I first encountered the dreaded Wound Ballistics Crank in the wild when I worked at Pachmayr in Pasadena, California, back in the early 1990s. This is the guy (the species is entirely male and it’s anybody’s guess how they reproduce in such profusion) who wants to discuss ad nauseum the performance of different calibers and bullets in the flesh of animal and man. Back in the day, the Black Talon bullet was a thing (decried as a “cop-killing bullet” and discontinued by Winchester). These guys could talk for hours about its performance in ballistic gelatin — which was, in fact, similar to any hollowpoint bullet, moral panic aside. Blah, blah, blah…. They never bought anything, and they could have better used their time out on the range.
The deadliest subspecies of the Wound Ballistics Crank — the one capable of boring everyone within a 30-foot radius to death in seconds — is the Caliber Crank. There are several varieties. Back then, the most common one was the type that considered Jeff Cooper a Prophet of God and would loudly proclaim that shooting somebody with a 9mm was as useless as hosing them down with a squirt gun and that you simply HAD to shoot anybody who needed shooting with a .45 ACP. This was amusing/annoying to several people on hand who had actually shot persons…
Another variety, and one you find lurking on internet forums to this very day, is the guy who insists that the humble .22 is an uber-deadly death machine. The Mob uses a .22 for hits! It bounces around inside you like a pinball and destroys all your vital organs! Why, you could even kill a grizzly with a .22! Which is actually true. Just ask Bella Twin.
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No, not The Bella Twins! Criminy!
I’m talking about the diminutive Cree trapper named Bella Twin, who, on this date in 1953, slew a massive griz with a single-shot .22.
Dean Weingarten told the tale in an Ammoland article:
On 10 May, 1953, Bella Twin was hunting small game with her partner, Dave Auger, along an oil exploration cutline south of Slave Lake, in Alberta, Canada. She was 63 years old.
They saw a large grizzly bear coming toward them. Wishing to avoid an encounter, they hid off the side of the cut.
But the bear kept coming closer and closer. The bear got so close that Bella Twin thought it less risky to shoot the bear than to not shoot it. It was probably only a few yards away. Some accounts say 30 feet. Perhaps she saw it stop and start to sniff, as if it had caught their scent. We may never know.
She shot at the side of the bear’s head. Knowing animal anatomy very well (she was an experienced trapper, and had skinned hundreds, perhaps thousands of animals) she knew exactly where to aim to penetrate the skull at its weakest point.
She shot, the bear dropped. It was huge. She went to the bear and fired the rest of the .22 long cartridges that she had, loading the single shot rifle repeatedly, to “pay the insurance” as Peter Hathaway Capstick said. She made sure the bear was dead, and not just stunned. My father taught me the same lesson when I was 13…
Bella Twin put every .22 Long bullet she had on her into the skull of a massive grizzly.
Nuthin’ fancy; stuff that works.
Yeah, I know… There’ll be no living with them now.
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I am a BIG fan of the .22. The vast majority of my shooting is done with the .22. I would NOT want to take a shot at a griz with a .22. Give me a Marlin 1895 Guide Gun in .45-70 stoked with 500-grain bullets. That’s some grizzly medicine. But Bella Twin made do with what she had, where she was, and though she was less than five feet in height, she stands tall in the annals of the Frontier Partisans.
Bella Twin and her partner Dave Auger.
Paul McNamee says
Bad ass. 🙂
Greg Marshall says
looks like a Cooey. Probably cost $15 at Hudsons Bay post or Macleods Hardware back in the day.
JimC says
You are correct.
lane batot says
People have killed bears(including grizzlies) with a knife, too–but it’s not recommended…..
wayne says
I read a story in one of the big 3 outdoor magazines of the time (Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, or Field & Stream) when I was a kid in which the author claimed to have paddled his canoe alongside a grizzly in an Alaskan river and carefully put a .22 bullet in the bear’s head with lethal results. Dashiel Hammett claimed the best weapon for a hit man was a .22 revolver, preferably used in an elevator at close range. Minimal noise, and no shells ejected. I’d give a buck to know how many Americans have died at the end of a .22
J.F. Bell says
Karamojo Bell did alright with Rigby in 7×57 Mauser against African elephant.
Then again – if I recall correctly – he knocked down the first couple of specimens with heavier stuff and made an examination of the physical construction, bone density, and potential weak points before he started taking animals with his smallbore…almost like there’s some elusive value in the concept of knowing your intended prey.
The only relevant point about caliber to be made today, I think, is whether you’re using good ammunition proven to work in your gun of choice.
We used to tell customers that quality defense ammo tends to level the playing field among calibers some. Still had plenty who wanted to argue. One of the manifest joys of having options, I guess.
JimC says
Bell was a hell of a rifleman.
“We used to tell customers that quality defense ammo tends to level the playing field among calibers some.”
VBell says
.22 is small and will go through things…such as things you wear to protect yourself.
By the way, where was Milius on the crank spectrum at Pacmayr?
JimC says
No crank. His main thing was shotguns. He was really into sporting clays.