Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska 357 magnum enough for bear?

Bear skulls are not so very thick, but bone itself is some rather interesting stuff from a ballistic perspective.

I have done quite a bit of testing of various bullets from both rifle and revolver on a variety of bone; also had a few interesting bullet results while hunting where bone was involved. In my experience and opinion, a glancing bullet strike may be one of the most challenging expectations one can place on a bullet. Hitting even thick-walled, heavy bones straight on can "prove" some rather light bullets as adequate.



The bullets in this picture were all shot through the heavy leg bones (in the marrow-filled mid-sections) of a moose at close range. They were full power loads in a 45-70 chambered Ruger #1. The 300 Hornady HP is not generally considered a tough bullet, but it fared quite well.




Bone ends are an entirely different story. This bone end, the joint portion of a moose leg bone, completely stopped a heavy 45 Colt load. It was a 300 standard XTP fired at 1100-1200 fps from a revolver.



These bullets were also shot through the same type of target. (Same test session, same revolver, same loads except bullets.) The single upper bullet is a Sierra 300 JSP. The lefthand column is the 300 XTP Mag; the two to the right are Speer 300 SP, a Uni-Cor (plated/bonded jacket load). Next to those are moderately hard cast 320 grain bullets. The junk on the right are two 300 XTPs- the standard versions- which were not repelled by the bone in their test.



This last image shows two fired bullets from a 358 Winchester, both recovered from the same moose which was shot at over 200 yards, perhaps closer to 300, both at the same distance. On the left is an unfired Hornady 250 SP. The open bullet next to it is the same one, but found in the dead animal. It hit the humerus toward the edge, glanced off, and managed to penetrate the rib cage slightly. The leg bone was intact and perfect. The bullet on the right is a Barnes 225 XFB. The big "tooth mark" in the side is from an apparent bone strike. This bullet hit the spine and slid for a ways along the vertebrae without doing any damage to the bones. I'm not really certain why the animal went down. I know my buddy was prepared to give him some 300 Winchester, but it wasn't necessary. The "failure" was my fault since I chose to shoot when the distance was longer than I should have tried with the little 358. The fat bullet was a dispatch bullet fired from a Colt carbine at close range into the animal's neck. The bullet is the 300 XTP-Mag. A second bullet, a Speer 300 SP, struck the base of the skull and penetrated completely, exiting the lower jaw after breaking the heavy bone there.

By comparison, a bear's skull is not very thick. However, it has all kinds of angles as well as some heavy tissue protecting some areas. I suspect this is why bullets are known to have been deflected. I have seen the skull of at least one bear that had 22 LR bullets lodged against the bone and healed. Breaking a bear's skull with an adequate bullet is probably not the biggest challenge one would face in shooting a bear in self defense. They can move.