Always wondered what a fmj 44 mag round would do to a bear in the short term. Carried some overloaded loads that I bought at Gary King's.
I am more convinced by either a hardcast wide meplat-type bullet, or a tough, limited expansion jacketed bullet. Jacketed bullets which come to mind are the Sierra 300 grain SP or the 300 Speer Uni-Cor. Mostly, full jacketed type handgun bullets seem to be too 'slippery' and less-than-ideal for creating effective holes. I don't care about finding a well-preserved bullet but I don't want the target to be left intact. I also don't want to use most handgun bullets which you can count on for decent expansion. I believe a better bullet in a handgun is one which has a decent frontal shape without expansion to begin with. If any expansion takes place I want it to be well controlled so the bullet doesn't come apart violently.
The 44 rounds we bought in Anchorage were called Arctic Ammo. Think they were 300+ grain and loaded very hot. They were tough to shoot out of a S&W Mountain Gun. I think I shot 2 and declared myself loaded for bear.
