I am sure you guys know that I like collecting early 20th century
gun advertisements so when going through the March 1929 issue of National Sportsmen Magazine I came across an ad showing a injured man shooting at a polar bear with his Colt 38 revolver. I was impressed..... The ad states this scene was an incident during the Nobile Artic Expedition. After some research, I purchased three books on subject to find out what really happened. They were "Disaster at the Pole" by W. Cross, "Ice Crash" by A. McNee and "The Arctic Rescue" by E. Lundborg. Upon opening my first book "Ice Crash", the name Finn Malmgren came up in a list of expedition members which is the name of the shooter in the Colt ad. I was on the right track.... This 1928 Arctic airship expedition was led by a Colonel Umberto Nobile with Malmgren, a Swede, being the meteorologist. As part of their survival equipment Nobile decided to take three magazine rifles, a Vickers of 8.1mm (.303)
bore and two Krag Jorgensens of 6.5mm (0.25), as used by seal hunters; and three 9.7mm Colt (.38) revolvers. When the airship went down on the ice pack, the front of the gondola was smashed open depositing eight of the crew and numerous supplies before being carried off in the wind with five more of the crew never to be seen again. The survivors were able to find much of the supplies but could only locate one of the Colt .38 revolvers along with 100 rounds of ammunition. Of all the members Malmgren was the most able to survive the Arctic and did much to improve the conditions the men had to endure, the first of which was to set up a four man tent that, despite its small size, helped to keep everyone out of the severe cold. On the third day two of the members stepped outside and after a minute or so one of them poked his head into the tent and speaking in a very low tone said: "There`s a bear".....I will now quote from the book what happened next; "Malmgren said to Nobile "Give me the pistol. I`am going to hunt it." The Swede `broke` the Colt revolver and carefully slipped the fat brass cases into the chambers. The barrel came back into place with a click.
He crept outside, followed by everyone else. It was bitter cold outside, and the bear was 20 to 30 yards away. "Hush! Don`t move" whispered Malmgren as he moved forward trying not to alarm the bear and get within effective range. The others were armed with what they had including a knife, an axe, a file, a nail and a piece of tubing........ The bear stared back placidly while Malmgren stalked cautiously forward because it was partly concealed by an ice mound.
A single shot rang out. Malmgren ran forward. Two more shots followed on the first, Malmgren shooting as he ran. "He`s hit" cried someone with the survivors hard on Malmgrens heels. The bear scrambled away from the humans, and then feel dead.
The first shot had been enough. At 15 yards the Swede put a slug into its heart. It was a remarkable performance from a weapon the Malmgren previously stated would be useless for bears."
There you have it.... a verified account of what a man can do with a handgun when faced with the unthinkable. I am sure Finn Malmgren had knowledge of the polar bears anatomy being an outdoorsmen himself. That along with a tremendous amount of luck and Divine Intervention and a iron sight Colt .38 revolver....
The pictures top to bottom:
1) The Colt advertisement
2) The bottom left picture in #2 shows the tent on the ice pack that was 30 yards from where the polar bear was taken.
3) A 1958 photo, taken by one of the authors, of Nobile during an interview showing the Colt .38 used to take the polar bear.
4) Page 45 from the 1929 issue of National Sportsmen magazine magazine....
5)Finn Malmgren`s picture is the far right center of the group
of four men.

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Thanks for sharing James. The lil ole 38......

Whodathunkit!

I aint gonna try to repeat those results!!

Awesome James, keep 'em coming!

Outstanding history lesson, as usual! Thanks, James.

I love all this nostalgia you share with us. that's awesome. put the bullet where it needs to go and things die.

That's impressive!

Many a bear has fell to the 38/357 and 45acp but you don't hear of it much after the 60's,it still does happen. For a very long time the natives here used the 22 hornet and 222rem as favorit bear guns as the also worked for seals the main target,one gun hunters still live.

Very cool James!

When stranded (in the Arctic or otherwise), it's all about making do with what you have on hand!

Very true SChunter. That's why I always keep a 45 "on hand", not a 38! :-)

I love reading those old magazines and advertisements. I have an old pocket book titled Colt on the Trail which outlines a number of handgun hunting exploits in the early 20th century using Colt handguns.

Thanks, James! I guess this means I can feel confident in ordering that .38/.357 Montado today! I just needed that extra push!

Quite an adventure story. I love reading them, too.

Awesome story

that is cool, the thing I liked is the add for the colt it shows the bear up on hind legs ready to attack, even way back then they over exaggerated stories...

James, Thanks so much for the interesting article. A great piece of handgun history. Very fascinating. Think of the combination of bravery & crazy that it took to go on this expedition and to stalk a Polar Bear with a little 38! An amazing "hunt".
It supports my point that a pipsqueak gun in hand is better than any non firearm as a weapon and much better than the big gun you left at home.

Thank you for sharing that keep em coming please. James you might like a book called"crazy white man" nothing about handguns but about a new york city man in the 30's(?) that goes to live in the wood of canada with no clue what hes doing. again thank you

Thanks for the great story, James!! Always appreciated.

A remarkable substantiated account....sounds like some of the books you referenced would make good Winter reading. Thanks for putting this together!

"Give me the pistol. I`am going to hunt it." ....I love it. Thanks for sharing !!!

More proof that shot placement is key.

As l sit posting my hand easily falls to a Colt Police "Pocket Positive" in 32 Colt. Made in 1916 it shoots an 80Gr lead bullet at 800fps.. Totally adequate for any 'unwelcome bears'..

I remember seeing that pic somewhere as a kid! The fact of a 38 meant nothing at the time, just someone with a handgun and a huge bear! It was some time in the late 60's when I saw it.

Guys, Thank you for reading and all your input... If I could put as few as words possible to the point all of this makes it would be from the words above of Billa....

Durwood`s words also get the point across....

well do you feel lucky, punk?