For the record an arrow kills by penetration and cutting. A gun, on the other hand uses hydraulic action to do lethal damage. The rule of thumb is 1000 ft-lb of energy to kill a whitetail. In Illinois a handgun must produce at least 500 ft-lbs to be legal. But now you're talking about "controlled" shot and aiming. I'm not an expert on handguns as you must be, but I'm guessing that a 45 acp with a 230 gr jacketed hollow point probably only provides about 300-350 ft-lb of energy. Unless you shoot some sort of "magic" glock I'm sure you'll never get much better than that. Oh, sure, you'd probably kill that bruin, but it would be hours after the shot before it died. I would even guess that at 15-20 yards there wouldn't be enough energy to even penetrate the skull to make a quick kill. Maybe you should try to hunt with a bow or a handgun for that matter and see just how difficult it is and which is the preferred weapon of choice to kill a bear. And NO, I certaintly wouldn't want to shoot an arrow at a charging animal, or try to scare one away with it. I know that if all I had was a 45 acp for defense against a charging bear, I'd be sure sure to save the last bullet for me. Just for the record...I don't think it's a good idea to carry a gun into the BW, but I think if someone else wants to, then fine. Maybe they will protect me from you.

Posted by Grego on June 25, 2001 at 21:46
From IP address 209.153.16.33