National Park Carry

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glockfan wrote:

http://www.nps.gov/shen/naturescience/bear_safety.htm

"If a bear charges…
Don’t run! Bears often make bluff charges, sometimes to within 10 feet of their adversary, without making contact. Usually if you hold your ground they will back off."

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If a bear "bluff charges" and stops "sometimes to within 10 feet of their adversary." (that would be you), then God has given you a second chance. A chance to take carful aim and shoot the bear while he is not closing the distance between you and he at an alarming rate. Do not pass up this gift from God.

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Glock for bear defense, huh? I think I'd want something like a G29 for that application, myself.

I think I'd be more worried that shooting the bear would just get it even more angry (unless I happened to have a higher-powered rifle along).

How about carrying a .30-06 for bear defense? :lol:

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Do not pass up this gift from God.

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Or the chance to obtain an awesome throw rug or ottoman depending on how large/tall.

Sarcasm
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If anyone wants a chance to practice holdingtheir ground against a charging animal I know a few people that will be training large dogs this summer.

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As for Gun/caliber choice use whatever gives you comfort.

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I am one of those Glock carriers, although I love my 1911s too.

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Before the boat incident I owned more 1911's than any other type/style of firearms, calibers ranging from .380 to .45 Win mag

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Agent19 wrote:

Or the chance to obtain an awesome throw rug or ottoman depending on how large/tall.

Sarcasm
[line]
If anyone wants a chance to practice holdingtheir ground against a charging animal I know a few people that will be training large dogs this summer.

[line]
As for Gun/caliber choice use whatever gives you comfort.

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About the time you think you might be good enough and are carrying enough gun, pause and consider this.

Familiar with the 21 ft rule and the reaction time vs time it takes an active aggressor to reach you?

Good - now crank up the aggressor's speed to that of a charging bear or dog bent on chewing on your body. Do you now require a 50 ft safety zone?

You will need to be not only fast and accurate - small kill zone - but lucky too to escape without serious injury.

Both animals have jaws of steel and a bear can swipe your head almost off.

I've been told that between the "L" for life and the "Y" for yours, that there is the potential for a lot of "UCK" L..uck...y What he meant was you've got to have it all together to be lucky and not become a mass of uck.

I've trained with dogs and prefer being in a tower with a long gun thank you.
I've also seen pictures taken from 8-10' away - ground level, prone, where the dog did not perceive it as a threat - beautiful well conditioned animals.

Yata hey

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Grapeshot wrote:

Agent19 wrote:

Or the chance to obtain an awesome throw rug or ottoman depending on how large/tall.

Sarcasm
[line]
If anyone wants a chance to practice holdingtheir ground against a charging animal I know a few people that will be training large dogs this summer.

[line]
As for Gun/caliber choice use whatever gives you comfort.

Click to expand...

About the time you think you might be good enough and are carrying enough gun, pause and consider this.

Familiar with the 21 ft rule and the reaction time vs time it takes an active aggressor to reach you?

Good - now crank up the aggressor's speed to that of a charging bear or dog bent on chewing on your body. Do you now require a 50 ft safety zone?

You will need to be not only fast and accurate - small kill zone - but lucky too to escape without serious injury.

Both animals have jaws of steel and a bear can swipe your head almost off.

I've been told that between the "L" for life and the "Y" for yours, that there is the potential for a lot of "UCK" L..uck...y What he meant was you've got to have it all together to be lucky and not become a mass of uck.

I've trained with dogs and prefer being in a tower with a long gun thank you.
I've also seen pictures taken from 8-10' away - ground level, prone, where the dog did not perceive it as a threat - beautiful well conditioned animals.

Yata hey

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Since the powers haven't deleted this thread yet, I'll throw what little I know about bears in.

First, the chance of being attacked by one is very remote. They have the best sense of smell I know of and generally hate being around humans.
Even with cubs, they are pretty skittish.

I've seen three types of aggression.
The stomp and scoot. A bear will get disgusted because your interrupting his meal, take one hop at you while snorting or woofing, then scoot off.
That happens to me fairly often.

The second is a false charge. They are rare. Black bears aren't like Grizzly's. A black bear doesn't charge often (I've seen two false charges in my life) and when they do charge, they generally mean it.

Charge. I saw that once and it wasn't charging me. It went after a fellow in a tree stand and damn near got him before he was able to shoot him.

Stopping a charge requires a brain or spine shot. A heart or lung shot will kill them quickly but not stop them in time.
In Va woods, the ranges will be short so 21 feet is about right. Hitting brain or spine is almost impossible with something like that running at you.

The most dangerous bears are ones that are used to people or ones that have been fed.
The next most dangerous are the males that come courting in the spring. They will kill the cubs and in general have a chip on their shoulder.

People are more dangerous so I like to have something that is capable of heavy penetration on game but can be used as a defense weapon too. That rules out single shots like contenders.

This is the last bear picture I took. It was a couple of months ago and gives you an idea just how big they look up close.

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Peter are you related to Grizzly Adams? :lol:

OCing in a National Park of course.

BTW - that looks like a well feed animal.

Yata hey

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peter nap wrote:

People are more dangerous so I like to have something that is capable of heavy penetration on game but can be used as a defense weapon too. That rules out single shots like contenders.

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I wonder if the best solution would be to carry a bear spray along with my GLOCK 22?

If I load my S&W model 29 for bar' it won't be as good on the 2 legged critter.

But I want to carry the 29 it's pretty.

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glockfan wrote:

peter nap wrote:

People are more dangerous so I like to have something that is capable of heavy penetration on game but can be used as a defense weapon too. That rules out single shots like contenders.

Click to expand...

I wonder if the best solution would be to carry a bear spray along with my GLOCK 22?

If I load my S&W model 29 for bar' it won't be as good on the 2 legged critter.

But I want to carry the 29 it's pretty.

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Load Some light Magnums or heavy Specials using a heavy lead bullet with a wide Meplat. That will work for both.
[size="-1"]C430-310-RF[/size]

I carry Bear Spray but mostly in the burbs. It works better than people pepper and if you get the Halon carrier, makes a dandy fire extinguisher for the car.

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As a kid I was cooking some hamburgers with my father outside of a rented cabin in PA. Bad idea... =/ I was sitting with my back to the woods and twards the grill reading a book. I had a large black bear (note: I was 10), walk up behind me. He got within about 5 feet without me noticing.

My father then came out of the cabin to flip the burgers when screamed bear and went into the cabin. I looked behind me and was so startled i threw the lawn chair at it and ran. Probably the fastest I have ever run, but the only reason I think the bear ran was because of the lawn chair. He could have had me and the burgers. Frankly, the burgers would have been the real tragedy.

Anyways, it wasn't a charge and I am still pretty sure if i was startled i startled it too. Ill try and see if I can remember which cabin and where it was in PA again. Its been a long time.