Bear Pistols?

[Daryl]

Back in the 1800's up into the civil war period, many army-types preferred the .54 calibre or even larger calibre English dueling pistols for 'running' buffalo. I suspect
they might work very well on bears too.
According to Firearms of the American West, that is.

[Davemuzz]

Description from Lewis & Clarks encounter with a grizzly bear. (Just because you call it a bear pistol....doesn't mean.......)

On May 14, six men from the Corps of Discovery, “all good hunters,” came upon another grizzly  bear lying in the open about 300 paces from the river. Lewis described what happened next:

they took the advantage of a small eminence which concealed them and got within 40 paces of him unperceived, two of them reserved their fires as had been previously conscerted, the four others fired nearly at the same time and put each his bullet through him, two of the balls passed through the bulk of both lobes of his lungs, in an instant this monster ran at them with open mouth, the two who had reserved their fires discharged their pieces at him as he came towards them, boath of them struck him, one only slightly and the other fortunately broke his shoulder, this however only retarded his motion for a moment only, the men unable to reload their guns took to flight, the bear pursued and had very nearly overtaken them before they reached the river; two of the party betook themselves to a canoe and the others seperated an concealed themselves among the willows, reloaded their pieces, each discharged his piece at him as they had an opportunity they struck him several times again but the guns served only to direct the bear to them, in this manner he pursued two of them seperately so close that they were obliged to throw aside their guns and pouches and throw themselves into the river altho’ the bank was nearly twenty feet perpendicular; so enraged was this anamal that he plunged into the river only a few feet behind the second man he had compelled take refuge in the water, when one of those who still remained on shore shot him through the head and finally killed him; they then took him on shore and butchered him when they found eight balls had passed through him in different directions.

[Daryl]

LOL Good account however,  80gr. is all you really need, right?
& 8 hits.

[Hungry Horse]

You guys seem to not know the difference between a true bear hunter, and somebody that just stumbles onto a bear while hunting. Most true bear hunters, hunt with dogs, and shoot the bear at close range while treed. At least that’s the way it was done back In the day. They also sometimes went into their dens after them before they became active in the spring. Both of these situations involved a well placed head shot, if everything went as planned.

  Hungry Horse

[Davemuzz]

Bear hunting today is different in every state that holds bear, and where they have a legal bear season.

Here in Pennsylvania bear hunting cannot be done with bait, nor the use of dogs. Some hunters just go out to where they "know of" bear. Others do a lot of scouting for the best chance at getting a shot.

I posted the Lewis & Clark diary story as on that first expedition, the L&C group had heard stories of the Grizzly bear and they could not wait to have an encounter with the Grizzly. L&C honestly thought their smoke poles were far superior to arrows and that the Grizzly would fall quickly with their "firepower."  They soon learned why the Grizzly had such a fierce reputation. (Can you imagine running from a 500+lb Grizzly that has been shot many times....and he's really, really angry at his attackers? Gotta wonder what the thinking of the fellow who jumped from a high wall into a river.....only to turn around and find the angry 500-lb bear right behind him!!!  That's one angry bear!!)

[BOB HILL]

I think you've got an understanding of how it was done, Horse ol' boy.
Bob

[Daryl]

You guys seem to not know the difference between a true bear hunter, and somebody that just stumbles onto a bear while hunting. Most true bear hunters, hunt with dogs, and shoot the bear at close range while treed. At least that’s the way it was done back In the day. They also sometimes went into their dens after them before they became active in the spring. Both of these situations involved a well placed head shot, if everything went as planned.

  Hungry Horse

Never met a true bear hunter I guess. I've shot a few - ribs and head shots. Both worked a treat. Stopped hunting them when I stopped eating them.
I have no intention to hunt or shoot a grizzly. I have eaten grizzly though - just as good, maybe better than the black bears we ate. Might have been the cloves
but that roast was good.  It was a Spatsizi Park, B.C. bear - big one 9 1/2' square.
It is illegal to use dogs for bear here in BC, too, Dave - as well as shooting them over bait - or even a gut pile can be considered baiting them.
Grizzlies don't normally climb trees, can though - the odd one that is shaped properly.
Only a fool would go into a grizzly's den.  Some stay active all winter, or exit the den now and then throughout the winter season
so do not go into a deep sleep like black bears.
The G-bears are not true hibernators, but do, apparently enjoy a late fall or winter meal of a denned,  black bear.

This discussion reminded me of Julus Baishev, a young native lad from Yakutsk, Siberia. He was an exchange student here at UNBC while my daughters were a the University.
We took him out hunting for a day, a drive about and grouse hunt,actually and he saw more game, moose and deer than he'd ever seen in a month at home. We had a grouse supper
which was wonderful, of course. Julus (pronounced dooloose) told us of bear hunting 'at home'. Their bears are actually in-land grizzlies, very similar in most ways to ours. They are hunted
in the winter by finding a den, then the youngest/newest member of the hunters has to crawl into the den, wake the bear, then he gets pulled out by a rope around his feet before the bear can grab
him. When the bear emerges, they other 'hunters' all shoot it with their 12 bores loaded with slugs.
Julus said he was lucky, only had to do  that once.  The 'bait' is rarely grabbed by the bear, he said, but if he is, it's usually bad as the head is usually grabbed.

[snapper]

I cooked up some griz loins in butter dredged with flour and salt/pepper on the one I shot a few years ago.  Tasted so bad that I had to boil water to make supper from freeze dried food.

We were way North of the Arctic Circle about 8 days into the hunt and at 10 pm at night after a hard day in the bush you will eat most anything, but we could not eat that meat.  One taste and we were spitting it out. 

Fleener

[Elnathan]

Those bear pistols are from the southern Appalachians, most from right where I grew up and live today, as a matter of fact. Taint no grizzlies here, just black bear. We do have an abundance of rhododendron thickets and steep hillsides, though, and it isn't hard to figure out why a guy might prefer a pistol to a rifle if he was expecting to be scrambling through and up them.

Black bear were important food sources here, as they are one of the few animals other than hogs to carry much fat. Bear oil useful both for food and for preserving and lubricating metal, and the Cherokee used it as a wood preservative too.