Please don't shoot a bear with bird shot or a .45... Please go straight to a rifle or have a real load in your shotgun...

-Gene

The story says a lot about marksmanship and or probably load choice. I downed a 200 pound black bear with one shot from 12 ga 00 magnum at 50 yards during a bear hunt a while back. Never took another step. Mod 12 30" full choke is the right gun for the job.

So something is not right about all the shooting.

I carried a 44 mag on my hip, if things got tight.

Proper gun, load and shooting works better than filling the air.

"both our weapon and our ammunition, because they are in two different places"

"The first two rounds from the 12-gauge shotgun were birdshot and the third was rubber bullets, according to a report by the sheriff's office. The Fischers escaped through a bedroom window, leaving the wounded bear inside the house."

Such foolishness could have gotten that fellow and his family killed or seriously injured. What was he thinking?

Enough self-righteous chest thumping. The homeowner never planned on killing a bear in his house; he worked with what he had under very stressful conditions. Around here the bear shotguns are loaded with rubber bullets to chase the bears away, not kill them.

The deputies on the other assaulted the bear with their 9mm pop guns and should be criticized for using the wrong tool for the job.

The deputy had a .45, which at point blank range against a small black bear (only 200 lbs) should have gotten the job done if properly targeted.

Boulder is the Berkeley of Colorado, and given that mixed shotgun load I really don't think this guy had his ammunition and shotgun separated. How would he choose such a silly load order if he did?

Of course, I don't understand anyway. Birdshot is an excellent choice for home defense, but why is the first round lethal and the next 2 less lethal (assuming this load was pre-planned and not 3 random shells grabbed in the dark).

Since this is in the Daily Camera, look in the next few days for a lot of opinion letters of people demanding all these bear killers be hanged, etc.

Not many bears around me but they are out there, and 00 bukshot is what they will get if things get rough.

Still have to get that .44 mag revolver...maybe Xmas...

1. Re: Birdshot as a self-defense load. Birdshot is a good self defense load if you are being attacked by birds. If you are expecting larger opponents, choose buckshot or slugs (or both). The rubber bullets I just don't understand at all indoors. Outdoors, maybe.

2. .45ACP - Targeting is correct. Consider the head is usually the most heavily armored part of any creature, large or small. Consider also the difficulty of hitting a frightened, moving target, even at close range. The officer did well to get two head shots in under those conditions.

3. Somewhat surprised that the 5.56 put him down, but at that range it has a lot of "oomph" to it.

4. Still, the guy's primary purpose was accomplished - the family escaped unharmed. Ultimately it doesn't matter if he used a soup spoon - he got the job done. Kudos out.