45-410 judge for bear protection

[onelight]

The judge would be good if he does not want to be killed by the bear.......... and he only needs to load 1 cartridge in it if he is out alone .

[Ozark mike]

I wouldn't but then again you might be a little better then them city folks who bring pocket knives taco seasoning and 9mm to the ball game. I work for a business who deals with montana bears on a regular basis i personally carry a 45-70 and the boss has a 500 mag. The judge was a bad joke at best except maybe fer women who need purse protection in the big citys. get ya a 460 so when its needed ya can say you brought enough gun

[DougGuy]

Well if all he considers his hide worth is the cost of a Judge, then he's already signed off on serious defense and might as well carry a box of donuts, with luck he can throw them farther than he can shoot a Judge accurately.

It kills me that so many folks seem to want to estimate the threat of a bear, and only use just enough gun to accomodate that level of threat, when they SHOULD be considering the worst case scenario, and arming themselves accordingly. I.e. carrying the biggest gun they can shoot accurately.

An Alaskan 454 is great, IF you can get it back on target for rapid follow up shot or two, a 12ga semi auto makes a LOT more sense am I right?

[brass410]

where's he going? I wanna watch the show when he touches off a round of 410 buckshot at a unhappy bear of any kind, its likely to stand up and say " man the black flies are really bad this year and they're noisy too" LOL followed by " hey what do you think your doin in my garden?" A stone sling would be marginally worse, although it did work one time before, but I believe there was some divine intervention, maybe he should take a holy person with him.

[Ozark mike]

Ehh just ask em politely not to eat ya
https://youtu.be/DpEOLW61rkI

[Ramguy]

John Ross' .500 S&W Should, Would, and Will work.

[Drm50]

A small 25 auto is better choice. Light and flat, easy carry and you can shoot yourself in the head with it to avoid the pain a bear might inflict on you. A Judge is a piece of junk to begin with and 45/410 ain’t much against bear. A buddy of mine won the carbine version at a Gun Blast. Shooting 45s was waste of money. At 50’ rested it shot like a shotgun. With 410 may be garden gun. In Judge I’ve only shot #6 and I will say that if a person needs snake gun it’s way better than any shot load you can devise for pistols.

I had a guy wanting me to sell him something for bears. He retired and was going to Alaska to fly fish. He brought with him a custom fly rod. He bragged about what the rod blank cost, the line guides were the most expensive you could buy, the reel seat, yada yada yada. Guy had several hundred dollars in this rod. I ask him what kind of money did he want to spend on bear gun. He says $40-50. I told him that would buy a box of shells for it and he got mad and left.

[richhodg66]

I never owned one, but really can't figure out whay those Judge things are so popular. Always seemed like an answer looking for a question to me.

Seems like I've seen a lot of reports of blown up guns with them too. The suggestion for a 12 gauge pump gun i sound, and it would actually be useful for other things.

[Ozark mike]

I never owned one, but really can't figure out whay those Judge things are so popular. Always seemed like an answer looking for a question to me.

Seems like I've seen a lot of reports of blown up guns with them too. The suggestion for a 12 gauge pump gun i sound, and it would actually be useful for other things.

They are Only rated for standard pressure unlike a blackhawk which i do consider to be a good bear gun

[onelight]

The 410 length chambers eat some velocity from 45 and 410 from a short barrel revolver with any load is nothing that is going to penetrate deep and break bones on something heavy and close with teeth.
I would rather have at a minimum a 4" 357 loaded with max heavy bullet loads and prefer 10 mm and up heavy bullet loads , for me would be a .44 or .45. I am not going hunting and there are other more likely threats than an attacking black bear .
So I would carry what I almost always carry loaded for bear
But we all get to choose he may be hoping that 410 will make up for a lack of shooting skill.

[Boogieman]

3 " 410 buckshot equals 5 shots from a 36 cal. Cap& Ball

[rking22]

3 " 410 buckshot equals 5 shots from a 36 cal. Cap& Ball

I am not so sure about that. Any chrono data for that 410 load from the 3 inch barrel? 1200 from a 28 inch is about right, I really doubt it’s anywhere near that in the pistol length. 35 gr pyrodex p gets 1250 with that 80 gr ball. For the size of a judge you can get 41 mag or better and expect to hit something with it.

[onelight]

3 " 410 buckshot equals 5 shots from a 36 cal. Cap& Ball

I have seen some gel tests with them and most will exit a 12" block not much penetration when you would be trying to stop a bear from the front and are going to have to break bones to make it happen . Not a lot of penetration from 70 grain balls at 750 to 800 FPS . I would find feet of penetration much more comforting than inches.
That said if that was all I had I would use it but not what I would pack for the job.

[Ozark mike]

44 mag is minimum around here for griz. I kid you not my carry gun is a bfr 45-70. 5 shot revolver 500 grn loaded to 1500 fps which is a little hot for most. But the point is get the highest powered revolver you can shoot quickly and accurately. if yore planning to come fool around in this country people get ate every year a few years ago a fwp official got killed because he ran into one on a bicycle unarmed give me a break. my mom who is 65 5ft tall and weighs 100 lbs carries a 44 mag loaded to the hilt with 296 and a lee 310 and is absolutely deadly with it. If he cant handle a 44 or a 12 ga bring someone who can period

[onelight]

Here is Brass Fetchers test results with 410 revolver. http://www.brassfetcher.com/Shotguns...allistics.html

[Idaho45guy]

I never owned one, but really can't figure out whay those Judge things are so popular. Always seemed like an answer looking for a question to me.

Seems like I've seen a lot of reports of blown up guns with them too. The suggestion for a 12 gauge pump gun i sound, and it would actually be useful for other things.

My dad bought one when he retired and started wintering in Arizona. It's an excellent snake gun. It's also fine for anything he'd run across in the desert sections of AZ.

There are very few areas in the lower 48 where you need to be concerned about bear attacks as they are pretty rare.

Attachment 266042

https://rollingfox.com/map-fatal-bea...-north-america

[Ozark mike]

Im pretty sure that map aint accurate

[Boogieman]

It doesn't matter how rare bear attacks are if you are the one

[Idaho45guy]

Im pretty sure that map aint accurate

It was the most recent data I could find for bear fatalities in North America and is from 2018.

This other source is from 2017 and pretty much has the same results...

https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/MA...432734333.html

[Ozark mike]

I think someone forgot to report a few probably a democrat that thinks bears are all fuzzy and cute and couldn't believe one would kill the mean human stomping around in the forest where he doesnt belong
Heres some
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.gre...m/amp/86568632

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.gre...amp/3270359001