Curious?

On Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:16:15 -0500, "David T. Ashley" <dta RemoveThis @e3ft.com>
wrote:

>I don't know enough about bears, etc. to know how physiologically tough they
>are. I think Lewis and Clark wrote that grizzly bears were the toughest
>critter they had ever seen and that if you didn't get it in the head first
>time you were lunch. I don't know what a .45 will do to a bear,
>particularly if one is a bad shot.

I'd rather be armed with something a whole lot more potent than a .45
against a grizzley. A .45 round would just riccochete off its skull
and piss him off more.

..44 mag minimum. THAT'S a real gun.

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On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:29:20 -0500, "J. Clarke"
<jclarke.usenet.RemoveThis@cox.net> wrote:

>P. Roehling wrote:
>> "David T. Ashley" <dta.RemoveThis@e3ft.com> wrote
>>
>>> The .45 definitely will definitely take care of people. I'm just
>>> curious about the nasty animals.
>>
>> There probably isn't a handgun on the planet that will reliably drop
>> a 1,000 lb. + grizzly bear with one shot unless you're cool -and
>> close, and lucky- enough to make a successful brain or spine shot on
>> the first try...
>
>Will a handgun of any kind penetrate a bear's skull reliably from the
>front? Looks to me like it's nice sloped armor.

When I lived in the Yukon I talked to a guy who had shot a grizzley in
the head with a .357 magnum. The bear didn't go down and they got him
later, using a rifle. When they examined the bear the found a crease
from the bullet, going half way round the bear's skull, under the skin
and exiting at the back. The bullet never even got through the skull.

Having shot and reloaded for .44 mags for many years, I'm pretty sure
a round like that wouldn't deflect off a grizzley's skull. But, as
Pete says, that's a heck of a shot to accomplish on a charging animal
while in an excited state, even with a rifle.

I cast my own bullets for my .44 (S&W Model 29 with a 10 5/8" barrel)
using a fair bit of linotype mixed with lead from wheel-weights. I'd
bet that would penetrate better than the normal, copper-jacketed,
soft-lead-filled bullets you can buy.

For the XP-100 7mm Benchrest Remmington (yes, a handgun), I up the
ante a bit crimping on copper bases and heat-treating the cast bullets
in the oven after they have been swaged, but prior to lubing. A guy
from Vatican security came to our gun club one time (years ago, when
the Pope visited Edmonton). He wanted to see if any of our handguns
could shoot through the thick plexiglass they had constructed the
Pope-mobile's bubble out of. My XP punched nice, clean holes right
through it with every shot (the only gun that did). .44 mags hardly
even dented it. That was back in the day when Handgun Metallic
Silhouette competitions were quite popular.

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Home page: http://xidos.ca