Well, since we have all the hype on 270's for elk, 243's on deer, get this. I watch the outdoor channel and see one of the archery shows...American Archer maybe? Anyway, I call the outfitter in north Saskatchewan and save his website. We have a pretty lengthy discussion on his bear camp and what to expect.

Turns out they have their share of bears come into camp. Quite a few according to him. He tells me of several stories where bears have to be killed in camp. I asked him what they do with them. He says Game and Fish tell him he has to throw them away.

Here's the interesting part. I asked him what he uses in camp to kill them since he said he doesn't like firing a high power rifle in camp.

Answer: "22LR."

I asked if he was kidding. He said no.

"All you have to do is get a hole in the lungs and deflate 'um."

"The farthest one has run was about 45 yards."

I sat there on the phone in disbelief. But, 2 of the references confirmed the claim.

I don't doubt a bear could be killed with a .22lr, but it certainly wouldn't be my first choice. Sounds like that guy has been lucky the bears ran 45 yards in the OPPOSITE direction!

A good rancher friend of mine also was a butcher on the side and regularly used a .22 rifle to drop steers prior to doing his work. A brainshot dropped them dead as if struck by lightning. Of course it was standing quietly 15 feet away, not trying to stomp him into the dirt, lol.

The 22 to the head is the prescribed method for slaughtering animals but it only knocks them out ,it doesn't kill them.Then you can bleed them. I had a 500 lb calf go down instantly with a 9mm to the head as I had done before ..But as I stepped forward to slit it's throat it suddenly jumped up and charged !! Fortunately it still had a rope around it's neck so it couldn't get me !!What a surprise.

shot a black bear in the head with a 22 pistol at the range of about 6" one day as he was sticking his head through the kitchen window in our fishing cabin. he ran away and didn't come back but sure didn't die

I killed a bear one time many years ago with a 22 Hi Standard pistol with 22 L.R. Hollow points, emptied 3 clips into his chest at close range, it was a hair raising experience to stand there shooting him as fast as I could while he tore hell out of everything around him including trash cans of horse feed, alfalfa bails and garbage, My brother and cousins were in a tree laughing at me!!

I don't mind a high powered rifle in camp at all....

Make no mistake. A .22lr to the head in the RIGHT place will KILL any bovine. I've never had to bleed them for them to die.

But that is a totally seperate issue then a black bear.

I was hunting in the Bob Marshall about 10 years ago and ran into two guys at a trail head who asked me if they could borrow a rifle from. I asked them why and they said that they had wounded a bear but were out of bullets. When I suggested that they borrow some shells instead of one of my guns, they got a little sheepish. Upon further questioning they admitted that they had shot it with a 22LR. I believe my next comment was "jackasses" as I ejected a single 22LR shell from my pistol and tossed it to them.

I would be willing to bet that that bear lived for a few more years...

Pete

Ralphie, you don't bleed the animal to kill it , you bleed it to remove the blood as the heart is still pumping.Blood in the animal makes it less palatable.

quote:

Originally posted by 458RugerNo1:
A good rancher friend of mine also was a butcher on the side and regularly used a .22 rifle to drop steers prior to doing his work. A brainshot dropped them dead as if struck by lightning. Of course it was standing quietly 15 feet away, not trying to stomp him into the dirt, lol.

I have seen steers and pigs shot in the head with a .22 lr and drop as if been struck by lightening. I have witnessed a steer that was shot at 35-40 paces in the head with a .22 lr and it dropped stone dead as well. Not saying it's great but it will kill if you get a hit in the brain box.

I have also shot a goadt in the chest at 100 yards with a open sighted 22 lr when I was about 14 years old and it dropped staright away

Have hit other stuff well wit ha lot bigger calibres and it gets away

I used to spend a lot of time in the BWCA in NMN. I knew a lot of old timers that camped for weeks at a time in there. They all kept a 22LR semi auto in their tent for bears. All they would do is keep shooting til the bear was out of camp and it never came back and no disposal problems. I'm not saying it was right but it did happen.

quote:

The 22 to the head is the prescribed method for slaughtering animals but it only knocks them out ,it doesn't kill them.

mete,

This is mostly what I had a disagreement with.

I've killed a few bears with a 22 over the years. When we were kids tenting, a 22 was all we had. At last count I was 2 bears up (lighter sleeper) on my brother Russ (4-2) shooting bears when they stuck their head through the tent flap. It was a helluva a lot of fun if you could get the old Savage pump loaded and plink the bear before the other person woke up.

I butchered a big pig last Jan. It was shot in the head with a 22LR, and was dead from the gunshot. I cleaned the skull and the brains were destroyed.

I'd like to see the mountains of meat killed by individual cartridges. 7x57 Mountain, 30-30 Moutain, .22RF Mountain. I know which one would be bigger, and you might be surprised at the size of some of the animals in that pile. I'd even guess that next to .22RF Mountain the others would look like hills. Mostly small hills. Biggest thing I've read of killed by the .22RF is a polar bear or three. Biggest cat was an African Lion. My personal biggest was a hog. LRHP behind the point of the jaw at 60 yards, pop-flop. It's gotta be the all time most amazing cartridge.

Walt Stockton, now is his late eighties and the father of one of my past guides and old friend was a logger in Norther California. According to both he and his son Stan Walt killed over a hundred black bears with a 22LR. he told me you just run them up a tree, get under them and shoot them thru the lungs. Pretty quick they start sliding back down the trunk and were usually dead by the time they hit the ground.

I finished off a 200 lb black bear with a 25 acp in the eye. It did the trick. I wouldn't normally try it but he was already paralyzed from a rifle shot to the spine.

Grizzlies have been killed in Alaska with the .22LR. The bullets hit the brain after entering through the base of the ear. From a stand or a safe place, any bear that is unaware of your presence and presents you with the side of the head (at the right angle) can be dropped with a .22LR rifle.

A guy in Anchorage killed a moose in his backyard a year ago, and he did so with a BB gun. The pellet passed between the ribs and hit the lungs. The moose bled internally, bedded down, and died.

Would the .22LR be my choise of gun for bears? No. But I rather have a .22LR in my hand than a pocket knife or a toothpick.

The Alberta record G bear #20 in the world was killed with 22 shorts That's right 17 grain sub sonic bullets!

quote:

Originally posted by Omega:
The Alberta record G bear #20 in the world was killed with 22 shorts That's right 17 grain sub sonic bullets!

At what range? Any idea of more details on that story?

That's it, I'm getting a custom 22LR built. Maybe I'll start killing record book animals too.

Ralphie, The USDA booklet on home butchering - "stunning is best accomplished with a well directed 22 long rifle bullet.... The purpose of stunning is to render the animal unconscious so that it's throat can be cut....Bleeding is a very important part of slaughtering."....Since everyone is adding stories - I killed a feral cat without the bullet [45acp] penetrating the skin ! The round impacted the spine ,just shaving off a bit of fur, but enough to kill the cat .

quote:

Originally posted by Doc:

quote:

Originally posted by Omega:
The Alberta record G bear #20 in the world was killed with 22 shorts That's right 17 grain sub sonic bullets!

At what range? Any idea of more details on that story?

That's it, I'm getting a custom 22LR built. Maybe I'll start killing record book animals too.

Doc:

I am not sure that a custom 22LR would be as effective as a stock, off-the-shelf rifle. I bet that a custom gun would ring-out all of the luck/magic associated with a stock rig - preferably a single shot. Maybe one of the Cricket single shots loaded with shorts. You could carry it in a hip holster.

Phil,
My dad did that with Lions and bears, shoot them while the are treed in the lungs because they will die up in the tree and fall dead among the dogs...

Some times a head shot will knock them out of the tree alive and fighting, and those good dogs cost big money, and a lion or bear can inflict major damage to them in a short fight...

quote:

Originally posted by Doc:

quote:

Originally posted by Omega:
The Alberta record G bear #20 in the world was killed with 22 shorts That's right 17 grain sub sonic bullets!

At what range? Any idea of more details on that story?


That's it, I'm getting a custom 22LR built. Maybe I'll start killing record book animals too.

May 1953 lady by the name of Bella Twin shot it defending her dog team. Range was 5 feet and at the time it was the world record G bear.

My Dad and uncle use to trap blks bears in the 30's and 40's they used a 22lr to kill them in the trap. Those Newhouse bear traps are impressive. One can stand on the springs and they do not move at all. I have one of them I only wish I could use it catching a bear in it would be a hoot. Not legal here anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by Omega:
The Alberta record G bear #20 in the world was killed with 22 shorts That's right 17 grain sub sonic bullets!

That would be 29 grains. However, other sources speak of a .22 lr.
:-)

Carcano

Here is the photo of the feat. *Very* impressive:
(Direct photo linking not possible, go to the bottom of the page and click there):

http://www.angelfire.com/on2/LandOwner/misc/Grizley1.html

Carcano

The largest grizzly ever killed in Alberta was with a .22 short or long rifle. Done by an Indian lady on the trapline. Range was very close.

I killed 6 Extraterrestrials with my .22 revolver. That's ons shot-one-kill X 6

Shot a 10 pt witetail approx weight 130 lbs at 30 yards behind his ear with a 22 LR and he dropped where he stood and never knew what hit him

Hello;
The Alberta story refers to Bella Twin, who in the spring of 1953 ran into a Grizzly on her trapline near Slave Lake.To quote a Western Sportsman article:
Then Bella went to work to clear the trail. Small as she was, she was mighty. She literally threw the dogs and the tobogan off the trail.
The grizzly went down on all fours. Swinging his head from side to side, he slowly closed the gap between them.
what fear Bella had, if any turned to anger. As the huge grizzly went by, only two meters distant, he swung his head away and made that weak spot behind the ear very vulnerable.
Bella was quick to take advantage of the bears mistake. With a "ping" from her little rabbit gun, a .22 short rifle bullet dropped the largest grizzly recorded on the North American continent at that time.
Bella realized immediately what a foolish chance she had taken. That one little .22 short bullet probably had one chance in a million of being effective. So in rapid succession Bella loaded and fired her little .22 six more times. By the time Dave caught up, the bruin was dead.

The head is still in the possesion of one of her descendants, who owns a lodge up there. I saw a picture once, of the gun. It was a piece of shit held together with electrical tape. No Weatherby for this lady.
Grizz