The Bearkiller gap

There’s something I frequently forget/neglect to do when cleaning the Tracker…


The Tracker is chambered for .44 Magnum but it’s a lightweight gun more intended for a lot of carrying than for a lot of shooting so believe me you need a really good reason to feed it a solid diet of Magnums. .44 Special is more than enough for the average varmint, but deafening with that muzzle brake. Magnums are just plain unpleasant.

But Special brass is .10 inch shorter than Magnum brass, which leaves a tiny little gap in the cylinder that can, if you don’t scrub it out from time to time, get filled with powder residue not normally removed with a bore snake.


It can get so bad that you can’t even get a .44 Magnum cartridge in there. That would be fine with me, except…


You think I’m kidding? We really got a couple of bears around here several years ago when there was a big forest fire south of here. And you know what? When a bear gets scared and hungry, it goes looking for people stuff to take. One actually broke into a guy’s house. While he was in the house. He chased it away with a 9mm but the little pistol could just as easily have pissed it off, right? And that’s the same bear that was the reason I found myself crawling under a house with a .45 and a spotlight, wishing I was much smarter and/or had something much bigger – like a tactical nuke.

And that’s why I keep these Bearkiller rounds that a Friend of the Blog sent me when I got the Tracker. Just in case I find myself stuck in that situation again. 300 grain hard cast bullets at 1250 FPS ought to keep a bear interested while you run for your life and call for satchel charges and an artillery strike, right?

I was disappointed with myself that those Bearkillers would barely get into the cylinders because it had been quite a while since I had applied the solvent and brass brush. But we’re okay again now…

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

20 Responses to The Bearkiller gap

  1. Mark Matis says:

    I am confident that Laddie would let the bear know who’s boss as long as possible, enabling you to make a safe getaway while sacrificing his life for yours. And if it was a male bear and Laddie happened to get a mouthful of “Rocky Mountain Oysters”, well, ya never know who might actually win!

  2. Cederq says:

    Joel, were they black or brown bears crawling around?

  3. Joel says:

    I was told black.

  4. Cederq says:

    I just ordered Songs of Bad Men and Good. I am looking forward to to reading it as I did with Walt’s Gulch.

  5. Norman says:

    No idea what your carry mode is, but a convenient speedloader – or two – of BKs might be prudent 24X7. One rarely receives advance notice of a severe environmental change. As for application of BKs to minor irritants, I’m reminded ” there’s no such thing as overkill.” Unless it exhausts your supply of Bks.

  6. Steve_in_CA says:

    Is the Tracker indexing properly now in DA?

  7. Kentucky says:

    More unsolicited advice follows:

    If you were to load .44 Special power level charges in .44 Magnum cases you could have pleasant reduced loads without the attendant chamber corruption of the shorter .44 Special cases. I do it all the time. Same concept works with .38 Special in .357 Magnum guns.

  8. Joel says:

    Yeah, but I carried that 431 for years and have a buttload of .44 Special cases. Plus I normally carry the gun loaded with CCI Blazer steel case hollowpoints in .44 Special. I do carry a speed strip full of Bearkillers because of course I do.

  9. Kentucky says:

    OK. Well, a brass bore brush ans some Hoppe’s #9 spun gently in each chamber by your battery-op drill will have those chambers spiffy in a jiffy.

    😉

  10. AnnArborBoi says:

    Gratuitous advice and a suggestion Joel. Have an on-line charity auction with the Tracker as the prize, and then use the proceeds to purchase a S&W model 29 or a Ruger Redhawk, both of which have excellent track records and reputations in bear country. Just sayin’ FWIW.

  11. Mike says:

    I used to in in to the same issue with a .357 S&W 19 after using .38 special with LSWC ammo. It was a real pain in the butt until I figured out what Kentucky wrote all by my self. Live and learn I guess.

    BTW unless the shot placement is good, I’m not sure how well a .44 Magnum would be on large bears. The 300 grain hard cast should get decent penetration through the layers of fat, but unless you break bones there will be a period where it’s going to get ugly as the bruin bleeds out. Even with a head shot there is the risk of the bullet being deflected off the skull depending upon the angle.

    At the zoo where I worked, the main dangerous animal (elephants, rhinos etc.) firearm was a Winchester in .458 WinMag with 500 grain solids. Trust me, the .459 was not a fun gun to plink away with.

  12. Kentucky says:

    Ah, the classic “what gun for bears?” theme.

    Answer, the biggest one you own.

    Unless Joel is willing to carry the 12-ga loaded with slugs, the .44 Mag with solids beats not having a gun. And that would mean carrying the .44 loaded with the “bearkillers” anytime he’s outside.

    I’m no expert, but that’s JMHO.

  13. Joel says:

    Bears aren’t normally in this area, they don’t do well here. The one bear incident we had was driven by very unusual circumstances; we got a lot of critters driven up the washes by a big fire to the south. So it’s not like you need to go loaded for bear every minute. 🙂

  14. Claire says:

    Cedarq:

    “I just ordered Songs of Bad Men and Good. I am looking forward to to reading it as I did with Walt’s Gulch.”

    Get ready for a treat. “Songs” is even better than “Walt’s Gulch” — a rare thing in a sequel, but happily true here.

  15. Anonymous says:

    FWIW. As a tracker owner who’s run a number of BK rounds, it’s an awful platform for them. I ran about 15 300gr 1300fps handloads through mine for chrono data, and my elbow hurt for a week

    I’m far from recoil shy, but those things kill on one end and maim on the other

  16. Kentucky says:

    Yeah, about the only good thing you can say is that if you’re facing an oncoming bear you will very likely never hear nor feel the recoil of any shots you fire.

    Problem with this is, you WILL hear and feel all that when you practice, which you definitely should do.

  17. AnnArborBoi says:

    St. Cooper said there were two necessities for a sidearm. It had to be reliable and it has to disable with a torso hit. The Tracker Joel dont cut it. Without reliability it doesn’t matter how much thunder & lightening there is loaded in the cylinder. He’d be better off with the 45 pistol from before if it’s reliable, FWIW.

  18. Kentucky says:

    St. Cooper (PBUH) was referring to human targets, of course, but his observations remain valid for any critters. And these criteria do seem to limit your Tracker to a last-ditch situation, if it functions at all in the extreme moment. As noted above, if you happen upon a bear it’s not likely you’d have time for a reload so you should be carrying with the Bearkillers in place.

    It would seem that the Tracker should be retired to .44 Special plinking at your range and more serious equipment be implemented. You just cannot tell when you might run into a bear, even if the probability seems very unlikely. That “ugly rifle” looks better all the time if you don’t want to carry the 12.

  19. Mark Matis says:

    Look at it this way:

    If the gun don’t fire when it’s needed, at least you can shove it down the bear’s throat and choke him to death when he gets close enough!

  20. Joel says:

    While I don’t really disagree, Kentucky, sometimes you gotta dance with the one that brought ya. I’m kind of stuck with it – and if I ever shoot at a bear with a handgun, it’s already a last-ditch situation no matter what I’m carrying because that’s a situation to avoid. Very unlikely in any case.

To the stake with the heretic!