Would a cal 44 remington 1858 do the job?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
CryptO,
Your pistols were made to bring down a man, or the horse he was riding. Neither one is a bear. In your part of the World, the bears may not be as tenacious as those of Alaska. I am always more concerned with 2- legged predators. Likelihood of a bear attack is not high, but it is a concern.

In Alaska, I carried bear spray ( it works), and a 45 revolver. Happy I didn't have to use either.
Bottom line, I'd rather go down shooting than lying on the ground, hands clasped around my neck, knees pulled up to my chest, while getting disemboweled by Mr. Smokey.

Load your Remingtons heavy, use the Kaido bullet if you can, and try to avoid surprising any bears. Smile, and be wary, around other people.

Most of all, enjoy your adventure.

Richard/Grumpa
Thank you! Yess 2 legged predators are the worst type! I will! Sounds like if it's pretty low chances of meeting a bear 😄 good to know!

I didn't get kaido bullets tho got some conicals and alot of RB. Are kaido bullets some type of flat nose hunting bullets? I checked i see they got a flat nose
 
I read Elmer Keith's book "Hell, I was There". specifically the part where he was discussing Cap and Ball revolvers with civil war veterans in Montana when he was a boy. (one of his first guns was a 51 navy) it was interesting to read what they said about the revolvers, and how effective they were.
they claimed round balls worked best, and the 36 was as effective on people as was the 44s, and they could carry more 36 balls. (5.56 vs 7.62 argument) having used a 50 cal pistol with a 9" barrel in the field with dismal results I would probably not use a Remington for anything but small game and 2 legged threats. you can get a conversion cylinder for it and shoot 45 colt out of it, loaded with 40 gr of holy black and a 255 gr bullet, I can get 1050 fps from one, but that's still pretty weak. its easy to switch out cylinders.
Interesting! In my tests conicals have been penetrating muuuch deeper then round balls but guess the round balls dump off the energy into body differently? dude that's where the problem comes in...i can't get cylinders like that over here since they're illegal. We got pretty stupid gun laws. I have seen these cylinders loved them tho....

Can't get a pietta or uberti or anything that's new produced either....
 
Last edited:
A good dog would go a long way I think to distracting a bear, especially one that is ragged as a pup with bear hide!
My dog would probably get eaten haha if i see a bear i'm probably picking him up and running 🤣 it's a pomerian mix 🤣
 
It's not the size of the dog in a fight. It's the fight in the dog.



wm

Yeah man you're right but probably he would run and hide behind me as he always does while getting scared!

But he probably would bark alot. Not sure if it's good or bad! Good thing is mr. Bear wouldn't get surprised and the bad thing is i'm not sure it wouldn't try hunting him while hearing exacly where we are located.
 
Btw how much better are the kaido bullets then the conicals? Are these hunting bullets? They seem pretty expensive! Flat nosed so guess they're for hunting.
 
Yeah man you're right but probably he would run and hide behind me as he always does while getting scared!

But he probably would bark alot. Not sure if it's good or bad! Good thing is mr. Bear wouldn't get surprised and the bad thing is i'm not sure it wouldn't try hunting him while hearing exacly where we are located.
Bears don't like barking dogs.
Where are you located, by the way?

wm
 
Lots of inexperience in the comments. Noise from a gunshot won't stop a charging bear. The only sure place to put a bullet is up through the nose since that leads to the brain. See the photo. A shot to the spine will stop it, if you can put it there. A pistol will help a person feel more secure and in a pinch you can shoot your partner, if you have one, in the foot so you can out run him.

DSCN1694.JPG
 
Lots of inexperience in the comments. Noise from a gunshot won't stop a charging bear. The only sure place to put a bullet is up through the nose since that leads to the brain. See the photo. A shot to the spine will stop it, if you can put it there. A pistol will help a person feel more secure and in a pinch you can shoot your partner, if you have one, in the foot so you can out run him.

View attachment 98652
Thanks now i see! Might be hard setting it there tho in case you got adrenaline and a huge bear running towards you so yeah the plan b sounds safer haha
 
I live in bear country, matter of fact my wife watched one yesterday on the drive way, at 9am. We consider it lucky to see them, they are an awesome animal, and they taste good to. Around here the mountain lions are what we are weary of, the bears want nothing to do with us, the cougars look at us like prey. According to my many game cameras the cats are outnumbering the bears by at least 20 to 1. I live in northern Ca, 380 acres total. We see it all on cameras. A dog is the best first defense, bears hate them, cats look at them as an easier meal than the human they are with, but then again, mountain lion is a fine meat also.
 
When I arrived in Alaska back in 1981, the first thing I went looking to purchase was a .44 Magnum Ruger Blackhawk single-action revolver, so I could "Protect myself from grizzly bear attacks".

All five of the men working in the 5 different gun stores that I visited, told me the exact same thing.

WhIch was to ditch the idea of a .44 Magnum revolver, and instead purchase a 12 gauge pump shotgun, remove the 3-shot plug, and load it up with 5 rifled slugs in the magazine tube, plus one in the chamber.

Plus, if I was not hunting & trying to be quiet, tie a tin can on the back of my pack with half a dozen small pebbles in it to rattle around to make a racket to let any grizzly bears in my vicinity know that a human was in their territory.

And, whatever I did, if confronted with an angry bear to try and cripple it by breaking its shoulders first so that it would loose mobility, and thus the ability to easily attack me, before trying to kill it.

They all told me that trying to make an instantaneous kill shot on a fast moving, incredibly powerful, apex predator like a mature grizzly bear was a task for only the most experienced of hunters. Those men that were absolutely confident in their ability to stay cool, and to place a bullet exactly where it needed to go in order to stop a 600-1000 pound bear moving upwards of 35 miles per hour right in its tracks.

They further informed me, no disrespect intended, but plenty of disrespect delivered nonetheless, that the vast majority of hunters from the Lower 48 states that showed up in one of their gun shops looking to buy a .44 Magnum revolver for self protection from grizzly bears; was simply kidding himself about his ability to shoot a hard recoiling revolver accurately enough to kill a grizzly bear with a handgun.

After being insulted by the employee/owner of that first gun shop, I left in a huff, mumbling to myself that the guy didn't know how good of a handgun shot I was. And, truth be told, at that time I was probably a better shot with a handgun then the average American hunter. I then proceeded to visit a further succession of different gun shops, only to be told essentially the same thing, just with slightly different language being used to make their point.

It finally sank in that they were, to a man, trying to look out for a greenhorn that knew little about grizzly bears. They were trying to keep me from committing suicide by bear. I never did purchase a Ruger Blackhawk .44 Magnum revolver.

Another case of GOD looking out for fools and children. Because, as good of a handgun shot that I was at that time, I know now that I was no where good enough to shoot an angry, fast moving grizzly bear through its nose in order for a bullet to penetrate into the brain pan.
 
Hey guys! I got a question. I got 2 of remington 1858's! Thinking on going out to forest and camping in mountains over night. So i'm NOT out after hunting anything even tho my post is here....but in case i run into a bear or something out in mountains would a remington 1858 do the job to at least scare away a bear? Would that be pointless and make a bear even more angry or would it actually help in a case like that? I know nothing about hunting etc so i leave this part to the ones who do 😄

If you want to run into a bear this time of year, walk softly and keep your face into the wind, and spend your time in areas of beech and oak forest, while keeping your eyes out for trees with lots of broken branches from bears climbing up and down to eat the acorns that haven't fallen yet, as well as raked up leaves underneath....

If you don't want to run into a bear, then don't walk softly with your face in the wind, and avoid those places altogether...

If for some reason you want to scare off a bear, just jump up and run towards him like you intend to jump on his back and tan his hide and marvel at how fast he climbs the nearest tree up to its thinnest branch...No 1858 needed.

You really shouldn't shoot at a bear to scare him away though, because you might hit him and needlessly maim him when he would have just left once you made your presence known anyway. It's senseless. Besides, as a protected game species, there are legal repercussions for shooting at them.

I interacted with a ton of bears while bowhunting them when I lived in the catskills, many times at a distance of less than 10 yards. They are very shy, cautious creatures, even the larger boars; and I wouldn't worry about them on your camping trip. To illustrate, many times, I have hiked an hour up to the midslope of a mountain on a bowhunt, and dropped off a sleeping bag, food, and water along the way, so I could return after dark and get a little rest and then hunt the area again the next morning (to avoid an accumulated total of 2 hours' after-dark navigation).... and instead just slept in the general area of where I was bowhunting the bears, with nothing but a sleeping bag on the ground, with the food and water inside the bag with me where my body heat would keep it from freezing, and my bow hanging unstrung beside me above on a whacked-off tree limb, and no fire at all, because i didn't want to disturb any bears that might be on the slope and risk ruining the morning hunt before it even started...
 
Go camping with someone with a license for a modern gun. A 12 gauge with slugs . Or trade your Remingtons for a double 12 gauge loaded heavy…..
 
Go camping with someone with a license for a modern gun. A 12 gauge with slugs . Or trade your Remingtons for a double 12 gauge loaded heavy…..
That's a good point.

My Pedersoli 10g is heavy but comes with sling swivels. I can load 12 000buck on 90gn of fine powders so 110g for the courser grades and it delivers serious juju!
It's mass would come in handy when faced with grumpy bear. Get a cylinder bored one and roll some .76 ball down it. Flip the bear on its back and you stomp all over it, see how it likes it for a change!
 
Uh huh. What percentage of those 500 million actually wind up in bear country where attacks can be of concern? Answer: A very small percentage of the population which certainly changes the numbers, doesn't it?
Do you work statistics for the CDC by any chance?

wm
OUCH!!!
 
Seems the dog might not be good idea according to this report.
Fatal Eurasian Brown Bear Attacks-Two Swedish Fatalities in Modern Times
Torfinn Gustafsson 1, Anders Eriksson 1
Affiliations expand
Abstract
Fatal bear attacks on humans are uncommon with only one reported case in Sweden since 1902. The bear population is, however, growing and the frequency of confrontations is likely to increase. Case I-A 40-year-old hunter and his dog were found dead near a bear's den. Autopsy showed that a large portion of the face, facial skeleton, and anterior portion of the brain was missing. Autopsy of the bear showed two nonfatal gunshot wounds. Case II-A 61-year-old man and his dog were found dead outside a hunting lodge. Autopsy revealed numerous wounds, including partial evisceration of the intestines. The victim's blood ethanol concentration was 0.27%. These cases confirm the presence of risk factors identified by the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project, that is, provocation by a dog, encountering an injured bear, and appearing close to its den. An additional possible factor in case II was ethanol intoxication.

Course, they don't say how many people were saved by their faithful canine companion. Good luck!
Robby
 

Latest posts

Back
Top