Handgun for a lower 48 black bear encounter

[Jim22]

If you carry a handgun for protection - whether for two or four legged bad guys - you need to practice like crazy. The pistols mentioned are all capable. Maybe not the .22. The thing you need to do is to hit a softball every time at whatever you set your minimum range to be. That is why it is easier to do with a long gun. Your line in the sand can be further away. The fact that long guns tend to be more powerful is a plus as well but there are reasons we don't carry one. Practice makes perfect at the range. Add a gallon or so of adrenaline and you need to rely on what you practiced.

[badguybuster]

Ive killed 3 black bears (2 over 300#) with a 5" S&W 627 in 357 mag using handloaded 180 grain XTPs over some Lil Gun. None of them went over 30 yards and the largest was actually DRT.

[memtb]

I’ve taken a bear with a handgun as well. There is a huge difference between taking an unsuspecting bear being hunted.....and an adrenaline filled charging bear, intent on eliminating a perceived threat to either it’s offspring or it’s food stash! memtb

[Three44s]

I’ve taken a bear with a handgun as well. There is a huge difference between taking an unsuspecting bear being hunted.....and an adrenaline filled charging bear, intent on eliminating a perceived threat to either it’s offspring or it’s food stash! memtb

+10!

Three44s

[lksmith]

Desert Eagle in 50AE
An option that might not think of is a 1911 (or glock) in 460 rowland. 7.5" 44mag performance from a 5" Autoloader, that is MUCH lighter than any large frame revolver. Lighter and smaller so easier to carry so more likely to have it on you.

Granted, given the option when faced by any charging dangerous animal, I'd rather have a Ma Duece for stopping power!!

[Traffer]

I brought that very topic up on another forum with regards to hitting a bear in the head and not getting a positive result. A couple of the self professed “experts” on that forum exploded and tried to tar and feather me for even suggesting such ideas while they kept touting braining a bear in a charge.

A short time later I mentioned that discussion to a very skilled hunter and a favorite of bear hunting (he is a Tribal member and has shot a ton of them) and he not only backed my idea but told me of his identical outcome with a .30-06!

The reality is that a bear in a charge does not hold it’s head still. It bounds with the head oscillating. A skull well designed for surviving fights not with butterflies but rather other similarity equipped bears. The angle of the frontal plane of a bears skull is flatter than a cars windshield and the accounts of handgun slugs glancing off of windshields by police are numerous.

My point is this: A small handgun is no match for a charging bear. If you are lucky enough to be able to present your handgun and it is up to the job, your best shot would be to hope to connect with the junction of the two shoulder blades near the hump. You will not kill the bear that way but the strategy is to deflect the charge and if you are lucky, then be presented with a more favorable orientation of the bear to your position.

You want the bear sideways and distracted so you can stuff more rounds in his boiler room or if close and you are good under stress hit the bear in his head sideways just below the ear. That hunter with the big number of bears harvested? His favorite shot was with a .204 Ruger 2” below the ear sideways into a bears head!

Not for me no thank you! Make mine a bigger gun!

My two recommendations for a handgun for lower 48 are both in 44 magnum. I suggest the 629 Mountain Gun or the 329 Titanium/Aluminum. I own a MG and it is a real sweetie. I have shot stiff loads in the 329 (with wooden grips) and found it controllable. For a gun carried a lot and fired a little, the 329 S&W is the real deal.

Three44s

That reminds me of WWII Tank development. I believe it was the Russians and the T34 tank that made a quite radical angle so the big guns would deflect.

[megasupermagnum]

Desert Eagle in 50AE
An option that might not think of is a 1911 (or glock) in 460 rowland. 7.5" 44mag performance from a 5" Autoloader, that is MUCH lighter than any large frame revolver. Lighter and smaller so easier to carry so more likely to have it on you.

Granted, given the option when faced by any charging dangerous animal, I'd rather have a Ma Duece for stopping power!!

Not really. The load data I see, right from 460 rowland website, shows a 260 grain bullet is topped out about 1100 fps, maybe a touch faster. You can easily shoot a 350 grain bullet as fast, or faster than that from a 44 magnum. The only auto loading pistols I'm aware of that can touch even ballpark what a 44 magnum can do are things like the DE 50 AE, or a Wildey 475 magnum, both of which are larger/heavier than a 44 magnum revolver, and not exactly known for their reliability.

I think 460 Rowland is neat, and it is quite likely I'll buy a barrel one day. From a practical standpoint, a 1911 is pretty much 90% of the design limits with a 45 ACP, and all attempts to improve on it like 45 super or 460 rowland, are not exactly earth shattering. 10mm auto offers similar performance, and also allows a gigantic boost in magazine capacity. There really is no replacement for a revolver.

[rbuck351]

We are talking black bear not griz. Black bear attacks are rare and there normal attack is to walk up to you and eat you. I have never heard of a black bear charging but I suppose it may have happened. Most any center fire handgun of 35 cal or larger should work if you take the time to shoot carefully. I have only encountered three or four lack bear in the woods and all turned and ran as soon as they saw me.

[memtb]

Admittedly quite rare! But, if you are the chosen one....you too can become a statistic! memtb


George Halfkenny, 16
Mark Halfkenny, 12
Billy Rhindress, 15 (all male) May 13, 1978 Wild Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario The three boys were stalked and killed while fishing near Radiant Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park. This was the first fatal bear attack in the park in eighty years

[megasupermagnum]

Admittedly quite rare! But, if you are the chosen one....you too can become a statistic! memtb


George Halfkenny, 16
Mark Halfkenny, 12
Billy Rhindress, 15 (all male) May 13, 1978 Wild Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario The three boys were stalked and killed while fishing near Radiant Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park. This was the first fatal bear attack in the park in eighty years

If all were killed, how does anyone know they were stalked?

[kerreckt]

I carry my 10mm Glock 20 (16rds) or my10mm Tanfoglio (15rds). These are loaded with 200grn hardcast bullets. I have never had to use either but carry, in a chest rig, when in bear country. My handloads give me 1200+/-fps. Maybe not ideal but the best I have.

[Three44s]

My 629 Mountain Gun (44 Mag) weighs a mere one ounce more than a full size 1911 in 45 ACP.

My youngest nephew was treated with a test run of a Glock 10 mm. All he had to buy was the ammo. He had 100 rounds bought and decided to end the test at the half way mark and sent the gun back home with fifty rounds unfired.

I find the 10 mm a capable cartridge but not my choice for bears. The cartridge is not a duplication for the .41 Mag much less the 44.

Revolvers today are pasay compared to the “cool” autoloader, but I am not into cool, just what works when the chips are down. It has been said that a revolver is like a fork, you pick it up and it just works.

Three44s

[memtb]

If all were killed, how does anyone know they were stalked?

As best I recall from evidence gathered at the scene, they were killed for food. The boys were stored in a food cache guarded by the bear ....the bear was on top of the cache and was determined to protect it’s food. The bear was killed while atop the food cache! The boys were killed in separate locations......then their bodies cached together. Hence the conclusion that they were “stalked” and killed! memtb

[downzero]

I carry a 357 Magnum if there are black bears or cats on my hike. I have a 45 Colt that I can shoot 300 grain bullets at over 1100 (and IIRC, over 1200) fps, but I don't consider that necessary for a 300 pound animal.

I wouldn't mess with a 9mm or 38 Special or really anything else that isn't a magnum or similar power, at least not willingly. I would consider myself considerably undergunned with a 45 ACP, 45 Colt at standard pressure, 44 Special, etc. That's not to say those won't do the job, but they wouldn't be my choice.

[405grain]

Long, long ago I learned never to go back country fishing without a sidearm. I was never concerned with black bears as every one I saw turned tail and lumbered off when it saw or smelled me. I've only had one cougar that didn't do the same, and that one just sat there wagging it's tail and watched me slowly back away. This was back in the days when marijuana was illegal, and stumbling into an illegal grow back in the forest could be hazardous to your health. Back then I carried a 1911 and 5 magazines. I was lucky, and both times that I inadvertently discovered pot gardens in the Eel river drainage, the "caretaker(s)" either weren't present, or they just let me go past without making their presence known.
Those times were long ago, and now I carry a 4" barrel 629 loaded with 245 grain SWC's over a stiff charge of 2400. It does the job. I practice with it enough to feel confident, and have never felt uneasy in the woods with it in the holster. Once I had to come down off a mountain after dark, walking a trail by moon light. For at least two miles I was being shadowed by a pack of coyotes. (The only time that I've ever seen a coyote that wasn't all by itself) They stayed back at least 30 yards and didn't work up the courage to get closer, but were obviously half-heartedly stalking me. The thought crossed my mind to dust off one of them as a warning to the others, but before I made it back to camp they faded back into the woods and went their separate ways.
As for the posts above regarding having a bullet graze off the top of a bears skull: I've had that happen with a feral hog before. The same load of 44 magnum, but from a Superblackhawk. It plowed a trench in the pigs head and momentarily stunned it, but didn't penetrate the skull. Lucky for me it turned and decided to run another way and I put a second shot into its boiler room. My recommendation for personal protection from anything that your likely to meet in the backwoods is a stainless steel double action revolver in 44 magnum.

[Three44s]

Many consider the .44mag a fearsome gun to fire. The truth is it and most magnum revolver rounds can be “what” you want them to be if you handload.

I got used to firing revolvers over time and started with a K22 S&W.

I moved to light 44 loads at about 100 FPS over a .44 special (factory loading) and gradually worked my upper threshold to recoil to a higher tolerance.

Gradually, accuracy and acceptance of recoil improved to the point where I can do a fair job in single or double action with the 44.

Three44s

[warren5421]

I don't fish so carry a 870 loaded with a 2 ball .662" round when walling in the woods at mom's. If I was fishing it more than likely be a Colt SAA in .44-40 loaded with a full house black powder load shooting a 200 gr or 240 gr Pb RNFP. Not had any bear attacks on humans around my mom's but the farmer that works her land lost a calf to one. The coyote's are the big problem.

[Gray Fox]

An unspoken advantage to revolvers these days is that while you train with it you're not throwing expensive brass all over the landscape. It might not be a major problem on an improved range, but it is a real pain in even short grass when shooting in the field or a backyard range. GF

[flint45]

The handgun I like to carry is my Ruger Blackhawk and 45 colt with a safe but heavy charge of H1 10 and a big lead semi wadcutter always seems to do the job accurate and powerful.

[Tar Heel]

Without reading all of the previous, I'll espouse my preference.
First and foremost - a REVOLVER.
Second, either a 44 Magnum or 45 Colt Ruger NMBH

44: SSK 320gr cast in WW and drop quenched or cast in Lyman #2
20gr H110, Magnum primer, heavy crimp. Clock at 1300fps
Deep penetration

45: Lyman 454629 at 300gr. Cast in WW and quenched or in Lyman #2
21gr H110, 16gr Accurate 9, 22gr 4227. Heavy Crimp. Mag primer with H110
DO NOT SHOOT THESE LOADS IN A 1873 CLONE REVOLVER. THESE ARE FOR A RUGER NMBH ONLY!

Revolvers don't jam.

Attachment 285382 Attachment 285383
The SSK 320gr bullet The Lyman 454629 300gr bullet

Love the fishing/bear pictures!