The .44 Mag in a good sixgun with the heaviest/stoutest hardcast bullet you can find in a maximum load is a minimum though still not ideal when everything goes downhill. It's better than nothing obviously and most folks shoot it better than the super-heavyweights due to recoil issues. Accuracy is the most important issue in any situation. The most powerful round in the wrong place does no good.

A superheavy/nonexpanding .44 cast bullet generally outpenetrates a .308/30-06 with expanding bullets on big game.

Article from ADN. Pretty good read:

Pistol-packing hiker kills Brown Bear

Makes me feel better about having my .44 w/300 gr hard casts as bear protection.

Yep just another case where a pistol was no good for defending ones self.

There was another shooting in Wyoming a couple of weeks ago where a guide shot a sow grizz off his hunter and saved him. That was with a 44 also.

Being armed is so much better off then trying to use a rock or sharp stick.

Boys, don't buy the ADN story at face value. That was supposedly a 750 lb bear, not a 350 lb bear. The bear attacked from 30 feet (and I personally timed one in my truck at 34mph..52 feet per second..less than 1/2 second to unsnap a holster, draw, aim for the shoulder, and shoot before he is all over you). The dog accompanying the human was of the hunting variety with a nose, and bears can be detected by HUMANS by their really foul body odor for quite a distance..... The 44mag fullhouse is only 60% of the 454 which is only 65% of a 308..... AND THE 308 AINT NO BEAR GUN (not for a 750 pound griz). Aside from that, the griz that we see in the foothills around town here are almost always 2-3 year old bears that have been chased off from home by mama. To sum up: maybe, maybe not.....
The old Alaskan addage reads: File the front sight off of your 44mag handgun for bear protection, so that when the bear takes it away from you and shoves it up your bung, it won't hurt QUITE so badly. Sage advise.............

I'm pretty sure I came across the prints of likely the same bear on Monday of last week. The distance between the outside of the finger pads was about 8", the main pad was about 6-7" wide. I would not expect a typical 2-3 year old to leave such a print. I forget the formula to figure the size of the bear from it's prints.

I'm sure in the excitement of the event, the guy may have misjudged distances. I have no doubt a 44 mag can kill a bear very dead, though that doesn't make it the best choice under all conditions. I'd also say that a .308 loaded with good bullets can be a very good killer of bears, though it also wouldn't be my first choice.

Grape:
I think you're dead on with this one. Now, I'm just waiting for the next thread entitled "Is the .44 mag. adequate for the big bears?". We're gonna go through all of this again I fear. Bear in Fairbanks

Well said Grape!!

There's not alot i can add that's not already been said

When a browny move's it's fast .! really fast
i packed the 10 gauge and my 44 Auto mag
I never really thought that it ( 44 Auto Mag ) was going to stop a full grown brown bear but it's better then a sharp stick in the eye for back up ...
Anyway thats my 2 cent's worth and it doesn't change the
fact that a hand gun no matter want it is is not going to slow down a really ( pardon my English) Pissed off Brown bear. not at 50 feet nor 100 feet away thay just move to dam fast

You can shove your 44 where the sun does not shine I personaly perfer to shoot the bear with it.

Year after year there are cases where a handgun has stopped or killed a bear trying to do harm to someone.

Then year after year there are guys saying they don't work.

No they might not be the best but they sure in hell are a lot better then a rock or a stick ect. Then there is the fact that they do work sorry to mess up the matter with facts.

You can't argue with the results, but you need to understand a handgun is a defense weapon, not an offense weapon. What I am saying is a 458 WM or other large gun is a better choice but if ypu are out for a casual walk in the woods something you may have done a thousand times without ever an encounter you eventually get tired of lugging a 10 pound peace of steel and the smallest pistol in the world is still better than no gun at all, when the time comes you make the best of what you've got and hopefully you have put enough hours practicing to max out your position. Police carry pistols as a self defense weapon, when the SH-- hits the fan the big stuff comes out of the trunk.

I agree it would be better than a rock or a sharp stick.

Sounds like the guy was good shot too.

I had a 308 that had shot some Alaska grizz and it worked well too from what I heard. I bet it had a lot to do with shot placement also.

Paul, what you have just described is a 3 or 4 year old boar in the 400-450 pound class. Larger bears will have a print that is almost frightening in dimension. A 750 pound bear has very large, very strong hands, especially since he is required to be a very violent guy and doesn't carry a gun. And a 750 pound bear takes a lot of killing....
I have gone into the alder after 750 pound browns who were wounded with good shots from a 338 or 375 or even a 416 once. I carry a sawed off 458 and usually wish that it was a semi-auto 458 with a 30 round clip. A brown doesn't charge unless his adrenalin is really high.... whether he is PISSED (forgive the language) or wounded, he is not something to mess with. His is a fast, viscous, ripping attack with no holds barred. He can gut you with one sweep of a rear foot. He can easily bite through a leg or arm bone. As we saw last year, he can swipe off your entire face (including both eyes) with one swipe of a forepaw without warning. A BIG bear can even take your whole head in his mouth and crush your skull (Kenai peninsula BLM worker a few years back).

What I'm saying is... DON'T TAKE THESE GUYS LIGHTLY. THEY DO NOT PLAY GAMES. Most often they are so shy that they try very hard to get out of your way.... But if you see one in close, it is not a coincidence.
And don't mislead anyone into thinking that a rifle with under 3000fp of energy is a bear gun.... or will do a good job on a bear. It won't do a good job on a brown. Bear can refer to a 250 pound black in Pennsylvania or a 750 pound brown in Alaska. One you can kill with a 308 or a handgun... the other can get you into deep kemshi really quick.
I don't know what really happened in Muldoon (the ADN article)...I wasn't there. But I also won't encourage anyone to take our browns lightly. You don't have to be afraid of them, But you really should respect the hell out of them. After all, the name says it all..... URSUS ARCTOS HORRIBILIS .............................. nuf said

I had a 308 that had shot some Alaska grizz and it worked well too from what I heard. I bet it had a lot to do with shot placement also.

---

Is that griz with one z or two? Where are you from ??? San Francisco ???? I heard that shot placement works really well down there.

I am a 20 year resident of Alaska. And when I think of brown bears I think of coastal brownies. The rifle I had belonged to John Luster and he mostly hunted the Talkeetnas.

There is a book about John Luster out now. I barely skimmed through the book and found a paragraph about one of John's sons shooting a bear off of John with a 308. I wonder if it was the same rifle I had.(a pre-64 featherweight.) When I got the rifle I also got 10 boxes of rem 180 core-loks with it. I guess he got a good deal on the ammo or liked it.

I only shot a 250 lb black bear with that 308 and got about 4 feet of penetration with a 180 core-lok. The bullet went under the chin and stopped in the opposite rear leg. So I do beleive the 308 has good penetration.

My hunting rifle is a 375 ultra and my bear gun is a 22" 458 win. So I am not saying that a 308 is the best. I am just saying that a 308 or 44 for that matter is better than being unarmed.

i agree w/ grape creek. he sounds like he is talking from experience. too many guys who have not shot b.b. want to use .270, 7 mm, .30-06, etc. i think that is a mistake. use the heavy artillery, the situation may make u glad u did.

b.t.w. i carry a .357 with hot loads, an ideal choice no, but it will give me something to shoot as i am being devoured...

There was an old film out several years ago wherein a ranger was releasing a brown bear from a barrel trap and the bear turned around and went at the guy who was standing on top of the barrel trailer trap . The fellow feel off and the bear attacked him, he shot the bear a couple of times with his 357mag revolver during the struggle killing it and saving his life, so a 357 can work, like I said earlier it may not be the best choice but any small revolver on you is better than the bigger one you left at home or in the car

It wasn't Brown it was a Grizz in Montana and it was the local game warden. The warden fell off the trk onto the bear and then shot it 6 times at the last shot it fell over. If it died from the first or last who knows but to but 6 shot into a bear biteing you it might take all of 2 seconds. I lot of critters run for more time then that with their heart and lungs shot out.