“Being able to fire multiple quick, accurate shots is what stopped that bear,” Brett TerBeek indicated after escaping a 900‑pound grizzly charge in the interior of Alaska. TerBeek and his guide, Andy, both ex‑Green Berets, encountered the animal at ten yards on July 19, 2025, with Glock 20 pistols loaded for deep penetration. Sixteen shots were fired in seconds as the bear closed to five yards in thick brush; thirteen hit their mark, striking head, neck, chest, ribs and even a paw.
The ammo selection was no accident. Andy had Federal Premium 200‑grain Punch jacketed hollow points, but TerBeek’s magazine held Buffalo Bore 180‑grain hardcast loads non‑expanding, flat‑nosed bullets designed for maximum straight‑line penetration. In gelatin, such bullets regularly pass through two entire city blocks, or over 32 inches, unaltered. That kind of performance is necessary against large game whose heavy hide, dense muscle and heavy bone can cause expanding bullets to cease expanding before they enter vital organs. As gelatin tests have indicated, the Buffalo Bore load’s velocity approximately 90 feet per second less than the original 1980s 10mm spec is still faster than most heavy commercial 10mm loads, maintaining the momentum required to shatter heavy skeletal systems.
Terminal ballistic studies on dangerous game reinforce this statement: expanding bullets, though terrible in defense of human life, tend to under-penetrate on bears. The best bear-defense cartridge is hard, heavy usually 200 grains or more and flat-nosed to preserve trajectory through bone and tissue. Cartridges such as the Underwood 220-grain hardcast or Buffalo Bore’s Mono-Metal solid copper were developed to address this need, with penetration targets of 36 inches or more.
Visibility in the fading light was another decisive factor. The attack unfolded in heavy brush at dusk, when traditional or fiber‑optic sights can all but disappear. TerBeek’s Glock wore tritium night sights glass vials filled with radioactive tritium gas that emit a steady glow for a decade or more. “It was dark in the heavy brush, and the tritium sights helped with the sight picture,” he said. Unlike fiber optics, which need ambient light and cease to function in darkness, tritium’s self‑lighting provides an unyielding aiming point. In low‑light shooting, as field experience and sight technology comparisons demonstrate, this glowing front post and target outline can be the difference between hit and miss under stress.
But even hardware cannot overcome the human body’s stress response. Threatened, adrenaline surges into the blood, heart rate accelerates, and fine motor function decays. Research on police and military shootings indicates accuracy can drop from 90 percent on the range to as low as 14–38 percent in actual encounters. High stress reactivity is related to greater errors in use of lethal force. TerBeek and Andy’s controlled, fast cadence was the result of years of training on the Glock platform, practicing draws and sight pictures so that they were automatic. This is corroborated with research done by tactical trainers who replicate high‑pressure situations to “inoculate” shooters against the performance‑draining effects of adrenaline.
Their preparedness was not limited to gun skills. Both wore their pistols in chest holsters, affording quick access essential when seconds mean survival rather than wounding. TerBeek summed it up: “Your pistol cannot be used to stop a bear attack if it is a mile away, back on the boat.” This principle mirrors the “first‑line gear” concept of wilderness defense: key items must be mounted to the body, not carried in a pack that could be set aside or lost.
The attack also points to a frequently undervalued data gap. Alaska’s Defense of Life and Property reports pick up on some instances, but numerous successful handgun defenses remain unreported, recorded as hunting kills or not reported at all if there is no human injury. This underreporting distorts public perception of handgun effectiveness against bears. However, field reports, like Dean Weingarten’s list of 170 reported handgun defenses with a 98 percent success rate, indicate that competently used and with the appropriate ammunition, handguns particularly in 10mm can be effective deterrents.
Statistically, Alaska bear kills are uncommon, occurring once every other year on average, with roughly 3.8 hospitalizations per year. But during the uncommon, high‑risk situations when a grizzly closes at full velocity, the synergistic effect of deep‑penetrating bullets, low‑light‑capable optics, instant access, and combat‑conditioned marksmanship skill can tip the balance. In TerBeek’s situation, the synergism of ballistic science, optical technology, and combat‑conditioned readiness transformed a kill into a survival tale.
