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Picked this up today for Bears and Nazis

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
Been kicking around for a while getting something for bears, not for while riding a bike per-say, but for fishing and stuff like that. This was the first year I ventured out into the rivers and stream areas to go fishing while wading and traversing the shore, which in some areas is pretty thick with bears. They just show up and all of a sudden there is one in between you and shore or some similar situation. I thought long and hard about the 329PD and Raging Bull 444 Ultralite, but those have some inherent issues that make using any kind of hot .44mag bear load a bad idea, with the 329 the recoil is so violent it can actually make the rounds creep out of the cartridges and jam it, as well as the internal lock can do the same, and the Taurus has similar issues and the cylinder isn't long enough for these kinds of loads. So while the lightweight allure of these two weapons was attractive, the Model 69 came out just a couple years ago and splits the difference at 37oz and full .44mag capability. It's also built on the smaller mid-size frame, vs. the two lightweight pistols above that are built on the full size frame. After having shot this, I can say that firing any kind of high pressure .44 mag out of those other two would have been a bad bad idea anyway. With .44 special this is a tame pussycat.
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Kevin

Turbo Monkey
I dont like guns but thats pretty awesome looking. So realistically speaking, how big are the chances that gun is gonna save you from a bear that comes across your trail?

Youd probably have to be a hell of a shot to stop a charging bear in its tracks or not?
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
I dont like guns but thats pretty awesome looking. So realistically speaking, how big are the chances that gun is gonna save you from a bear that comes across your trail?

Youd probably have to be a hell of a shot to stop a charging bear in its tracks or not?
Yeah, it depends on the circumstances. When fishing, it's not uncommon for a bear to "wander by", then if it gets interested in you, you don't have a lot of choices. Sometimes you are minding your own business and you turn around and one is 15 feet away minding it's own business, but they can be very unpredictable. If you get charged because you get in between a sow and cub, you might not get any warning and that will happen before you can draw any spray or firearm. On a bike, you can often just turn around unless it's the 2nd scenario, and then you can hopefully spray your buddy and the attacking bear. But, on foot, not uncommon to be "stalked" by a bear or have that first scenario, which is where a gun comes in. Kid was killed this year in a foot-race up a mountain and was able to text back about being stalked by a bear, had no spray or anything. The gun is more for situations on foot, in addition to bear spray.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,232
20,015
Sleazattle
It has been 20 years since I shot a .44 mag but it was one of my favorites. Can't remember the model but was a friends Ti framed lightweight thingy. Recoil wasn't terrible. not painful or uncontrollable, a solid firm shove. It did have a ported brake on the barrel. Could have been the stupidity of youth.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
It has been 20 years since I shot a .44 mag but it was one of my favorites. Can't remember the model but was a friends Ti framed lightweight thingy. Recoil wasn't terrible. not painful or uncontrollable, a solid firm shove. It did have a ported brake on the barrel. Could have been the stupidity of youth.
I was highly debating that model, but now having shot this, which is 10oz heavier than that one, no F-ing way. Follow up shot would be impossible for me. Neat factoid, you can shoot .44 special out of a magnum, that round is like a little tame baby. Can do that all day long. Big heavy things like the monster .50 cal and .480 are built on crazy heavy frames and not nearly as bad as some of these lightweight magnums, but they are crazy heavy and bulky and I'm not likely to encounter a Kodak-size brown bear. Like said above, I hope to never have to shoot one and I want to get myself out of dangers way rather than try to put myself in a situation where I have to use it. For 99.9% of biking, id never carry it and struggle to think of a situation where I think I'd need to. Fishing on the other hand...
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
My wife's best friend won a 44 in raffle at work, not sure if she carries it in the field.
When we have to go out to the field to investigate an accident, we arrange for a "bear guard" at the site, a guy with some heavy hitting weapons, like a lever-action or shotgun with slugs, and he keeps us safe from bears while we do our thing. It's rare to need this, but it's always available for us.