Specifically? How can I make it more simple? First Hand Account from a CGN.
Since bear defence is a popular topic, I was just wondering if anyone here has actually killed one? How can I make it more simple?
Bear defence with a shot gun
- Thread starter Covey Ridge
- Start date
Specifically? How can I make it more simple? First Hand Account from a CGN.
Since bear defence is a popular topic, I was just wondering if anyone here has actually killed one? How can I make it more simple?
agree 100%, but I am no expert. I do prune very large poplar limbs that are out of reach of a very high ladder. I am a little squeemish of height, so I use a 12 gauge full choke and size 7 1/2 shot.
Next time my wife complains of one of those high limbs interfering with the evergreens I will make a video. 
PS: Boomer, I know that you have had first hand experience with dangerous bears and to your credit you did not get all trigger happy and blow away the bear just because you could. I agree with you that the 12 gauge can deliver an awsome amount of power. Although not my first choice for hunting, it would be my first and only choice if I could choose a weapon before being attacked.
Last edited:
Actually killed one? Nope. Encounters where it could have gone either way? A couple. One in particular was fairly tense nightime encounter near our barn. But after a few minutes of eyeing each other at a distance of 20 yards he ambled off in another direction. What sticks in my mind was the green-red-green of the Hi-Viz sites pointed at his nose. If he'd gone the other way it would have been lights out Yogi.
Okay - I'll tell a story.
A few years ago, I walked down our brushy-treed lane to the road and my little girl - looking out the window saw me go and asked my wife if she could go out to me. Wife looked out the window and could not see me, so said that she couldn't go out to find me. I soon came back in the lane and sat down on a lawn chair facing out the lane which I had just walked in. Just as I sat down, a decent sized black walked across the lane and into the bush on the other side of the lane - so I stepped into the entrance and back out with a ready 12 gauge - as the bear stepped into sight again, it turned into roasts.
She no doubt watched me pass by within a very few yards and would have been thinking bear thoughts if the little girl had passed as close.
One reason for killing the occasional predator - coyotes/cats/etc. is to keep the other's instincts active. Naturally, they have fear of humans, but routine exposure dulls the instinct - so they may need a refresher course. Her young passed the practical and didn't hang around for the final.
Slug performance was fine - broadsided, she hooked hind claws into the new hole and tore the side open on the first leap - and did not go far.
Now this story was not about face to face conversation between she and I, but this story just needed telling.
A few years ago, I walked down our brushy-treed lane to the road and my little girl - looking out the window saw me go and asked my wife if she could go out to me. Wife looked out the window and could not see me, so said that she couldn't go out to find me. I soon came back in the lane and sat down on a lawn chair facing out the lane which I had just walked in. Just as I sat down, a decent sized black walked across the lane and into the bush on the other side of the lane - so I stepped into the entrance and back out with a ready 12 gauge - as the bear stepped into sight again, it turned into roasts.
She no doubt watched me pass by within a very few yards and would have been thinking bear thoughts if the little girl had passed as close.
One reason for killing the occasional predator - coyotes/cats/etc. is to keep the other's instincts active. Naturally, they have fear of humans, but routine exposure dulls the instinct - so they may need a refresher course. Her young passed the practical and didn't hang around for the final.
Slug performance was fine - broadsided, she hooked hind claws into the new hole and tore the side open on the first leap - and did not go far.
Now this story was not about face to face conversation between she and I, but this story just needed telling.
I've shot and killed black bears with a slug gun. Hunting not self defense. I did take a rather large male black bear at a quartering shot thro the shoulder and it raked thro him lodging against the back thigh bone. I use brenneke gold 3" mag slugs they're 600 grains. No bear alive can take one in the chest thro the vitals and live. Bears are not bullet proof. Many grizzlys have been takin by rimfire. Many inuit use 22mag for polar bear. Not my choice but it has been done. The bears I've shot have all dropped on the spot. The large male I spoke of did get up and take off. Again shot anchored him he was about 90yards when first hit. Buy a premium slug and shoot for the head spine or shoulders and start the fire bear huntin aint catch n release
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Your observation as to where to shoot is bang on. What one shoots with is a secondary consideration to where to put it. If shooting for your life, refrain from using the chest shot. Sure, it'll kill the bear . . . eventually, but that is small comfort if you die. Nobody wants second place in a dangerous bear encounter. In a defensive shooting scenario, your goal is to stop the bear's forward progression which prevents him from touching you.
"If he can't touch you, he can't hurt you!"
That is the simple premise behind bear defense, but what is simple in theory can be complicated in practice. Thus we pre-program ourselves to a certain course of action, which will save critical time when we have to react. Defensive shooting suggests reactive rather than proactive shooting. If you are proactive, you are hunting; seeking out the action that you know will come. By definition, bear defense suggests unexpected, sudden action at very close range. The bear may appear suddenly without warning of his presence, and if he is close enough to be a threat the range is short. The shorter the range the faster things unwind, and the more difficult it is to make a precise shot on a moving target. If you need to have a discussion with yourself as to how you should respond, you're out of time and you won't prevail.
Another problem common to the majority of North American hunters is that they are pre-programed to make lung shots. The lung shot provides a target that is large, the shot is nearly always fatal, and the animal dies quickly, though seldom instantly, in a relatively humane fashion. The hunter who finds himself in a dangerous bear situation may hesitate to choose a shot that he knows will inflict pain rather than having a reasonable expectation of killing cleanly, despite the fact that breaking a supporting bone gives him the time needed to make a kill shot. Thus if you anticipate using a firearm as a defensive weapon, you need to train your mind to the reality of the problem as well as sharpening your prowess with the tool, be it a shotgun, rifle, or handgun.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
OK, I got it. I thought perhaps you were winding up to suggest that the shotgun was unsuitable for the task.
Depending on the specific circumstances, the shotgun, rifle, and handgun each have their niche where the choice of one is better than the other two. Close to populated areas or in the dark, I prefer a slug loaded shotgun. In a house in town, a tent or cabin in a populated area, I prefer a shotgun loaded with buckshot. Where over-penetration will cause no harm, under reasonable light conditions, or where the range is longer, the rifle is the best choice. Conversely, if you are engaged in some activity that requires your full attention and the use of both hands, a handgun it the ultimate reactive short range tool.
Grizzlies when they come drop there head low allowing a standing shot to the top of the neck at the spine. Hell be close but you want all the energy that slug can give. A black bear is much easier turned they will likely put there head up and don't have near the muscle mass a shoulder or high centered chest shot will take him down or turn him for a raking shot. You want to take out the center neverous system or at least the spine he can't run with a broken back. A 3 legged bear can still out run any human alive take the time make the first shot count and them keep firing. I prefer a pump action they don't jam unless you do it and I can shoot quicker and more precisely with one then any auto. Great practise keeps u alive built a ramp with a fast high drop built in a pulley and door to hold a watermelon pull the cord on the pulley watermelon comes down and across the ground at you hit it with a slug. Move closer and closer untill you hit it on the first bounce. I can hit a tennis ball 2/3 times at less then 5 yards. It trains you to shoulder the gun pick a target and stop it
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Good post, but I'm uncomfortable saying that a bear will absolutely do one thing or another every time. Too much depends on the particular circumstances of the encounter. For example, often a bear comes in with his head high following a scent. Sometimes he will approach from uphill, other times from downhill and each provides a different target angle as does the problem of an indirect approach. Perhaps you will stumble onto one that is asleep in the willows.
Consider some of the shooting problems these target angles present . . .
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
You can thank my intrepid camera packing wife for that. She fearlessly, and sometimes foolishly, follows me around and gets some pretty good stuff as a result . . . although the big guy in the first pic she got when I wasn't around.
Great polar bear shots – you guys are so lucky over there by Hudson’s Bay. Getting back to the intent of the thread: I think that the lack of actual first hand accounts speaks to the fact that there really hasn’t been that many cases of defended bear attack in Canada. Most of the notable attacks in Western Canada have occurred in the contiguous mountain national parks where we are not allowed to carry firearms.
Bryant Pass in Banff NP is one area that specifically comes to mind as I know someone who was mauled by a sow there. He related to me that he was hiking ahead of his partner and must have surprised the bear as it was on him before he could really do anything. He says that he remembers the bear on top of him and emptying his entire can of bear spray right into its face with no effect. He also vividly recalls hearing screaming which his partner told him later was actually his screams. He counts himself lucky in that the lasting effects of this attack were mainly contained to the loss of his right triceps.
I do recall a newspaper report years ago about 2 hunters who were attacked in camp. One was being mauled and the other shot at it with a scoped rifle eventually striking and killing it. However one of his shots entered the foot of his partner and exited through the knee shattering bones enroute. This was reported as his most severe injury.
Things like this really make one wonder about close quarters defence and the stopping power of your firearm. All things considered I will always choose a shotgun for this. A surprised bear at short range, is going to be a full on crisis situation with very little time to pick targets so I’m sticking with Herrero’s advice of alternating slugs with buck shot – I might even put the bayonet on!
Bryant Pass in Banff NP is one area that specifically comes to mind as I know someone who was mauled by a sow there. He related to me that he was hiking ahead of his partner and must have surprised the bear as it was on him before he could really do anything. He says that he remembers the bear on top of him and emptying his entire can of bear spray right into its face with no effect. He also vividly recalls hearing screaming which his partner told him later was actually his screams. He counts himself lucky in that the lasting effects of this attack were mainly contained to the loss of his right triceps.
I do recall a newspaper report years ago about 2 hunters who were attacked in camp. One was being mauled and the other shot at it with a scoped rifle eventually striking and killing it. However one of his shots entered the foot of his partner and exited through the knee shattering bones enroute. This was reported as his most severe injury.
Things like this really make one wonder about close quarters defence and the stopping power of your firearm. All things considered I will always choose a shotgun for this. A surprised bear at short range, is going to be a full on crisis situation with very little time to pick targets so I’m sticking with Herrero’s advice of alternating slugs with buck shot – I might even put the bayonet on!
I have guided and hunted bear for over 40 years and in that time seen over 200 bears taken
i have been charged two times .The first bear had been wounded,the second one was a old sow guarding a bate. My Stevens 311 with short 20" tubs loaded with federal tactical slugs put them down. You don't have time to think or aim just point so you need to be prepared AS for firearms there is a reason that all the big game guides carry double rifles in Africa and as a close range defense tool you cant beat a double loaded with slugs
i have been charged two times .The first bear had been wounded,the second one was a old sow guarding a bate. My Stevens 311 with short 20" tubs loaded with federal tactical slugs put them down. You don't have time to think or aim just point so you need to be prepared AS for firearms there is a reason that all the big game guides carry double rifles in Africa and as a close range defense tool you cant beat a double loaded with slugs
A double is a great thing that's why I can't wait to get my 45-70 doulbe rifle for bear hunting. If proper steps are taken you should have to never have a problem with a wild bear. Freak situations do happen. The best thing is to be prepared for the unexpected. Attacks are on the rise but still very rare. I do carry a shotgun in bear country its a mossberg 400 with a 18.5" barrel and as its not for hunting it holds 5. 3 slugs and 2 OOObuck. I've never had to use it even when I went into ythick brush to help a stupid american that thought he could get a close up pic of a sow with 2 small cubs. Not a fun thing but everyone went home ok and alive. I use that gun often and its second nature to me to use it low gun on the skeet field (mind you everyone stares andpoints at it as its got pistol grips front and rear 2 side saddles and a telescoping buttstock and heat sheild with ghost sights). I can empty the 5 shells and keep a 1' group at 20yards pumping as fast as I can when loaded with all slugs.
gunsmith1951
Regular
- Location
- Fort McMurray
All things said and done, a shotgun at close range is a formidible weapon and has been proven many times in history. It should not be underestimated.
- Location
- Ft. Mac. Alberta
I pure defence, only a few times, once in a cabin when the bear broke down the door to my trap line cabin.
I was using a m37 and shot it with one slug to the chest from across the cabin - didn't even get out of bed!
That was about 18', the bear was standing in the doorway and fell back onto the porch.
I have killed several that I went into thick bush after they were wounded by guests.
I used a 311 then with the barrels cut to 18".
Once couple were coming at me, but most were stationary, not actually charging.
I never did figure out which is best, slug and SSG, or simply slugs in both barrels, simply because in the real close instances, I let them have both barrels.
Cat
I was using a m37 and shot it with one slug to the chest from across the cabin - didn't even get out of bed!
That was about 18', the bear was standing in the doorway and fell back onto the porch.
I have killed several that I went into thick bush after they were wounded by guests.
I used a 311 then with the barrels cut to 18".
Once couple were coming at me, but most were stationary, not actually charging.
I never did figure out which is best, slug and SSG, or simply slugs in both barrels, simply because in the real close instances, I let them have both barrels.
Cat
12g
Can't agree more with what you've said boomer bears are not iron clad nor do they sulk around looking for humans,well maybe polar bears, though I did carry a 12G pump on many a hunts when I was in the Arctic around Lac de Grass guiding for caribou & saw at least one bear every other day. I had allot of faith in the slugs I carried for the just in case "HOLY #*&^% HERE HE COMES" Had one thinking of climbing into the boat with us & he was no little Barren Ground Grixx he had to go 8 or 9 ft, but that's another story after a couple of drinks. Did any one say Grey Goose???
Can't agree more with what you've said boomer bears are not iron clad nor do they sulk around looking for humans,well maybe polar bears, though I did carry a 12G pump on many a hunts when I was in the Arctic around Lac de Grass guiding for caribou & saw at least one bear every other day. I had allot of faith in the slugs I carried for the just in case "HOLY #*&^% HERE HE COMES" Had one thinking of climbing into the boat with us & he was no little Barren Ground Grixx he had to go 8 or 9 ft, but that's another story after a couple of drinks. Did any one say Grey Goose???
