Randy Garrett
New member
When deciding what to carry for defense against bears one must consider more than just what sidearm one feels comfortable with, one must make sure that the combo of handgun and ammo is adequate for the task. It matters not whether the gun is a pleasure to carry or whether the gun and ammo permits the shooter to deliver rapid fire, the over-riding criteria is whether the shooter is delivering a blow adequate to stop a bruin hell-bent on human annihilation. A big bear can soak up a lot of 210-gr or 240-gr jacketed expanding bullets and only grow more angry with each shot. Also, invariably, bears close on their prey with alarming speed which tends to make the effectiveness of each shot of critical importance, as it is unusual for a shooter to have time for a plurality of shots. It is quite instructive to do impact testing into a variety of water soaked materials in order to establish the likely penetration potential of a given load. In our testing, we have continually found that there simply are no expanding bullets fired from any revolver calibers capable of producing more than about 12-inch of penetration in wet-newspapers, and most produce less, in fact, most produce far less. By contrast, a proper heavy hard-cast bullet from the various large caliber revolvers can produce up to about 3-feet of penetration in the same medium. This is the sort of penetration required for the shooter to have a reasonable chance of surviving such a scirmish. Indeed, some of the most modern bullet designs fail miserably when deep penetration is required. A good example of this is the PMC Starfire as loaded for the 44 Magnum. Characteristically it will produce penetration levels only comparable to the .22 Long Rifle!!! By contrast, where the 44 Magnum is concerned one can expect penetration to the hips on a frontally shot grizzly with proper heavyweight cast-bullets such as our HAMMERHEADs. Big bears are enormously tough and require hits capable of busting big bones without deflection and still deliver several feet of penetration. It would be nice if we could just carry our favorite handgun and load and be safe in the woods. Unfortunately, that is the kind of mentality that gets people killed by enraged bruins. If you value your life, and we all do, make sure you carry a gun and a load adequate for stopping a charging grizzly with a single round, anything else is an indulgence that will likely cost you your life.
Randy Garrett www.garrettcartridges.com
Randy Garrett www.garrettcartridges.com