I recently told some people that smallest cartridge documented to have been used to killed a polar bear was a 22 but now I can’t find any proof of that fact. I had a clear memory of reading an article in a print magazine that documented such a thing, but I will be danged if I can find it now. Apparently I am not the only person with this memory as I did find this quote from a forum….
This report was greeted with considerable skepticism on the forum and I don’t blame them for the skepticism in the absence of proof. All I can say is that I remember reading a similar article a long time ago. But I will be danged if I can find that article now so either I am totally mis-remembering or the all encompassing internet failed to preserve any kind of documentation. Best I can come up with something semi-official looking is the off hand comment in this article that references what my dubious memory recalls saying….
Marauding bears have been killed by .22 rimfire pocket pistols; not very often, but it has been done by an Eskimo woman I happen to know about.
But the article offers no documentation to support that claim so it might be a commonly repeated tall tale. All I can offer in defense of my memory and the undocumented hearsay found on the internet is that it is well documented that a 22 in the hands of native American woman can kill a very large bear. But the bear is question was a very large grizzly and the woman in question was Cree and not Inuit. Her name was Bella Twin and she got into the record books for that particular bit of daring.
I read that same article and heard story from my dad who was stationed in alaska. I have read it before he told me and after. I remember a reenactment video of this feet. Trying to show my wife and granddaughter this and your right. Its gone
I feel this may be like a game of telephone with the bella twin story. in 1953, a cree woman (canadian native) named Bella Twin used a single shot 22 long bullet fired from her cooey ace #1 rifle. At the time it was the largest grizzly ever recorded by a hunter. It was in snow, and so I can see people thinking polar bear. Or it is possibke another native of the northern america regions would potentially have been armed with a 22 rifle, potentially hunting smaller game, attracted a polar bear and needed to defend when charged, like bella was when she and a family member were out checking her trap lines. Whether this story is a misremembering of the bella twin story, or another story entirely, bellas story is very well documented .. rifle is in a canadian museum with the skull of the bear maybe even the pelt tho I think thats stored away or sold off now. Her story is proof that the potential other eskimo or inuit woman could have done the same with what many deem “mouse guns” or mouse caliber, and deem it only suitable for small game.. well it is the case, shot placement is a huge deal.. maybe not “everything” but a well placed headshot from any effective caliber 22 on up, is going to stop basically anything bear or smaller
As a boy in the 70’s I remember reading in Ripley’s Believe iIt Or Not of a newspaper that a woman killed a Polar Bear with a .22 caliber rifle. That she shot it through the roof of its mouth and it was a record size bear.