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.36 vs. .44 "Stopping Power"

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The OP offered a different title and that is what this should be, his alternative title.

As for the Grizzly Bear encounter, we do not know where the two shots penetrated the bear. But that is the goal of a shot, do disabling damage. If you blow a Grizzly bear shoulder out and all it can do is circles, unless you are in the circle, you can plink it at your leisure.

A popular shotgun load for surveyors or other bush crawlers (fish counters, geologists etc) was 4 double O Buck and a slug.

For a Grizzly odds are you will not get a shot off. If you do, then the O Buck shreds the face (or that is the idea). You have 3 more rounds. Assuming its blind now, the slug kills it, even if slowly as shot placement is difficult to say the least on a bear scrambling around.

The other school was Slugs, I never thought that was worth spit. I had seen said bears move and a big slug miss is a surveyor getting mauled.

Also situation specific. Curl up was better than shooting, pepper spray best of all but I know one case where the guy did not get it out of the holster. A Peperr Spray can in the hand is priceless.

One poster said shock of larger rounds. Well a 20mm yes, but bullets reality range .357 to 45.

Does the bullet transmit its energy? A amped up person si just like a bear, once going they shrug off anything but a central nervous system hit (yes a heart shot works but not as fast though it might be good enough)

I had a laugh about the guy who herded the Griz back to his party. I would have shot that guy. You idiot. A 45-70 at range, yes. Pistols at arm reach, you are stupid. If a bear runs away you just won the lottery.

Self defense ammo is not considered equal in 9mm up through 44. Its just luck of the draw.

I know of one encounter where a guy with a 44 magnum started shooting at a guy with a 45 ACP 1911 (Range war where a group of drug runners was taking over other peoples cabins)

The good guy with the 45 won, he had two more shots and number 7 or 8 hit something lethal. He in turn was hit 4 x by the 44, none of them was lethal. Best is SD ammo and lots of rounds.
But none of it does a lick of good sans shot placement.

This is a short version of Elmer Keith hunt out on the Alaska Peninsula (caribou and grizzly bears). 5 of his part are stopped atop a small hill (typical of that area) and one guy looks back and its, oh ****. Coming up the hill hell bent is a grizzly.. Ok, this is not a cub charge, we did not startle, all rifles on deck.

I don't remember who had what but they all had 30-06, 35 Whalen group. All were experienced big game and they shifted to a line and opened up as they got a clear shot.

The bear dies at their feet. Most of the shots hit. I read that account long ago, I don't remember if it was accumulated damage or someone finally got the trifecta. Stopping power? Yea right.

SD ammo is te4sted for penetration (ie duplicate human body) and you don't want it going through. Its tested for expansion and how much and reliable.

Law enforcement or security are still taught center of mass. Because you should hit something and some stuff that will drop someone is in that area.

Its not stopping power, its playing the odds. You stack them in your favor.

Can you even see someone through the smoke of the first shot (BP revolver getting back to that) or the 2nd? Its why Nelson climbed the mast, he needed to see! (well he had people up there to see for him).

So yea, change the title. As is knowing the reaction its just troll bait. Yea I am a bit at loose ends this afternoon and thought some tales from Alaska might liven up someones day.
 
Jay Massey used to do float trips down the Moose John River, was asked if a .357 Magnum would stop a Grizzly bear. “Oh heck yeah!” He said, “Eventually…”
 
I have no ambition to be somewhere where grizz is a problem. But if I had to, a bolt or lever gun chambered for a cartridge also considered suitable for elephant or rhino. Add a .454 revolver. Add a .22 mag derringer for suicide should the first choices fail.
Seriously, I am a bird hunter. Not following a dog carrying a16 GA through any grizz habitat.
If I absolutely had to prowl his habitat? I'd want grenades and an M79 with WP rounds.
 
There is a large difference in performance, as when loaded to normal capacity, the .44 is nearly twice as powerful as a .36. Both can achieve similar velocities, but the .44 ball (.454 or so) is twice as heavy. For shooting varmints and plinking .36 will suffice. My 1851 Navy in .36 is my favorite revolver. Lots of talk on a muzzleloading forum about modern ballistics, shockwaves, and statistics. I would like to share a statistic now. I have shot 11 large bodied bucks (200 lb. and well up from there) with a .44 cap and ball revolver. 100% were killed quickly with one shot from a range of 4 to perhaps 30 yards. A few fell immediately, a few ran a short distance, same as a modern rifle. Didn't get the deer's opinion on wound channels and such. For general shooting, I love the .36., for hunting and two legged varmints, a warmly loaded .44 is the way to go. Of course, if I'm expecting 2 legged trouble, I'm not carrying a cap and ball revolver anyways. So, discussions about concealed carry and stats seem a strange tangent for a muzzleloading forum that covers a time period from the Late Medieval world to 1865.
Except that concealed carry was fairly common in the latter portion of that time frame. Lincoln was assassinated by a concealed carry piece.
 
Add a .22 mag derringer for suicide should the first choices fail.

When people asked about my carry 41 magnum I told them it was to shoot myself if I encountered a grizzly (brown) bear!

I had zero expectations of it for bear SD. Noise maker yes, snipe a bear if I had to if I could get up in a tree (if it would not leave) yes.

As noted with the 357, eventually it would kill a bear.
 
I have been impressed with my .44 Sheriff and my .36 Navy. As far as "STOPPING POWER" I never have been a big believer in it, I have seen life snuffed with .22 short as well as .50 BMG. Grant it two different forms of life, both were taken with Shot Placement not Stopping Power
 
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its ALL about shot placement. Charlie Beckwith survived a .50 cal hit to the abdomen that did not hit a vital. Gary flint took a bunch of .44mag to the stomach and lived. lots of other stories out there. .22lr in the right place beats.44 mag in the dirt every day. same thing with .36 over .44 rb. That being said if you have good accuracy with the larger caliber then go with that.
 
Those boys (going after grizzlies with a Navy pistol) sure had some hair on them… live large!
I've read the grizzly guns were almost always Walker's with max loads shot from horse back.
The Mexicans made great sport of gang lassoing them from horse back and finishing them off with hand guns.
I can imagine a ****** off grizzly winding up a single rider from his lariat rope if not attached by another from an adjacent angle.
 
Jay Massey used to do float trips down the Moose John River, was asked if a .357 Magnum would stop a Grizzly bear. “Oh heck yeah!” He said, “Eventually…”
I've lived and hunted AK every year but two for over five decades, all in brown/grizzly country, killed 6 black bear and was present when two brown bear were taken. They all carried on with lethal hits long enough to end me had they closed and gotten the chance.
The only one I ever saw drop from a single hit was the last one I killed nearly closing on my hunting pard with a 4 inch .44 Mag Keith bullet "God shot" through the spine that cut his wiring.
He weighed 400 lbs and was already mortally wounded with a shot through the heart/lungs from the front of the chest I had just made on him initiating the charge . This for those that think a black bear won't come after you !
Phil Shoemaker (noted AK brown/grizzly guide) recommends and regularly carries a .357 mag with hard cast or monolithic bullets.
Two comments always amuse me, that bear size has anything to do with their lethality and any person knowing what a bear will do when shot !
A 200 lbs black bear will kill you every bit as fast as a 1200 lb brown will if they have decided to.
I remember a very accurate and honest quote by a bear guide some years back when asked what a bear is going to do in a given situation,"hells bells, the bear doesn't even know what he's going to do until it happens" !
 
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