Earthling,
Wolfeye said "Small handgun". <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

However grizz have been killed at point blank range by a .22 in the eye. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />I'd prefer a .44, but ya use what ya got... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

But really guys, using a handgun against a bear isn't a real good idea.. A .340 weatherby magnum is really about the smallest reliable big bear load, and it doesn't come out of no handgun... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

I wonder how many of you have ever seen a big bear? I saw a numbered Boone and Crocket club brown bear stuffed at the university of Alaska at Fairbanks. As I recall it was about 18 feet something at the tippy tip of its ear when standing up and about 7 feet in diameter, also while erect. Its neck was approximately 3 feet in diameter! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Where would you shoot at? I mean a tall person could lay down sideways in his belly and not make a bump on either side. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

I had a big browny in the bushes behind my tent one night camped on the Kenai Penninsula in Alaska. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />Its breath was slow and its lungs vibrated like 55 gallon cans. The hair all over my body stood straight up <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />- right through my clothes yes... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I saw another brown bear through my telescope in Denali Park and he was around 7 foot tall at the sholder walking on all fours. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />
Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />