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There are always those discussions about is a .380 enough or 9mm is the minimum or 45's etc. Well apparently none of this is tough enough for Bubba. A homeowner at Lake Tahoe shot Bubba right between the eyes with a .44 magnum (the most powerful handgun in the world per Dirty Harry, if I remember correctly) and it just bounced off his scull. Enough to scare him off, so I guess my .380 would have just irritated him off enough to have gotten me killed.

In case you missed the article today in the paper.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... le_related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bullets do strange things. I've seen a .308 deflect off the brim of a baseball cap, although it wasn't a "Cubs" hat.

philip964 wrote:There are always those discussions about is a .380 enough or 9mm is the minimum or 45's etc. Well apparently none of this is tough enough for Bubba. A homeowner at Lake Tahoe shot Bubba right between the eyes with a .44 magnum (the most powerful handgun in the world per Dirty Harry, if I remember correctly) and it just bounced off his scull. Enough to scare him off, so I guess my .380 would have just irritated him off enough to have gotten me killed.

In case you missed the article today in the paper.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... le_related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bear skulls are notorious for deflecting powerful ammo. It's not the hardness, it's the shape. A perfect sloping bullet launching ramp right between the eyes.

Most professional guides in Alaskan bear country use nothing less than a .338 Win Magnum. The .45-70 loaded hot is a favorite. Bears are tough critters.

jester wrote:Bullets do strange things. I've seen a .308 deflect off the brim of a baseball cap, although it wasn't a "Cubs" hat.

Bullets do indeed do strange things. It's not unheard of to see small rounds like .22, .25, or .32 that hit the front of the skull at just the right angle travel around it just under the skin and exit the back of the scalp with no more damage than a couple of shallow bloody holes.

When I was a kid there was a WWI vet in our neighborhood. He had been hit between the eyes by a German Mauser bullet which penetrated only as far as the sinuses. He spat the bullet out. The resulting hole was still there 30 years later and he used to entertain the kids by smoking a cigarette through it. He had also lost the thumb and forefinger on his right hand and all the kids called him "Mr Three Finger."

I was also in the Navy with a guy who was hit in the head by a ChiCom 13mm machinegun bullet, which penetrated his steel pot helmet, glanced off his skull and skidded around inside his scalp to pop out the back. It looked like a through and through and that's the way they treated it, but he was merely unconscious.

I saw a .30 carbine bullet fail to penetrate a wild hogs skull once at 25 yds. head on. Never would believe it if I wasn't there to see it.

I've seen gun camera footage of .50 BMG ricochets off water - which is a lot softer than bear skull.

It's all a matter of angles . . .

HankB wrote:I've seen gun camera footage of .50 BMG ricochets off water - which is a lot softer than bear skull.

It's all a matter of angles . . .

Water is actually effectively hard when struck by a projectile at a low angle. Consider what happens when you skip pebbles across a pond.

Bullets do the same thing - just a little faster.

MoJo wrote:Most professional guides in Alaskan bear country use nothing less than a .338 Win Magnum. The .45-70 loaded hot is a favorite. Bears are tough critters.

On such targets, RPGs are recommended, whenever available. Wait, sec, I play a lotof on-line games, Sorry no animal hate was intended.

Excaliber wrote:

HankB wrote:I've seen gun camera footage of .50 BMG ricochets off water - which is a lot softer than bear skull.

It's all a matter of angles . . .

Water is actually effectively hard when struck by a projectile at a low angle. Consider what happens when you skip pebbles across a pond.

Bullets do the same thing - just a little faster.

Or a belly flop. Those things hurt! Water, fluids for that matter, are plenty hard. They don't compress much, which is why hydraulics work so well.

Try not to aim for the hardest part of an animal, the frontal lobe.

HankB wrote:I've seen gun camera footage of .50 BMG ricochets off water - which is a lot softer than bear skull.

It's all a matter of angles . . .

I have bounced a 5" projectile weighing 67 pounds off water.

jimlongley wrote:

HankB wrote:I've seen gun camera footage of .50 BMG ricochets off water - which is a lot softer than bear skull.

It's all a matter of angles . . .

I have bounced a 5" projectile weighing 67 pounds off water.

I'll just bet it was traveling a little faster than you could throw it by hand.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

jimlongley wrote:

HankB wrote:I've seen gun camera footage of .50 BMG ricochets off water - which is a lot softer than bear skull.

It's all a matter of angles . . .

I have bounced a 5" projectile weighing 67 pounds off water.

I'll just bet it was traveling a little faster than you could throw it by hand.

True enough, but I aimed the gun and pulled the trigger . . . Well, I aimed it in elevation, another guy did all the work in windage, we made a good team. Scored two hits for one shot because it skipped just right, which was pure luck, I was aiming for COM and the scorer just scored the splashes.

The Bear League, a nonprofit bear-safety organization, says techniques like sounding air horns could be used instead of lethal ones. Executive director Ann Bryant says government agencies like Mr. Lackey's dispatch animals far too often in order to be seen as "heroes."

I wonder if anyone in the Bear League (which sounds remarkably like a Gay-Rights organization) has ever actually tested the efficacy of sounding an air horn at a large, enraged Ursine.