Originally Posted by
CTX44
Been reading this post with interest; indeed it inspired me to join the forum to share my 2 cents. I've have a lot of run ins with grizzlies over the years in Alaska, Wyoming, and Montana, but to be clear, unlike many of my friends in Alaska, I've never shot a grizzly (though I've killed plenty of black bears).
The last run in I had was with a 600 lb interior grizzly off the Denali Highway. Strong wind, blowing directly toward me, dense brush, and relatively quiet walking. Spray would have been useless...wind was coming off a glacier at maybe 20 mph. Bear and I were coming from opposite directions on the same trail and when he appeared he was about 40 yards away.
On that day, and during all the run ins I've had, I was carrying a 44 magnum (that day it was a cut-down Super Red Hawk) loaded with some manner of 300gr hardcast loads.
All the other grizzlies I've run into took off running, or hung around maybe a minute to collect their cubs, and then disappeared. This encounter lasted maybe ten minutes, which was a lot of time to keep my butt clenched.
It was abundantly clear that with my hard kicking 44 mag, I was only going to get one shot. Maybe a second shot, as the bear was chewing on my foot. I felt confident in my shooting ability...I'd put those loads into an inch at 25 yards, many, many times. But I was not confident that I would be able to hit a running bear in the brainpan or neck with my first shot. Unfortunately the bear got a vote on that.
After that, I switched to a Glock 20. But even after shooting hot 10mm loads against my shot timer, I wasn't satisfied. My split times still felt a lot slower than what I felt I needed.
So I switched again, to the same 10mm 200gr hardcast bullet at 950 or 1000 fps. I could have downloaded my 10mm, but I decided to hit the easy button and just run those bullets out of my G22. Underwood and Buffalo Bore both have a 40 SW loading like this.
My belief is that 10mm bullets at 950-1000 fps will still penetrate several feet of bear, and still get into the skullbox with similar reliability.
But measured against a shot timer, I can get hits twice as fast with those bullets at 950 fps vs 1200 fps. And four times as fast as I could get hits with a 300gr-325gr 44 mag or 454 load.
Anyway, that's where I ended up. Thanks for the great info in this thread.