I do alot of hiking in the Smoky's. We see bears often, most encounters are pleasant. We see each other, sometimes at close range, we each decide to give the other its space and all goes well. These bears are people habituated and are not afraid of people. In the last 2-3 years, people are getting mauled and bitten; we've had 2 in the past month. A good friend of ours was chased last weekend and followed for 1/4 mile by a youngish bear. The prevailing theory is that the bears had a bad mast year last year, went to den hungry, and came out hungrier. I'm not sure I'm buying that story. I do believe the Park has way too many bears. I've suggested to the park superintendent that shooting half the bears in the Park would be a good idea. They aren't going to shoot Yogi.

Which leads me to my question. I carry a Ruger Security Six 357 loaded with 180 gr LBT style bullets backed by a stiff charge of 2400. I have no doubt in its capabilities against Yogi. I watched the video of the guy shooting the moose with his Glock off the snow machine and got to wondering if a semi loaded with the right bullet might be better bear protection. I think moose-snow machine guy used a Glock 40 S&W. Don't know the bullet but they obviously worked.

I've seen the gelatin penetration testing and the 9mm seems to work the same as the 40 and 45 - but bears aren't ballistic gelatin. I have a 9 and think a bigger bullet is in order when dealing with a 2-300 lb bear.

What say you guys about semi's, cartridges, and bullets for this purpose?

Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it.