Woman uses New York Reload on Grizzly in Idaho

Some people say the fastest way to continue firing when your gun runs dry is to grab another gun.  It is called a “New York reload”.  It happened to a woman protecting her children in northern Idaho, not far from the scene of the famous Ruby Ridge case.

The blue arrow points to Moyie Springs, where Barbara Casey shot the grizzly bear.  The Ruby Ridge shootings occurred near the red arrow about 15 miles SouthWest.

Barbara Casey did not want to shoot a grizzly bear.  She wanted to scare it off her property, and she almost succeeded.  She knows that shooting a grizzly can be a life changing experience, because of federal and state law.  She and her children tried banging pots and pans.  Then she emptied a .22 handgun in the air, then grabbed a .45.  After a few more “warning” shots, the .45 jammed.  She grabbed a third gun, a .22 rifle.  From spokesman.com:

She yelled at her kids to go down the hill to a neighboring home. They did. Her .45 jammed. Casey grabbed her other gun, a .22-caliber rifle.

The bear stopped. Casey stopped shooting, and it was quiet, she said.

Then Casey’s dog barked. The bear, who had turned away from Casey, turned around and charged, she said. Casey shot it twice from about 20 feet away, once in the gut. The bear ran down the hill, where a neighbor later shot it in the head.

“I’m still shaking really bad,” Casey said a day later. “It was the most horrible thing.”

The bear was a two year old male.  Males trying to establish new territories are a common source of bear-human encounters.   The bear had been trapped and released three weeks earlier, but was not known as a problem bear.  

It is not clear if the rifle were a centerfire or a rimfire, but the most common .22 caliber rifles are rimfires, chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge.  Dogs can chase off bears, and dogs can attract bears.  Barbara shot the charging grizzly twice at 20 feet.  It ran off, and a neighbor finished it off later.

An interesting case where backup guns proved useful, warning shots did not have the desired effect, and a .22 that worked was better than the .45 that jammed.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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