Grizzly with a .357?

Stylishxone767

When I do long rang hiking, I take my Ruger .357 GP100 w/a 4 inch barrel with me. Im curious as to whether or not I could kill an attacking grizzly bear or at least a brown bear with it. Does anyone know if its been done before?

Danra

With a heavy and full metal jacket a 357 magnum can kill a black bear with well placed shots to the heart or lungs, but remember, a .357 magnum only puts out a little more energy than a .40 S&W

I know a man that emptied a 44 magnum revolver into a grizzly and did not kill it. A grizzly is a lot of bear.

He Dog

.44 mag is about the minimum. 12guage slugs are better.

captkirk3@dslextreme.com

Send me your email address......One Photo is worth a 1000 words...maybe even your life......I want to send you something via email.....best....

n/a

I would not want to be the one to find out if it did the job...that being said, I would rather have that than nothing.

I'd recommend at least a .41 Mag. I'd also recommend the Taurus 4" Titanium model...very light weight.

iwannausername

The 357 with you is better than the 50bmg at home.

I'd go for the heaviest solid bullet you can find with a max load behind it.

Fatstrat

Shot placement is the key. Bears have very thick skulls that can deflect bullets. They also have a thick frontal plate in thier chest area that is hard to penetrate.
Head shots in eye or snout are about the only ones that reliably work. Side body shots are best trying to hit the bear in the area just in front or behind of the front leg.
These shots are often hard to make on a charging bear. That's why the more firepower the better!

scottb

Brown bear and grizzly bear are the same animal. I would not try shooting one with a 357 unless I had no options. For black bears,I carry a 357 (180 or 140 grains)with 6 inches of barrel here in northeastern oregon, near hells canyon. I wouldnt want to shoot anything smaller than that and its really more useful at scaring stuff off than anything else. But it beats throwing rocks.

ern98

I wouldn't expect to survive a real attack, but then maybe the griz won't either. Your 357 may be cold comfort, but I'd expect that it is still better the bells and pepper spray. If I were really concerned I'd carry a short 12gage slug gun with folding stock, only where the laws permit of course.

bpost

A .357 Mag. Loaded to old loading manual levels with a Speer 158 TMJ or a gas checked linotype Keith style bullet can really penetrate well. It will reach the vitals on a bear.

-BUT-
From my experience while living in Alaska the common wisdom was to file the front sight off of the handgun you were carrying for bear defense. With the front sight filed off it did not hurt so bad when the bear crammed it up places we don't discuss here.

That was true until the .454 Casul came onto the scene, they sold like hot cakes there.

A 12 ga. with slugs is much more effective.

2xbyu

http://www.gunblast.com/MilesFortis-AKChurch_BuffaloBore.htm

Good luck.

1022man

I hunt with a 357mag, whitetails and so forth. This is in Ohio, no big critters. Talk to anyone who works in the wilderness in Alaska, the only thing they carry are 12ga. Min for handgun would be 44mag, 6"+ barrel, anything smaller or shorter barrel and it is just going to make the bear madder. You have to remiber blacks and browns are as differnt as bears get. You can fight a black off, once a brown wants to attack, your bear poop! You know why you take the front sight of your handgun? So it dosn't hurt so bad when your pulling out of your bottom once the PO'd bear stuck it in there!

dfletcher

I think the 357 is far too light. I carry a 41 Mag in black bear as back up and consider it minumum. I'm sure CaptKirk has photos of the hiker/camper who used a 38 to try & stop a grizzly.