Handgun or pistol defense against bear attacks

[AKDoug]

Good info. What load in your .45, and what kind of damage?

225gr hardcast swc and 5.6grn of 231 powder. Standard Gov't model 1911. Was about 25 years ago.. so that's the best I can recall. 6' black bear, slight quartering towards, got a piece of heart and some lungs, bullet fully penetrated and ended up under the opposite side hide. He dropped right there. Honestly, with the little damage I saw, I'm surprised he didn't run.

I carry a Glock 10mm now.

[maximus83]

Maximus,

Thank you for posting this. We must have the same reading habits, I read the article last night. Lol,
This is a great time to have this discussion, as I am sure many of us are getting ready for hunting.
I usually rely on a G20 with 200gr handloads, or 180gr golddot from BB. I picked up a 44 RedHawk on a great sale a couple of years ago, but still find myself relying on the 10mm. I just feel more confident with an autoloader. For those that carry a revolver, do you practice shooting revolvers year around or just around the season? How much would you estimate you shoot a revolver? I practice with a pistol regularly, and I will shoot my 10mm at least once a month starting in July.

Since I don't live in big bear country (well some would debate that, some black bears in WA can get large), I've been getting by with my .45 and hardcast loads as a trail gun--for cougar and black bear. Some of the available anecdotal evidence says I could use a 9 with the same type of bullet, but will probably keep using my .45 for now. Like you, I feel more confident with a semiauto.

ETA: If I did switch to a hi-cap 9, I'd go with a hardcast 147gr like this one: https://www.buffalobore.com/index.ph...uct_list&c=155

[maximus83]

225gr hardcast swc and 5.6grn of 231 powder. Standard Gov't model 1911. Was about 25 years ago.. so that's the best I can recall. 6' black bear, slight quartering towards, got a piece of heart and some lungs, bullet fully penetrated and ended up under the opposite side hide. He dropped right there. Honestly, with the little damage I saw, I'm surprised he didn't run.

I carry a Glock 10mm now.

Sweet. The 10mm Glock is the one Glock that would tempt me--those flipping 3-4lb boat anchor Dan Wesson 1911 10mm's are pretty, but IMHO a bit heavy/spendy/impractical for a trail gun.

[biggfoot44]

For my ( so far) very up close ( single digit feet ) encounter with a black bear , I had a 5in S&W .44mag on my hip ....... and a 7x57 in my hands .

He wasn't coming at me on purpose . I was waiting to ambush bambi, and his otherwise intended destination just happened to include him walking over top of me . He was nearing the mental line in the sand, where one more step I'd have to shoot, when he finally cought my scent .

He jumped straight up , spun 180 deg in mid air , and retraced his steps three time as quickly as he had been approaching .

[Chipper78]

For my ( so far) very up close ( single digit feet ) encounter with a black bear , I had a 5in S&W .44mag on my hip ....... and a 7x57 in my hands .

He wasn't coming at me on purpose . I was waiting to ambush bambi, and his otherwise intended destination just happened to include him walking over top of me . He was nearing the mental line in the sand, where one more step I'd have to shoot, when he finally cought my scent .

He jumped straight up , spun 180 deg in mid air , and retraced his steps three time as quickly as he had been approaching .

A good friend of mine had a similar encounter last year while we were hunting in the George Washington National Forest, except he was with out his pistol and he had to yell at the bear to get its attention and the bear simply snorted and walk off like it was more inconvenienced than anything. Since then I did a lot of reading and research on the subject and for my purposes I’ve settled on a Glock 29 10mm loaded with Underwood 220 gr hardcast with a 1200 FPS muzzle velocity. I originally intended to get a Glock 20 but I found several YouTube videos chronographing that ammo out of either gun and the velocity difference wasn’t that significant.

A couple of interesting things I noticed while researching this subject, first the 10mm auto is pretty popular among Alaskans for a bear defense pistol, and I read and watched a lot of YouTube videos of guys switching from the big magnum revolvers to the 10mm especially after they heard of or knew people that had successfully stopped bears with the 10mm. The second thing is stopping power. In every online handgun caliber debate I’ve ever read people always say stopping power is a myth (usually a 9mm guy to a .40 or .45 guy), and for the most part we all can agree on that. When you start talking about handguns for bear defense however the stopping power argument is alive and well. Guys out there swear up and down that you need the minimum of 44 magnum stopping power for a bear, and that carrying a semi-auto handgun is foolish because you’ll only have time for one shot. I don’t know about all that. I’ve never had a bear close enough to feel threatened (closer than 100 yds), and I’ve only seen bears in the wild twice anyway. So for me I feel comfortable with 10mm, and for a while 9mm was good enough because I figured I’d probably never see one close anyway.

[Marine Corporal]

Whatever you can shoot proficiently is what you should carry. Within reason of course. No one here is advocating a .380 for bear defense. But often times, people carry .44 Magnum revolvers and cannot hit the broadside of a barn after the first shot is fired. Revolvers are difficult even for semi experienced shooters for follow up shots. Me, I would never carry one. If I lived in Brown bear country, it would be a 10mm loaded with hard casts. Where I live now, black bear are the only bear here and they are pretty small. My 9mm hard casts suffice just fine.

[B Cart]

I spend a lot of time in the mountains here in Utah, and saw a mother bear and 2 cubs just yesterday evening. I was within 50 yards of them, but they didn't seem very interested in me and they just walked on by casually, no harm no foul. I did get a sweet video of it though.

Whenever i'm in the woods in Utah, I carry a Glock 20 with 16 rounds of 200gr Hardcast solids, and that would be plenty sufficient for the bears here, or most other more likely threats like moose, mountain lions, or a human. I've run into mountain lion only twice, but had one or two stalk me over the years (i saw their fresh tracks crossing back and forth over mine in the snow when i was walking back on the path I took in).

If i spent a lot of time in Grizz country, a larger caliber gun would be tempting, but i do like the 15+1 round capacity of the Glock 20

[Marine Corporal]

I spend a lot of time in the mountains here in Utah, and saw a mother bear and 2 cubs just yesterday evening. I was within 50 yards of them, but they didn't seem very interested in me and they just walked on by casually, no harm no foul. I did get a sweet video of it though.

Whenever i'm in the woods in Utah, I carry a Glock 20 with 16 rounds of 200gr Hardcast solids, and that would be plenty sufficient for the bears here, or most other more likely threats like moose, mountain lions, or a human. I've run into mountain lion only twice, but had one or two stalk me over the years (i saw their fresh tracks crossing back and forth over mine in the snow when i was walking back on the path I took in).

If i spent a lot of time in Grizz country, a larger caliber gun would be tempting, but i do like the 15+1 round capacity of the Glock 20

I’m willing to bet that you can get 3 accurate rounds off with your 10mm after recoil recovery and firing again with your 5lbs trigger in the same amount of time it would take you to shoot 2 with a .44 Magnum and a 12lbs trigger.

There was a video on YouTube showing this but I cannot seem to find it. They used amateurs in one group and experienced shooters in another group and the results were pretty much the same. More hits were scored with the 10mm with a faster rate than with the .44 Magnum.

[biggfoot44]

Wow , almost as if chipper78 was a mirror image .

Same NF .

But kind of reversed in that a few years ago aquired a G29 , but with life being busy , haven't gotten enough trigger time with it to feel up to the level of my Revolver skills .

Doesn't have to be a .44mag . .41mag, or Ruger level .45 Colt will also serve .

And yes , even though I see bear and/ or bear poop regularly , that more likely to face threat from stumbling upon a clandestine meth cooker or pot grower , I figure I can deal with felons more readily with a .44 or .45 , than an angry bear with a 9mm or .38 .

[TXBK]

Based on GJM’s shared experience of using and carrying the Lehigh Xtreme Penetrator bullets (solid Copper) in Alaska, I carry 200gr .45 ACP +P in an HK45C. This is mostly in Colorado, but I’ve never ran into a black bear in the back country. I would carry it in grizzly country as well with no worries. I shoot the gun well, and the Lehigh ammo shoots well and functions flawlessly in it.