104 Cases Of Handguns Used For Bear Defense Worldwide Documented By Caliber
This is part of research which began in 2016, with first published data released in 2018. If I am not mistaken, the current total is the 205 cases mentioned above in post #348 and also mentioned earlier in this thread. They reported every known and documented instance where a handgun was the only firearm fired in defense of life and property (DLP) against bears. Some animals were turned away by warning shots, many animals continued toward or turned toward shooter after warning shots.
This post is about the 2021 update of an additional 104 documented cases of handgun only defenses against bears
SORTED BY CALIBER AND SUCCESS RATE. I believe these 104 cases are part of the 205 current total mentioned earlier in this thread and elsewhere.
I find it interesting that some of the information presented in this data was only gained from government records pursuant to "freedom of information requests." It seems like the official position, of the US government at least, is that the public should use bear spray, while they give government personnel permission to carry firearms in wilderness areas on official business, including handguns. This only proves that governments are ruled by committees, and the best definition of a committee is a group with at least 3 heads, 6 legs, and
NO BRAIN.
In the data listed below,
"The criteria for success are: After the pistol or handgun was fired, did the bear stop the attack, leave, or was killed?"
Link to a description of each of the 104 cases where caliber was identified:
2021 update to handgun defense data
1. - "We found seven cases involving a .22 rimfire pistol. Six were successful, against black bears. One failed against a polar bear."
2. - "We found one case involving a .380 pistol. It was successful."
3. - "
We found seven cases where 9 mm pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful."
4. -
"We found one case involving a 9.3 x 18 Makarov pistol, in Russia."
5. -
"We found three cases involving a .38 revolver, probably .38 S&W special. One was successful against a grizzly. Two were against black bears. One was a failure, one a success."
6. -
"We have found eight cases where .357 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. Seven were successful, one was unsuccessful."
7. - "We have found four cases where .40 caliber pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful."
8. -
"We have found three cases where a 10 mm pistol was used to defend against bears. All were successful."
9. -
"We have found four cases where .41 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. All were successful."
10. -
"We have found two cases, both successful, where a .44-40 was used to defend against a bear."
11. -
"We have found thirty cases where .44 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. All were successful."
12. -
"We have found nine cases where .45 caliber pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful." (mostly 45 acp)
- "We found that one of the previous .45 cases was done with a .45 Colt/.410 revolver, the Taurus Judge."
13. -
"We have found one case where .45 Super pistol was used to defend against a bear. It was successful."
14. - "We have found four cases where .454 Casull revolver was used to defend against a bear. They were successful."
15. -
"We have found one case where a .460 Smith & Wesson magnum was used successfully."
16. - "We have found one case where a .500 Smith & Wesson magnum was used successfully."
17. **** "We have found sixteen cases where the handguns used to defend against bears were not identified. Fifteen were successful. One was undetermined." ****
*** Not counting the 22's, of these 104 cases where caliber is known, there were nearly 4 times as many revolvers carried as semi-autos, 16 were semi-autos, 53 were revolvers.
*** Several of the semi-auto incidents were by LEO's in the line of duty and they compelled to used their service weapons at the crucial moment, so they were not carrying a weapon of choice for bear protection. In all candor, several of these cases, whether semi-auto or revolver, were just people using whatever was at hand when the attack occurred.
*** There were nearly twice as many 44mags used (30) as all semi-autos combined (16) and 10 times more 44mags(30) than the 10mm (3) in this sample of cases.
*** There were nearly 4 times as many 44mags(30) used as the next most numerous caliber, (tie between 357mag and 45acp at 8 each).
*** Out of these 104 cases, calibers are known in 88 cases. Of the 88 cases where caliber is known, 52 cases were 41 caliber or greater (59%), mostly revolvers except for a few 45acp’s.
From another subset of 161 cases of the 205 total cases of handgun defense against bears
where the number of shots fired was documented, the following data is interesting:
80.8 percent of the cases required 6 shots or less. Usually larger calibers requiring fewer shots, as one would expect.
54.1 percent of the cases required 3 shots or less.
28.6 percent of the cases required only 1 shot.
Many thanks and great appreciation to writer Dean Weingarten who collected and published all this great data that we get to fumble around with here, and many thanks to ammoland.com for publishing the data.
Of course these are random numbers from random events, so no real firm or precise conclusions can be taken from them because there are too many unknown variables, but these cases (104) do represent a little more than half the documented cases available for examination (205).
The 44mag is still the most common handgun caliber carried and used for bear defense, by several orders of magnitude. There are probably good reasons for that.
Most people also used revolvers over semi-autos, also by several orders of magnitude. There are probably good reasons for that.
Although most people (like me) like to carry bigger revolvers more often for bear protection, most all calibers and handgun types have very high success rates by caliber, and 98% effective overall for bear defense, even 22lr, although sample sizes are understandably low for most calibers other than 44mag.
98% SUCCESS WITH ALL HANDGUNS, I FIND THAT AMAZING, I WOULD HAVE NEVER GUESSED THAT!!!!!
Although several animals had to be shot 10 or more times, especially with smaller calibers, and didn’t stop attacking until their CNS was taken out (brain or spine shot), MOST bears turned and ran off after 1,2, or 3 shots, especially from larger calibers.
I ALSO FIND THIS AMAZING CONSIDERING THE BEARS WERE 4X TO 10X BIGGER THAN THE PEOPLE SHOOTING THEM, AND MANY WERE NOT FATALLY WOUNDED, AND MOST REQUIRE LARGE CALIBER, POWERFUL RIFLES, TO ACTUALLY KILL THEM WHEN THEY ARE HUNTED. THERE ARE MANY CASES OF HUNTERS MAULED OR KILLED BY BEARS USING LARGE CALIBER RIFLES.
Although these statistics are against bears, not African DG, bears ARE among the largest, fastest, and most dangerous fauna on the planet. There are some correlations which can be drawn between bears and African DG.
Many of these handgun shootings against bears were actual charges, many by grizzlies or brown bears, which are nearly as fast and twice as big as lions and heavier built than lions.
Some were against polar bears which are half as fast as lions, but 3 times larger, and MUCH heavier built than lions, closer in size and speed to cape buffalo, and arguably as determined and aggressive as cape buffalo. Polar bears are certainly the most determined, fearless, and aggressive of the bears. However, even polar bears are still not nearly as thick skinned and heavily built as cape buffalo.
From all indications, grizzly bears and polar bears are at least as aggressive and tenacious of life as lions, and quick to attack people in their area if surprised or provoked. Usually, if you shoot one of these 3 animals, they are coming for you and must be stopped. I would not put black bears in the same category. Black bears seem rather easy to turn with a handgun, ESPECIALLY A BIG CALIBER HANDGUN (in 6 out of 6 reported instances, black bears were actually successfully turned even with a 22lr handguns.). Black bears do kill people (mostly unarmed people) and eat them, and are often substantially bigger than lions (20 percent bigger on average.) WHO KNOWS WHAT THE STATICS WOULD BE AGAINST LIONS WITH HANDGUNS, IF SIMILAR NUMBER OF CASES WERE AVAILABLE FOR HANDGUNS.
Since the OP’s question was about charge stopping African DG with handguns, there are some definite factors that contribute to VERY FEW if ANY cases reported from handgun use in Africa in DLP cases, from which to drawn ANY conclusions.
* Laws requiring minimum calibers for DG, all rifle calibers, in most African countries.
* Laws limiting firearm ownership/possession in general, and handgun ownership/possession in particular, in many African countries.
* Laws requiring PH’s be present for safety while hunting DG (i.e for charge stopping), and limiting what PH can use to rifles only, in many African countries.
* Laws limiting what visiting hunters/tourists can possess for protection, hunt with, or travel with, which can become more complicated with handguns, or multiple guns, cause many visiting hunters and nearly all tourists to leave the handguns at home. Many if not most of the handgun defense cases against bears were in non-hunting circumstances.
THEREFORE, AFRICAN CASES USING HANDGUNS IN DLP, MUCH LESS CHARGE STOPPING CASES, ARE ALMOST NON-EXISTANT.
Therefore, non-African cases of handguns used in similar situations against similar DG, are the ONLY CASES WITH ENOUGH DOCUMENTED REPORTS TO BEGIN TO DRAW ANY REAL WORLD CONCLUSIONS.
All of this reminds me of a famous Mark Twain quote. “ There are lies, then there are damned lies, then there are statistics.”
BUT sometimes statistics are the best we have, and are very informative and helpful.
