#ixzz5sS36vLdL
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Follow us: @Ammoland on Twitter | Ammoland on Facebook
Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber
Ammoland Inc. Posted on February 19, 2018 by Dean Weingarten
Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber
Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- 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:
I never received a response. I believe the claim was made in good faith. There has been much conjecture about the lack of efficacy of pistols for defense against bears. A little searching will find a plethora of fantasy, fiction, mythology, and electrons sprayed about the supposed lack.
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:
We have found four cases where 9 mm pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful.
1. Alaska, Russian River, Grizzly Charged Fishermen, 9mm 17 August, 2002
2. Bear Charged John Tiebohl, 9 mm, 31 August, 2004 Bachelor Gulch, Colorado
3. AK: Guide Kills Attacking Grizzly with 9mm, July, 2016
4. Bowhunters, Spray Failed, 9mm, Grizzly October, 2017, account from two sources, Todd Orr, and Eye-witness, Beaver Creek, MT.
I interviewed both sources. The attack was reported to Fish and Game, but was not published.
It was at the end of the day, and was getting dark. Two bow hunters, were returning from their bow hunt. They both had bear spray and pistols. They had agreed that if forced into defending themselves, one would use spray, the other would back up the spray with his pistol.
The male grizzly bluff charged several times, blocking their return to camp.
Warning shots were fired in the air with a 9 mm pistol. The bear ran off, then came back. Bear spray was utilized but only extended 10 feet into a light head wind and did not reach the bear. The bear would not disengage. It kept coming back and getting closer. The aggressive bear was finally shot with the 9 mm pistol at close range. It ran off. The report was made to Fish and Wildlife, and the bear was found dead the next day. Eye-witness believes it was one shot to the chest of the bear.
We have found three cases where .357 revolvers were used to defend against bears. Two were successful, one was unsuccessful.
1. MT: Grizzly Bear Killed After Biting Warden in Montana Forest June 26, 1987, .357 Magnum
Pictures at Field and Stream Article here
2. Alaska Geologist Pistol Defense failure June 20, 2010, Grizzly Bear, .357 Magnum
3. Glacier National Park: Bear first sprayed, then shot with a .357 (July 2014)
We have found three cases where .40 caliber pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful.
1. Black Bear broke into Anchorage home, AK Glock .40 , 2 June, 2006
2. Zanesville Ohio, escaped bear, duty pistol, 20 October, 2011 .40 caliber (from Muskingum County Sheriff's Office)
3. May 13, 2017 Bristol, NH, Officer shoots, kills Aggressive Black Bear with .40 cal Glock
We have found one case where a 10 mm pistol was used to defend against a bear. It was successful.
AK: Kim Woodman Kills Charging Grizzly with 10 mm 29 July, 2016
We have found two cases where .41 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. Both were successful.
1. Montana: Bear attacked, man mauled, used .41 Mag to stop second attack April, 2008
Bozeman daily Chronicle
2. Clark Wy, .41 Magnum, Grizzly, 19 July, 2009
We have found twelve cases where .44 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. All were successful.
1. AZ .44 Magnum used to stop black bear attack, AZ Republic, page 39 -Newspapers.com, July 1996
Comprehensive article from Gun Watch published in 2017
2. Muldoon Alaska, Hiker Kills Charging Brown Bear from 20 feet with .44 Magnum, 24 September, 2004
Original story from Anchorage Daily News
3. Grizzly attacked Moose Hunters, 7 September, 2006, Alaska, .44 magnum, The Longest Minute
4. Wyoming, Flying H Ranch, Bowhunters Attacked by 600 lb Grizzly, Stopped Charge with .44 Magnum 17 September, 2007
5. From bozemandailychronicle.com: October 6, 2007 MT (Tom Miner Basin), .44 Magnum
6. British Columbia: A Grizzly Bear, a .44 magnum, and a brush with death June 2010
Link to video on Youtube
7. Wyoming, Paint Creek, Shoshone National Forest, Bow hunter shot Charging Grizzly with .44 magnum, 2010
8. AK: Details on Charging Kodiak stopped with a .44 Mag Revolver (July 2015)
9. Grand Teton National Park: Fisherman fires warning shots with .44 Magnum, Deters Bear Attack, August 15, 2015
10. Idaho: Bear Attacked Bow Hunter, Could not Reach Bear Spray, Drove off Bear with .44 Magnum pistol shots, 31 August, 2015
11. AK: Successful Bear Attack Defense with .44 Magnum (Aug 7, 2016)
12. MT: Father Uses .44 Magnum to Shoot Grizzly Bear off Son (Oct. 2017)
We have found four cases where .45 caliber pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful.
1. Grizzly shot with 9 rounds of .45 from a Glock 21 from gunnerforum.org reported August 22, 2009
2. AK, Denali National Park: Backpacker Stops Grizzly attack with .45 pistol, May 28, 2010
3. AK: .45 vs 9-Foot Brown Bear (July, 2014), .45 semi-auto
4. ID: Bear Attack on Sleeping Man Stopped with a .45 Pistol (Oct 2015)
We have found one case where .45 Super pistol was used to defend against a bear. It was successful.
WY: .45 Super Stops Grizzly Bear Charge (Oct. 2017)
We have found one case where .454 Casull revolver was used to defend against a bear. It was successful.
AK, Kenai Peninsula, Charging Brown Bear Stopped with Ruger .454 Casull, 2 August, 2009
We have found three cases where the handguns used to defend against bears were not identified. All were successful.
1. On the same day, another bear attack (Tom Miner Basin) and pistol defense of Roman Morris From mtstandard.com: October 6, 2007
2. Massachusetts: Handgun Defense against Black Bear (Nov 2014)
3. AZ: Bow Hunter Uses Handgun to Stop Unprovoked Bear Attack In Sept, 2016
There were three cases where combined arms were used to defend against bears. The two with both rifle and pistol calibers are included in the interest of complete data reporting but are not used in the determination of the success rate. The one case with .357 and .44 magnum pistols is included in the 35 pistol cases. All three cases were successful.
1. Black Bear, wounded with .338 rifle; Glide, Oregon 31 May, 2008 .45 pistol and .44 magnum revolver
In this account, the pistol is revealed to be a Llama .45 with a 3.25 inch barrel. From shootersforum.com.
2. September 2010, Elk Hunters at Bruin Creek, Thorofare Country, Wyoming .44 magnums, .45-70 rifle
3. Thorofare Country south of Yellowstone, Grizzly at 10 feet, .44 magnum and .357 magnum, September, 2013 (report from 2015)
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.
There was one use of a .454 Casull revolver. 4 or 5 shots were fired and the grizzly bear was finished off at the scene with a rifle brought by the defender's wife.
There were three cases of pistol defenses against bears where the pistol caliber was not identified. One was a grizzly, which ran off. It was not determined if the bear was wounded or not. The other two were black bears that were killed with the pistol fire.
There was one case where both .357 magnum and .44 magnum revolvers were used. The grizzly bear was killed.
In total, there were 8 defenses against black bears and 27 defenses against grizzly bears.
One pistol failure out of 35 cases translates to a 97% success rate for the use of handguns against bears.
Successful bear defenses with a pistol are probably under-reported, much like successful firearm defenses against criminals. If a predatory black bear is shot and runs off, there are strong incentives for the shooter not to report the incident. Incidents, where no human is injured, are seldom considered news. This creates a strong selection bias against successful pistol defenses against bears.
Predatory black bear attacks are the most common fatal black bear attacks in North America. Only 8 of the pistol defenses listed above are defenses against black bears or 23%. It is reasonable to believe there should be about twice that number. Black bear predatory attacks often give potential victims good opportunities to use a pistol effectively.
I have two reported instances of successful bear defenses with a .38 special revolver. One against a black bear, and one against a grizzly. I have not been able to verify either. I have found two more reported cases of the successful use of the 10 mm pistol, and one more for the .357 magnum, but have not been able to verify them.
Even in the age of the Internet, reports can become difficult to find after a few years. I recall an incident where an Alaskan State Trooper killed a grizzly bear with his duty pistol, while an associate with a 12 gauge shotgun did not fire. I have not been able to find that report. It may have been the 2013 incident where unarmed Thomas Puerta was killed and eaten. I am not certain.
If anyone has sources for that incident, or of others not recorded here, either successes or failures, please let us know.
Pistol defense failures against bears should be widely reported. When humans are injured by bears, it is news.
In this compilation of incidents, one was a failure. The .357 magnum was fired three times. The shooter was mauled after the first shot and after the second and third shots. It seems likely the shooter missed all three shots. It is the only bear defense with a pistol, that failed, that we have found.
One failure out of 35 incidents is better than a 97% success rate for pistol defenses against bears. Using a pistol to defend against bear attacks seems to be a viable option.
The often cited Efficacy of firearms for bear deterrence in Alaska by Tom S. Smith, Stephen Herrero, and others, included 37 instances of a handgun being present when a bear attacked a human. The instances collected were from 1883 to 2009. They recorded 6 failures to stop the attack out of the 37 instances. That is an 84% success rate. Pistol and ammunition technology have greatly improved since 1883.
The authors of the Efficacy of firearms have not released their data. There could be as many as six instances of overlap between the Efficacy of firearms data set and our collection, so a combination of the data is not useful unless the Effficacy of firearms data set is released. We cannot know how many of the six “failures” of the efficacy study might be because the handgun was never attempted to be used, was unable to be accessed because it was buried in a pack, or for other reasons.
All of the instances cited in this article can be verified independently.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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