“I know what you're thinking. ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” Made infamous in by Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty” Harry Callahan, surely, had Dirty Harry been released sixteen years earlier, Mr. Robert E. Petersen might have been reciting this to himself as he raised his Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum to single handedly take a 1500 pound polar bear, the newest addition to NRA Headquarters, and the Robert E. Petersen Collection.
Standing well over 12 feet tall and 5 ½ feet wide at the shoulders, the first polar bear to be taken with a .44 Magnum is now on display in the North Tower /atrium of the National Rifle Association Headquarters. Installed last week by National Firearms Museum Staff, the menacing beast is now under the same roof as the famed Smith & Wesson that brought him down in February of 1965.
I feel I should preface this with performed by a “trained professional, do not attempt at home”. Mr. Petersen was an accomplished handgun hunter, having taken other impressive game such as moose, deer, elk, and even a massive Alaskan brown bear, but a polar bear, the largest land carnivore; jaw dropping. Originally spotted from the air, Petersen and his guide, Denny Thompson, traced the bear to the village of Kotzebue, Alaska. To give you an idea just how far north they had gone, Siberia was easily visible from the air some 20 miles away.
They successfully landed in extremely hazardous conditions; temperatures hovered around 50 degrees below zero, and began stalking the huge bear. Petersen knew that although the stopping power of the .44 Magnum was substantial, as it was the most powerful handgun produced at the time, it is still a short range weapon. I can’t help bun wonder if he showed any sign of trepidation as he approached the Arctic bear from just 25 yards away. Luckily he and his guide remained concealed behind an ice mound, allowing Petersen to successfully unload five well-placed rounds into the shoulder, chest, and heart of the bear, never even needing Mr. Thompson to fire his .375 rifle which he carried as an ever faithful “plan b”.
Fast forward forty-six years later, I watched in wonder as my coworkers struggled to set Mr. Petersen’s prized polar bear upright, my 5 foot four inch frame dwarfed in comparison. The skill, the nerve, and the firepower it took to take this bear. It was five shots, not six, and that bear’s luck just ran out.
Published in AmericanHunter.org and NRAblog.com May 2011