Bowsite.com

I recently sold my 9mm and went with the Kimber RMEF 10mm, so this is a confidence builder for me on a new pistol and caliber.

Good luck, Robb

I use a (Mantis) device for dry fire practice. It’s the best way I’ve found for maintaining skills. It attaches to the rail and gives feedback to an app on what you were doing before and during the shot sequence. Grip, torque, trigger pull. It’s worth every penny for the quality practice. Between live fire drills.

""Next morning we met with the wardens, a state and a federal warden, plus Wyoming’s big-game biologist. I was kind of nervous, but I knew it was the right thing. The night before, the state warden had told me the process. He told me, ‘You have the right to defend your life, but we’ll treat this as a federal investigation because you may have killed an endangered species. You will be under federal investigation.’ I mean, I was hot about that. Here I had just about been killed by this bear, and I’d be treated like a criminal?""

And gives you data in many different forms. A simple visual bullseye target for visual people. And or data tables for numbers driven people. It’s a great tool. Not the entire enchilada for training but a good additional tool.

I have the Mantis but rarely set it up...instead I shoot at Football players or the folks on TV while watching a game...my wife is immune to it now- it used to bug her.

I haven't seen the 10mm version laser......but have a couple of the 9mm and essentially its the same Glock platform but in a slightly smaller frame. They are like $16 on Amazon.

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I agree in principle. 100%. But by the same token… I have to be honest and say that I’m not sure I’d be up for going on a Griz hunt with a handgun. Especially not a wounded one. That doesn’t like me. And might not be alone, as this one apparently was not.

And don’t forget that at least one of them got a pretty good face-full of spray. Not sure how bad off he was, so it might or might not have been 2 on 1 at that point, and her cub is a wildcard. But it would sure be easier to surprise a bear from down-wind, so having to spray into the wind maybe isn’t so unlikely?

Anyway - a lot of considerations before you go after a wounded bear.

Makes me wonder though…. I guess I have always assumed that a bear that had been hit hard with spray would be LESS likely to pose a threat to the next person, but that a wounded bear would be MORE. But I don’t think anybody really has good data on that….

Still getting used to it Chris.

Less than a month of ownership.

Good looking Pistol for sure.

I'll have to look into that Mantis gig--Thanks for the Heads-Up.

Good luck, Robb

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Fella's,

Robb

"" Grizzly encounter resolves in cloud of bear spray

Rob Chaney 11 hrs ago

"A near-disaster became a testimonial for the effectiveness of bear spray when two University of Montana men met a real-life angry grizzly bear last weekend.

UM Forestry School Dean Alan Townsend and Lubrecht Experimental Forest Associate Director Scott Ferrenberg were doing some archery scouting on Sunday near Lake Upsata. The two men were working their way up from a pothole pond to a copse of trees around lunchtime when the worst six seconds of their lives popped out of the brush.

“We were making complacency mistakes,” Townsend said. “Both of us are very experienced in the outdoors doing this kind of thing. We were walking quietly along game trails, looking for signs, and getting a little too cavalier in thinking the combination of midday sunshine and being down in the more open part of that country was lower risk.”

The men had seen a couple black bears, but assumed they were close enough to Highway 200 that bigger predators wouldn’t be around. People are also reading…

“When the bear popped up, I was slightly upslope of Alan, forming a triangle off my right shoulder,” Ferrenberg said. “There was a loud growl and breaking limbs. I swiveled my head and my first response was — this is a grizzly bear, this is a game-changer.”

“I was about 25 or 30 feet behind,” Townsend said. “It took a step or two toward Scott in what might have been a bluff charge. Then it looked downhill at me and just came for me. That was a full-blown rush.”

Townsend had both a pistol and a can of bear spray with him, and a pair of binoculars around his neck. As the bear charged, Townsend said he got mentally tangled in which option to grab, and then physically tangled in the straps.

“I made the mistake of not having a clear plan in advance what my primary defense tools should be,” Townsend said. “Not having that front of mind, I reached across for the sidearm but found my arm blocked by the binoculars.

“By that point he was coming for me, and I needed to buy myself a couple seconds,” Townsend continued. “I turned and ran a few steps to a small grove of trees, hoping that might at least slow it down a bit. We all know you can’t run from a grizzly.”

Ferrenberg thinks the grizzly switched from bluffing to aggression the instant it realized it had two opponents rather than one. It pivoted toward Townsend, and Ferrenberg ran toward it with his bear spray unholstered. He was able to send a broadside blast of the irritating gas just ahead of the grizzly’s head. The spray contained a bright orange dye, so he could see the 6-foot cloud it made.

“It was really fascinating,” Ferrenberg said. “I had this idea that it (the grizzly) had committed its weight to a strong sideways turn. But when it met the spray, it almost did a 180 — just up and spun out of there in an instant. After seeing it do those gymnastics, I realized that weight idea was really silly.”

Ferrenberg was well-versed in past reports of grizzlies continuing to attack even when hit by multiple bullets.

“It was such a profound reaction, for an animal that can endure great pain,” Ferrenberg said. “It wasn’t that its eyes were burning. I think it knew the scenario had changed. The bear never wanted this encounter. It just wanted a way out of there and it saw an escape route.”

He also had a long familiarity with firearms, having a father and grandfather with military experience.

“I know the ability to be accurate when the adrenaline is pumping is something only special operators train for,” Ferrenberg said. “People think if they get good on paper targets, the firearm will work. But even with years of experience, I wouldn’t have been able to help Alan in that scenario. I would have had to fire in his direction. If he’s being mauled, what am I going to do? Shoot him and the bear? I was struck by how much in control I was with the pepper spray.”

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 2 Bear Manager Jamie Jonkel said the incident resolved as well as anyone could have hoped for.

“When I’m in the woods, I carry both spray and a sidearm,” Jonkel said. “But the go-to is spray first.”

Jonkel suspects the grizzly might have been a sow with a cub to protect, but can’t be certain. He does know the foothills of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex north of Highway 200 have at least three family groups of grizzly sows and cubs in the Ovando area, along with multiple lone grizzlies. Helmville and the Clearwater Junction vicinities have equal numbers of families and solo grizzlies.

That’s an issue for anyone scouting in anticipation of Montana’s big-game archery backcountry season, which starts Sunday Sept. 4, or general archery on Sept. 15. Jonkel said the hot, dry August has affected many bear food sources.

“Hunters are going to see more bear activity in the hidey-hole pockets where the bull elk hang out, because that’s where the coolness and berries and natural bear foods are. The berry crop isn’t the greatest this year, but it’s still OK.

“As a result, we will have a lot of bears concentrated,” Jonkel said. “If you find a huckleberry patch in the high cirques where the elk are bugling, you might be dealing with twice the number of grizzlies as normal. In the low elevations, they’re going to be in riparian sites and ag fields that are heavily watered.”

Both Townsend and Ferrenberg were amazed at the size of the grizzly.

“I’m 6-foot-4,” Ferrenberg said. “That bear’s snout standing on four feet would be around my sternum.”

“You have all these things that run through your head, thinking this is not good — damn that’s a magnificent animal,” Townsend said. “It was an absolutely beautiful bear.”

Unfortunately we are hunting in Griz country week after next. Fortunately we are going elk hunting. Double edge sword.

LOL

I do wish spray was as quick and easy to bring into action as a sidearm, and I know that it’s not fool-proof, but… A big ol’ cloud of spray vs a projectile with a diameter of less than 1/2” that has to hit a moving target about the size of a softball…. Which is a target that an awful lot of the pistol shooters that I’ve seen cannot hit at 15 yards on a range, no pressure.

I’m thinkin’ that you’d have to be pretty much Hollywood Good to stop a griz that really had it in for you….. You know, like the guys who can fan 10 rounds out of a Peacemaker in a second and a half and 12 Bad Guys fall down and none of ‘em ever even twitch.

The more I think it through, the more I come down on the side of suspenders and a belt, if for no other reason than which way the wind blows.

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"Coyote bites man in Cohasset, off-leash dog dies after attack from pack of 7 coyotes "

There *may* be a few people around here who ignore the regs on 'em. I wouldn't know...

Enjoy, Robb

@ 20 yards I have had 'False Charges' in the past, so that is my max shot range 'if'.

Preparation is going just fine for me, so far.

These are the bullets I'm using.

I see no difference in accuracy.

Good luck, Robb

That's my C-carry holster.

On the mountain I use this one

Thanks for the input,

Robb

Good luck, Robb

Ya just feed you pants belt thru the upper links and it hangs about mid thigh on me.

Robb

True that,

Robb