Ultra-compact takedowns

The real challenge will be your length limit. For any repeater the length of the action and the butt will put you well over. I can't see you running a 12" LOP and still you'd be around 20" which isn't where you want to be.
 
MaxKW said:
I have a TC Encore with 15" barrel in 500 S&W mag, it would fit all your criteria except it's not a repeater, would be fairly simple to carry an extra barrel or two as well, not sure what game you would be filling the pot with but with short barrels in 22 hornet, 223, 308 or maybe .410 depending on intended target you should be covered.
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T/C worth looking at.. can be fast and they are light weight easy to carry and safe. A spare barrel in 12 or 20g is handy. There are folding stocks available as well so you can go short barrel OR folding stock. The action is as short as you can get. I have never had to shoot a problem bear but I would like to hear if anyone with real experience has ever found a 3" 12g of 00 buckshot unsatisfactory in discouraging a bear charge at 25 yds?
 
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It's a little longer than you want but a Timberwolf will fit into a 24" tripod bag when it's taken down and they come in .44 magnum.

And the only tool you need is a loony.

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Curious why you think .44 mag won't cut the mustard out of a rifle? It will take any grizzly if you do your part. Alternately, you could get a Rossi 16" trapper in .454 Casul and have a butt pad fitted. Not a take-down though.

Chiappa makes a nice .44 take-down with 12" and 16" barrels and full-length butts, but with their QA/QC issues, I would not select one online. Also they are hard chromed, not stainless. They also make an 1886 variant called the "Kodiak" (presumably after Kodiak grizzlies) in hard chrome, .45-70 with 16" and 18" variants. Hard chromed as well with Skinner sights standard.

That co-Pilot looks sweet if the price isn't a preventative factor for you.

If overall length is less of a concern, take a look at the Marlin 308MXLR - it's stainless and laminate in .308 Marlin Express. Same ballistics as a 160gn .308 Winchester load and hits above 2500 ft lbs. It's the small-calibre high-powered option to consider if you aren't fixated on big bores.

Nobody has mentioned them, but also check out Bighorn Armory. They make an 1886 Winchester variant in both .460 S&W Magnum and a .500 S&W magnum. Both should be awesome on grizzlies out of a rifle barrel.

It's too bad the circuit judge is restricted in Canada - it would be a cool option.
 
cleo said:
A can of bear spray is not much over 6" long, lots quicker and more effective. You ever see the video of guys using various different firearms to shoot at various different sized balls rolling and bouncing down a hill, simulating a charging grizz? They couldn't hit the balls with rifles shotguns or handguns with any consistency at all. And I figure a rolling basketball is not near as scary as a slobbering charging grizz..

Cleo
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Taken down rifle in your pack won't help much either. :)

Grizz
 
My experience hunting and including Grizzly has led me to have very little faith in the marginal chamberings like .44 Mag. That faith drops to quite low in a defensive situation with an adrenaline charged bear, and shooter. Granted, I haven't used .44 Mag on Grizzly, but it would be highly comparable to .243 for effectiveness, with a much shorter useful range. Many people will scoff and assume you don't know what you're talking about when you say this, as the .44 Mag has taken every game animal imaginable. So can the .243 mind you, and cleanly, just like the .44 with perfect shot placement and holding on inopportune shots. I've done just enough handgun hunting abroad with heavy bullet chamberings to know it's a lot like archery, yes the animals die, not always the way you want or where you want. A .308 looks like the hammer of Thor on game in comparison to the .44 Mag, and few of us consider the .308 a powerhouse. So I'd like something that can easily churn out more power than a .308. I see .44 Mag on big bears as the same thing as .22LR on a mad dog. Probably will work, a lot less than ideal however.

I suppose exposure is a big part of my thinking too, if you run into a Grizzly once a year, a .44 Mag would keep me happy too. Unfortunately (well, fortunately in my eyes, I like having the apex predators about) they'll sit and watch us work from fifty yards, and are encountered very, very frequently.

Cell phone pic from this year of one watching me from fifty yards, just curious what's up.



This was the most exciting bear behaviour I've ever had the displeasure of witnessing, a sow Grizzly with two cubs, not pictured, encountered by accident. She bluff charged, and it's better than coffee. This is also a cell phone pic and hopefully folks know how far away that makes things look, she was smell the breath range by the end of the turn she's starting to make in the pic here.



Then this family, admittedly encountered while Elk hunting, but again a cell photo. I run into an awful lot of Grizzlies and just don't trust something on the edge of enough gun. I've never had to shoot one in anger, hope I never will, but you bet I want to be holding a proper rifle, and repeater, while holding that fire. :)

/end windbag session! Appreciate all the suggestions, nice to see what's out there.

 
Winchester did catalog a 45 colt 1892 trapper takedown a few years back, this would get you down to approx 16 inches.
 
Ardent said:
My experience hunting and including Grizzly has led me to have very little faith in the marginal chamberings like .44 Mag. That faith drops to quite low in a defensive situation with an adrenaline charged bear, and shooter. Granted, I haven't used .44 Mag on Grizzly, but it would be highly comparable to .243 for effectiveness, with a much shorter useful range. Many people will scoff ...
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No offense intended, but I stopped reading your post right here.

The Hornady 44 Mag 225 gr FTX Leverevolution factory round retains 1629 fps /1325 ft-lbs at 50 meters. At the muzzle it clocks 1870/1747. That is no slouch with a ballistic coefficient of .145 and it makes a really big hole.

.243, on the other hand, has too light a bullet construction - if you don't hit him right in the brain, it will barely slow a bear down. Some people consider this round marginal for DEER!

Of course, if the original post did't specify a light, handy, ultra-compact take-down for less than the price of a co-pilot, we'd all be steering you toward something like a marlin guide gun .45-70 with hot loads. ;)

EDIT: Then again, for a guy who hunts with double rifles, etc., maybe you are looking for expensive haute-couture?

If so, look here. I think it looks promising. Available in .500 as well. http://www.bighornarmory.com/catalog/big-horn-armory-products/model-90-rifle-460-sandw-5/

then look here:

http://www.hornady.com/store/460-SW-200-gr-FTX/ in a 8" HANDGUN it clocks 2200/2149 at the muzzle, BC of .151 - I can't find the rifle data, but it's a big-bore barn burner.
 
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Claven2 said:
The Hornady 44 Mag 225 gr FTX Leverevolution factory round retains 1629 fps /1325 ft-lbs at 50 meters. At the muzzle it clocks 1870/1747. That is no slouch with a ballistic coefficient of .145 and it makes a really big hole.

.243, on the other hand, has too light a bullet construction - if you don't hit him right in the brain, it will barely slow a bear down. Some people consider this round marginal for DEER!

Of course, if the OP did't want a light, handy, ultra-compact take-down for less than the price of a co-pilot, we'd all be steering him toward something like a marlin guide gun .45-70 with hot loads.
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That's the case with most calibers in some circumstances. I recently watched a video a friend took of a grizzly soaking up 5 rounds from a 378 Wby before he even went down. It was a sobering tale.
 
bearkilr said:
That's the case with most calibers in some circumstances. I recently watched a video a friend took of a grizzly soaking up 5 rounds from a 378 Wby before he even went down. It was a sobering tale.
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I've found that much of it (on any big game animal) depends on the first hit. A really solid first hit will make a big difference.

Regardless of the internet banter - and I bet nobody talking about it here has actually stopped a grizzly charge - the person in the situation needs to have confidence in their equipment. I believe this confidence is an important part of having a good outcome in the end.
 
On the other extreme, there are shows like History's "the hunt" where they depict a bunch of lipstick-wearing 20-something hotties stalking Kodiaks with a CVA .50 inline all by themselves. I'm skeptical that there isn't a team of guides sporting .45-70's just off camera - it would't do to have Sleeping Beauty become people jerky on cable TV.

Another crew on that show is hunting bull grizzlies with a recurve longbow and broad heads. I'm similarly skeptical.
 
Ardent said:
No offence intended back, but I've shot an awful lot of living things with an awful lot of chamberings, including .44. The statement isn't popular, but it's true, the .44 is no powerhouse or game thumper in stopping terms.
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Nor do I claim it is. But in ultra-lightweight compacts that clock in for less dough than the co-pilot, you basically have to accept a round like the .44 or the .454 Casul - both will kill a grizzly in a defence situation if the shooter does his part - typically you will shoot for the head at 15 yards and less. It works, but not with a huge margin. Once you step up over the $2K limit and are willing to sacrifice something like the takedown option, the field of guns for consideration widens dramatically.
 
Claven2 said:
On the other extreme, there are shows like History's "the hunt" where they depict a bunch of lipstick-wearing 20-something hotties stalking Kodiaks with a CVA .50 inline all by themselves. I'm skeptical that there isn't a team of guides sporting .45-70's just off camera - it would't do to have Sleeping Beauty become people jerky on cable TV.

Another crew on that show is hunting bull grizzlies with a recurve longbow and broad heads. I'm similarly skeptical.
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IIRC, it took Fred Bear three attempts before he could claim a bow kill on a polar bear, the others had to be dispatched with a rifle when they charged.
 
What about a BLR T/D in .450 Marlin with the barrel trimmed to 18"?

Or a Verney-Carron Sagittaire Traqueur in 9.3x74?
 
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