Shotgun for Polar bear defence

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You might try to get hold of whoever teaches Arctic Survival 101 at UNIS in Longyearbyen, Svalbard for some advice. Polar bear deterrence and defense is a subject covered in the course. From what I understand, it's the only college campus in the world where you are not allowed to leave the campus unarmed. They do a LOT of field work on the island throughout the year and have an excellent safety record IIRC. Plus, I imagine they will have a lot of specifics on bear behavior on the island.
 
a little off topic I would not use the winchester bri slugs for bear but they are a sabot that will shoot halfway decent out of a smoothbore gun
 
I have fired 3" Brenneke Black Magic slugs from an 18" SLP and a 18.5" Mossberg 590A1. The SLP is a gas driven gun so the recoil is manageable and I was center mass on the target.

My 590A1 has a simple bead sight but I was hitting center mass as well. I have a LimbSaver recoil pad on my 590A1 and it so the recoil is manageable as well.

The distance at the indoor gun range I go to only goes out 25 yards.
 
I know of a Norwegan scientist who killed a polar bear with a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum, Model 29 or the stainless M-629. I don't know the barrel length or the range. But it was a defensive shot, so the range was probably quite close. The event set off some negartive letters to National Geographic.

I don't know what those people were thinking. Was the man supposed to let the bear eat him?! :mad:

Yes, I'd use a Model 870 Remington in 12 gauge with slugs. Can you get Brenneke slugs?They used to sell a version with rifle sights and a 20 inch barrel. If they still make it, that would seem ideal, or their marine version with stainless or chromed steel and a synthetic stock.

I'd prefer a rifle, preferably in .375 H&H Magnum caliber.. The .338 Winchester or the .340 Weatherby would also be good.I'd want Nosler Partition bullets, but Norma may offer suitable bullets. The 9.3X62mm and 9.3X64mm may be more available there. Are US cartridges common?

The late US gun writer Jeff Cooper felt that ALL polar bears, like ALL crocodiles, are potential man-eaters. I agree.

If you get any good bear photos, please post them.

Good luck in the job, and be careful.

Oh: I've read that some Norwegian organiztion issues 10mm Glock pistols to their personnel who may see polar bears. I'd rather have a .44 Magnum revolver. Which handgun are you taking?

I don't know a lot about Norway,apart from some World War Two stuff. I do lke your sardines, King Oscar brand.

I saw a survival video featuring an Englishman who said that grizzly bears can smell cooking food from 20 miles away! I imagine that polar beas have at least equal skills.
 
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^Don't know the numbers, but it's my understanding that polar bears can smell seals for many many miles. That's about the only way they can ever get substantial amounts of food.
 
will you be using it for anything else? Like grouse, dogs, hares or people? If so, giving up the smoothbore might not be such a hot idea.
 
I remember a video a from a few years ago where a photographer was studying polar bears and getting pics up close. He would get within yards of them. He carried a 12 ga. There was another camera filming him from on top of a rock. The bears had him surrounded and were reaching up to him. He tried to use the shot gun to "scare them off", he fired a couple of shots into the air, but then gun jammed. (edit-he survived)

Lesson;

Stay away from bears
Practice with the gun, keep it oiled, clean and loaded
It is not a "boom stick" to scare bears
If you are threatened shoot COM, not in the air
 
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I'd stick with the smoothbore, since it's more versatile (cracker shells might come in handy, as well as flares and birdshot).

And I'd find a good dry lube for it, and meticulously clean all the old oil etc out of it before I went into really cold/icy conditions.
 
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Get the smooth bore 870 with bead sight.

The rifled barrel would limit you in many ways.
Click to expand...


The only posts I recall in this thread that mention a rifled barrel were in reference to using sabot slugs...

There exist smooth-bore barrels that have rifle sights. Pictured below are a rifle-sights, smooth-bore, MOD-choke 18.5" parkerized. [the Fred Fuller Special]... and a bead-sight, smooth-bore, cyl-bore (no choke) 18.5" blued...

20131229_193835_zps0597d2b9.jpg

I'm still looking locally for some Brenneke slugs.

I also have a 24" rifled-barrel with rifle sights on it for $abots and distance, but that's not what is or has been recommended for "Forster"-style slugs used for close range bear defense.
 
Big Dot Orange Sight

I think you are overthinking this.

I remember watching a episode of COPS that was filmed in Alaska. The Cops responded to a house that a Polar bear had tried to get into. When they arrived there was a large, very dead Polar Bear laying on the ground outside the back door of the house covered in a lot of blood (which was very easy to see on a white bear and white snow). Inside the house was a very excited Eskimo woman with a 12 ga. gauge pump shotgun standing nearby.

What happen was the bear decided to come through the back door of her house looking for food (I’m not sure if it was for Coke-Cola or fresh meat lol). The bear totally destroyed the back door and the cabinets and walls showed deep long claw marks. The woman killed the bear at close range with one shot from her shotgun. I imagine the bear was upright or partially so and the round entered the chest cavity but I am guessing based on the damage to the house and kitchen. Nor did they say what type of round she used.

My own choice would be a pump with a smoothbore slug barrel. Before selecting which round I would pattern the gun on paper. Based on the results I would choose which sight to go with. In a defensive situation the range would be close so I would seriously consider a large big dot front sight in orange as it will stand out well against the white bear and background.
 
rcmodel said:
I'd go with an 18" barrel smoothbore and 2 3/4" Brenneke slugs.

http://www.brennekeusa.com/cms/253.html

rc
Click to expand...

Excellent advice.

Foster style "rifled" slugs are fine for deer and smaller hogs but they are like 15-16 BHN as I recall which, combined with their design, make penetration on a polar bear very suboptimal. Brenneke slugs are harder and the hang on gas seal wad makes for a slug with better penetration. I wouldn't worry about rifle sights. At the distances you would engage rather than evade, a bead sight will be fine. If it's important to you though, HiViz do a deer and Turkey sight that replaces the front bead and screws the rear sight on the rib. Perfectly effective at @ $25 (although with shipping, that may be uneconomic)
 
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An adult polar bear is 1500 pounds of muscle.

If you need to shoot it, it's not ambling around smelling daisies, it's after you.

A shotgun slug is fine for deer very bad for something that can eat you.

Buy yourself a 416 Ruger Alaskan. Your life is worth more than whatever you pay for a rifle.
 
I will throw my .02 in here. When I am up in AK, there us a marine 870 behind every door, and in every boat. First 2 rounds are 00 buck, the rest are slugs. They mainly want to keep them out if the lodge area, not so much kill them (bad for lower 48 customer PR) Don't forget about the marine shotguns, you will probably be in some very wet/humid areas. Stay safe up there, my dad was a helo pilot.
 
As for 2 3/4" vs 3" slugs?

I'd rather have one more round in the mag with 2 3/4" then a little more power with 3" that kicks too hard for fast follow-up shots any day of the week!
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Thats gospel right there.

OP : How many rounds are you going/able to carry ?

Those brennekes or even the dupleks would be a great choice.

I personally have tried these:

http://ddupleks.com/index.php/en/1270-cal/monolit-32.html

But obviously not on bear ! You can see some of their penetration tests vs rifles here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-T_SlKM8_A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um02l2SK6bU


The monolit is one tough cookie. I have yet to test a slug for penetration ( even my own feeble attempts) that did better.






Somebody mentioned the Marine model shotgun. Given your use, I can't think of anything more apt.
 
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