[MGH]

I'm going to be camping up in Wyoming in a few weeks at my dad's cabin. He said he's been having some problems with a local bear in our canyon. Claw marks on the cabin logs, a bunch of paw prints around the cabin and some damaged property.

I'm not sure what the plan is on how to deal with it; if we hunt it down or just be ready if it comes around.

I've been looking around online on offence and defense around bears but I thought I would come here and ask you guys for an suggestions or ideas.

I figured Orangello would have something to say about this.

[winds-of-change]

Personally, I would not hunt it down but I would be prepared if he made a visit to my cabin. If you hunt it down, how do you know you are shooting the bear that's bold enough to snoop around your cabin?

[spittinfire]

In Wyoming I would be more worried about brown bear then black. If you need a side arm, a 44 mag would be my choice or bigger for the brownies. A lever action guidew gun in 45-70 wouldnt be a bad idea for either.

[ScottA]

When my father used to fly the arctic, he got the opportunity to rub shoulders with a lot of bush pilots and guides. He was told a 12ga loaded with bird shot first followed by slugs was preferred.

The birdshot to blind the animal, and the slugs to obviously expire the animal.

[MGH]

Originally Posted by winds-of-change

Personally, I would not hunt it down but I would be prepared if he made a visit to my cabin. If you hunt it down, how do you know you are shooting the bear that's bold enough to snoop around your cabin?

We don't get that many in our area in the 15 years we've had the cabin and we haven't seen this much bear activity ever up there.

We're pretty sure there is just one in our area.

Originally Posted by spittinfire

In Wyoming I would be more worried about brown bear then black. If you need a side arm, a 44 mag would be my choice or bigger for the brownies. A lever action guidew gun in 45-70 wouldnt be a bad idea for either.

I couldn't find exact info. but from the looking around there aren't any brown bears in the SE part of Wyoming (where our cabin is.) just black bears.

We will all have 12 ga. with buck shot, slugs or both.
And my dad does have his .44 mag

I will have my .40 with me, will that do anything to a bear other than make it mad?

[Yunus]

Originally Posted by MGH

We don't get that many in our area in the 15 years we've had the cabin and we haven't seen this much bear activity ever up there.

We're pretty sure there is just one in our area.





I couldn't find exact info. but from the looking around there aren't any brown bears in the SE part of Wyoming (where our cabin is.) just black bears.

We will all have 12 ga. with buck shot, slugs or both.
And my dad does have his .44 mag

I will have my .40 with me, will that do anything to a bear other than make it mad?

If your asking if a 40 will take out a bear. No it will not reliably injure a bear. However in my experience scaring a black bear is more than enough. Scaring them with a trashcan lid or other noise will suffice, a 40 cal should be sufficient. This is assuming you don't keep food near your campsite and that these are normal black bears. Starved, rabid or otherwise scared bears could react differently and in that case I would prefer the 12 gauge to any pistol.

[Gojubrian]

All you need is a .22 short. When the bear attacks, shoot your friend in the knee and run! Lol

[MGH]

Where is Orangello? I totally thought he would be all over this. I kinda figured he searches FTF every few hours for the word "bear"

[deathkricket]

A .40 with hot ammo is enough to deal with a black bear. Or if you like other people up by me grab a rock, yes a guy on the news up here beat a black bear to death with a rock.

[MGH]

I've thought about just taking a hike with my K-bar and slicing the thing to death, but then I wake up from my daydream and realize I am not a ninja.