Dave, the "government" is cleaning up an old dump that was being erroded into a river, and am representing the government overseeing the contractor's work - a lot of standing and observing. The original plan was to pull out the trash and leave the dirt and broken glass behind, but it turned out that due to "typical" 1950's waste disposal practices, the dirt has to come out and be put into a safer landfill in the lower 48. They burnt a lot of lead acid batteries and other stuff in the dump so letting it go into the river is not a good thing. The problem is that the site is 40 miles from a safe place to land a barge so we have to truck the containers down a logging road that will soon be decommissioned since all the timber sales have been cut and sold.
I made a neat discovery about me and my .44 this spring and I'll share it here. I have been packing a Ruger Redhawk for a number of years up here. Many people do not advocate the use of a pistol for bear protection. My experience is that when I am forced to carry a long arm that it will be left behind in the truck, or put down since it takes two hands to use. A pistol is on you at all times and can be operated with only one hand if need be. If you practice the carry, drawing, and firing enough then a pistol will work well during that 2 to 3 seconds you will need it. The 375 H&H mag leaning against a tree 20 feet away is useless in those 2 to 3 seconds you need it.
My last "bear defense" class that was required by a former employer was some time ago and was taught by a guy who has actually shot a charging brown bear and killed it with a .44 mag. A small 8 foot bear died with its nose falling on the instructor's boots. He carries a modified Redhawk in a cross draw thumb break rig. He has killed other problem bears with Marlin 1895 45-70's during his time in the USGS. He perfers to always carry a long arm and a pistol, but that day the 1895 was being carried by the person behind him on the trail and he had no choice but to revert to his training and pop the bear in the head at handshake distance. He does not recommend shotguns due to the poor selection of slug ammo that will penetrate a bear, but he will train you to use one if that is all you have. It was one of the best gun courses I have ever taken and too much fun when the "charging" bear target came at you at the end of the class. It was on a cart being pulled by a car at 15 miles and hour. The instructor required a tactical reload and two finishing shots after the target stopped at your feet. Gunsite training center has an RC robo bear, but it does not come screaming at you at bear speeds like this one does. Still would be fun though.
So, anyway I have kept my pistol loaded with a locally produced load of "Alaska Backpacker" from Great Land Ammo. They make three types of potent bear loads. One is a 300 grain jacketed soft point for hunting. The second is a 300 grain hard cast lead with a gas check. The third load is a 320 grain hard cast lead. There used to be a guy up here that made loads with 258 grain hornady bronze bullets. I have some of those, too. However, he is well known to double charge cases and blow up peoples 1911's and other semi auto's, so I have always been leary of his stuff.
For the past 10 years I have never shot any of these super hot loads due to my concern over how powerfull they are and how small my hands are. My small hands are why I love Ruger pistols. I have never been able to shoot a K framed S&W with any skill or comfort. I had always thought that when it came to popping a bear the adenaline will over come the pain. I practice with standard off the shelf .44 mag ammo which I have always shot fine without any concern or pain - just hang on with a good grip and the redhawk does its job very well.
So on this trip I decided to pop off a few of the super duper bear killer loads. What is the worst that could happen? a sore wrist and a stinging hand? There is no way that these loads are powerfull enough to pop me in the forehead like "everyone" says they will do. I set up some 4 inch driftwood pieces against a 6 inch piece with a 12 inch backup log 2 feet behind my target logs and all of this in front of a driftwood covered sand dune.
I warmed up with some cowboy action .44 specials. Then some .44 hollowpoints - those stung my hand pretty well but that is normal. Then some 280 grain jacketed Corebond high velocity hunting rounds. Not too bad. Then the 300 grain gas check loads. I was really hanging onto the pistol on these. And was greatly disapointed in that they recoiled no worse than any off the shelf load.
For years I have been hearing about how much these loads hurt to shoot and how hard they were to handle. These were big guys with big manly hands making these claims. These bear killer rounds were easier on my hand that the cheap hollowpoint ammo was. However the amount of penetration they did on the driftwood was almost unbelieveable. None of the regular ammo made it out of the two skinny logs with any force. I picked up bullets on the sand behind those logs and infront of the 12 inch log. The 300 grain hard cast lead bullets when through the target logs, and through the 12 inch log and into the sand dune 10 feet back of that log. Never did find a bullet in the sand dune. I also popped off a couple of the bronze bullets and they did the same amount of penetration with the same easily managed recoil.
I guess the guys that say these rounds are hard to handle must be shooting the light weight revolvers and not a standard 4 inch pistol like my Redhawk. OR they don't practice enough to control their weapon. My Redhawk is not ported or tuned in anyway, just old and used often. I really can't imagine why someone would think that using a super lightweight big bore pistol with high power ammo is a good idea.
