oh no, bear gun thread!

migrant hunter

migrant hunter

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Southern Alberta
I have an 18" mossberg maverick 88. Nice gun for the money, came with a pistol grip and full sporting stock. I put the pistol grip on to make it easy to carry in the woods/camping, even had it slung on my back a few times when hunting.
So last weekend I went to the range and brought the shotgun and a box of slugs. I'd shot the gun with 1 oz trap shells and the pistol grip was ok, a bit lively, but ok.
Well I fired a box of slugs(5x 1oz winchester) and it hurt! at 50 yds I could'nt keep them on a 2 foot square and at 25 they were on it, but scatterred. By then my hand hurt anyway, so the 5 buckshot I fired put it into the realm of endurance, not recreation.
So the moral of the story is, if you have a handy, short, bear gun you might want to try firing it and see if you can hit anything.
I put the stock back on.
 
Not really news to anyone. I don't think there is anyone out there who would advocate a pistol grip for any type of accuracy. It is more for the home defense hallway situations with bucksot loads where in the dark you really arent gonna be aiming as much as point and shoot. I will say however with alot of practice you can get pretty good at shooting from the hip out to 10m. But for bear defense I agree.
 
Pistol grip shotguns take lots of practice to shoot well with slugs. When I was a misguided youth and used a pistol grip shotty I would hold it with my left arm extended all the way and right arm extended as much as possible, so I could aim down the barrel. Accuracy was okay, but it's not really fun without a pair of padded gloves.;)

Shooting from the hip is painless, but lacks accuracy.

A shotty with a stock makes much more sense...:p
 
bear thread

Good advice, everyone should be familiar with their tool and practice. Confidence and accuracy is important, especially when the adreneline is flowing!
Yukonhunter


BTW: Your dog looks British not Irish.......
 
yukonhunter said:
Good advice, everyone should be familiar with their tool and practice. Confidence and accuracy is important, especially when the adreneline is flowing!
Yukonhunter


BTW: Your dog looks British not Irish.......
Click to expand...

Which is exactly why one should dispose of rifles in the back of their safe doing nothing and focus on their primary shooters.;)
 
Have you tried using a pistol grip with the butt stock still on??
I have a Winchester 1300 Coastal Marine 18", with a pistol grip and adjustable stock.
I find that set up comfortable and fairly easy to shoot. A couple years ago, I had to use it and it did the job from 25 yards.
Just my thoughts.
 
migrant hunter said:
I have an 18" mossberg maverick 88. Nice gun for the money, came with a pistol grip and full sporting stock. I put the pistol grip on to make it easy to carry in the woods/camping, even had it slung on my back a few times when hunting.
So last weekend I went to the range and brought the shotgun and a box of slugs. I'd shot the gun with 1 oz trap shells and the pistol grip was ok, a bit lively, but ok.
Well I fired a box of slugs(5x 1oz winchester) and it hurt!
Click to expand...


Yup my first shotgun (now sold), and yes a great shotgun for the money.

I too felt the pain of shooting slugs with the pistol grip...in fact felt a crack then shooting pain after my 2rd box of 3" slugs.

When I got home I replaced the pistol grip with the original stock resulting in much better results with regards to accuracy and comfort at my next trip to the range.

Funny I still have the pistol grip...I guess I should sell it. :p
 
I am not fond of a SHOTTY to take along as protection from being digested by some type of back-woods beast.
I much prefer a TWISTY. You know the type, when you look down the hole it looks all twisted up.
A word of caution, though, your TWISTY should have a large hole to look down.
 
I like the utility of the shotgun, and the lack of sights. I have seen lots of
45-70s with red dots on them. Looks like recipe for disaster in the brush.
With a shotgun loaded with slugs I can swing and fire faster than a rifle, and I have a birdgun if I need it.
I just wonder how much realistic practise folks do with their back up/camping gun.
 
The first time I ever saw a shotgun with a pistol grip was at the garbage dump on Malcolm Island ( the unofficial range, even the Alert Bay mounties shot there) and the shooter cracked himself on the forehead when it recoiled and jumped up at him.
 
H4831 said:
I am not fond of a SHOTTY to take along as protection from being digested by some type of back-woods beast.
I much prefer a TWISTY. You know the type, when you look down the hole it looks all twisted up.
A word of caution, though, your TWISTY should have a large hole to look down.
Click to expand...

Hey, maybe we have the beginning of new terminology! Twisties and Smoothies!!! :rolleyes:

Hugh
 
My camping/ bear protection rig is an 870 Express with a fully rifled pipe (TWISTY), decelerator buttpad, S+J follower+winter safety, upgraded Wingmaster trigger group. flashlight forend (camp gun mode).

I picked up a few parts like a Can-Am single point sling mount and wilson fron sling mount. Both of these are unsuitable on my shotgun. The Can Am double eared sling mount literally tore a chunk out of my right finger a couple of times, and the front sling plate does not allow the mag tube end cap to stay tight ( only with the rifled pipe).


the Lyman Sabot Slug is my load of choice, shoots well out of my shotgun. Plenty of wallop on the shoulder, though I have yet to test on a furry, toothy creature.

A pistol grip folder is just not in the cards, I am not super fond of folders or pistola grips.
 
I've been there.... Had a tactical 870 with a top folding stock. Put a synthetic full stock on it last year. Shoots a hell of a lot better now... Anyone need a genuine remmy top-folder?
 
Heres my solution, also have the regular stock for playing;)
IMG_2235.jpg

IMG_2236.jpg


870, ext mag, surefire fore end, tritium sights
 
I was just remembering this group of guys at my local club with an Maverick with a pistol grip. Now these guys were all philipino and maby all 5'4" 120 pounds or somewhere around there so I guess it was kinda cruel of me. They were shooting birdshot, and I just happened to have a box of 3" slugs so I let them try em out. It was hilarious to watch the gun flip back and out of their front hand. So along comes the RO and I thought he was gonna give em s**t, but he procedes to tell the next guy hold it up here and actually aim it, because we have a no shooting from the hip policy. Guess what happened? Busted his lip wide open. We all had a good laugh, but I will never own one.
 
I much prefer a rifle for bear defense.
A shotgun with slugs or buckshot is poor medecine for large polar bears or grizzlies.
Testing out on a 3 day old dead 850 lbs polar bear in the arctic showed the regular 12 Gauge REM AND WIN SLUGS FLATTENING OUT ON THE SHOULDER BLADE LIKE SILVER DOLLARS. Yes, the shoulder blade was cracked. Big deal.
Buckshot (SSG) penetrated just through the 2 inch fat layer under the almost 1 inch thick hide in the neck/shoulder. Pellets were found just into the muscle layer.
Shotguns on large polar bears are good only for close range head shots.
Shotguns should be fine as general self protection on bears up to about 400 lbs.
That includes then most Alberta black bears and Alberta Grizzlies.
A rifle in the .308Win. class and up with good strong bullets 180-200 grain would deal with any bear likely to be encountered in Canadian territory.
Most commercial slugs are made with deer hunting in mind. That is where the US market is at.
 
I don't rate buckshot, even for deer(shot one once, never again).
At the kind of distance I anticipate, slugs should be fine. I'm not hunting bears, I'm just carrying a gun for close range defence and hoping never to fire it off the range!
 
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