could or would you feel secure using your elk rifle if attacked?
I just got off the phone with an old retired friend, I had not talked with in about 4 years
he was on a hunt a few years ago and dropped a decent size cow elk and packed out one of the hams, on the return trip he was only carrying a 44 mag revolver to save weight and when he approached the hanging elk , a fairly large black bear rushed him, from near by, he says he at first could not seem to draw fast enough but finely got out his ruger super black-hawk and fired off a shot at a range of about 15 feet, the bear spun and ran, leaving no blood trail and hes not sure he even hit it, but he reported the incident and never heard back from the rangers,who said they thought about using dogs to track the bear at first but it gave no evidence that it was hit.
he said he was glad he was not carrying his normal 300 mag with its 4x12x scope on his pack frame like he does frequently as he never could have gotten it off his shoulder fast enough to aim or fire in the brief seconds that drawing the revolver took him , as the bear got in close,and even that convinced him he needs to remain far more alert and possibly, think about mounting a 2x-7 as thinking back he can,t remember ever using more than 4x while hunting
now obviously he needed to be alert approaching an elk carcass , after it was dressed out and had been hanging un-guarded for a couple hours, but I got to thinking about what I carry under similar conditions (usually my 358 BLR or 35 whelen slide action) and while I feel those are better suited to close range confrontations they may not be ideal
he asked me not to name the state or year as he feels stupid for admitting he missed a large bear at 10-15 feet with a revolver
I just got off the phone with an old retired friend, I had not talked with in about 4 years
he was on a hunt a few years ago and dropped a decent size cow elk and packed out one of the hams, on the return trip he was only carrying a 44 mag revolver to save weight and when he approached the hanging elk , a fairly large black bear rushed him, from near by, he says he at first could not seem to draw fast enough but finely got out his ruger super black-hawk and fired off a shot at a range of about 15 feet, the bear spun and ran, leaving no blood trail and hes not sure he even hit it, but he reported the incident and never heard back from the rangers,who said they thought about using dogs to track the bear at first but it gave no evidence that it was hit.
he said he was glad he was not carrying his normal 300 mag with its 4x12x scope on his pack frame like he does frequently as he never could have gotten it off his shoulder fast enough to aim or fire in the brief seconds that drawing the revolver took him , as the bear got in close,and even that convinced him he needs to remain far more alert and possibly, think about mounting a 2x-7 as thinking back he can,t remember ever using more than 4x while hunting
now obviously he needed to be alert approaching an elk carcass , after it was dressed out and had been hanging un-guarded for a couple hours, but I got to thinking about what I carry under similar conditions (usually my 358 BLR or 35 whelen slide action) and while I feel those are better suited to close range confrontations they may not be ideal
he asked me not to name the state or year as he feels stupid for admitting he missed a large bear at 10-15 feet with a revolver