Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bear protection: 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP?

I will soon make a summer scouting trip into the high country of northwest Wyoming, where I will hunt elk this fall. This area is heavy with griz. A friend of mine has seen up to 8 in a single day of backpack hunting there. I'll carry my custom 10mm Glock, stoked with Buffalo Bore's 220 grain hard cast loads. The 6" Lone Wolf barrel gives me near 41 mag type performance with these loads & I like the idea of having of 'em loaded up.

I also use this when hunting black bear and mtn lion with hounds. Although I've not actually shot either with it yet, I trust it to do the job if I do mine.

10mm Glock is good option with Bear loads. There is a very good guide Jerry Jacques who works near Phil who uses a 45ACP after being ripped out of a tent while guiding. He uses wilson combat 45ACP.

I pack a G23 loaded with 200 gr hard cast at about 1000 mv. Its light and easy to carry.

You can get a lot of advice from people who have no experience with bears. Or you can listen to a guy with a bunch of experience with bears.

If it were me, I would listen to the voice of experience before theories.

I think the gentleman quoted above has one or two bears under his belt.

Surely you jest.......

I'd bet Phil may may have killed a few bears. He may even have seen a brown bear shot once.

That's what he said.

The 357 loaded properly is just fine. A 10mm loaded properly will do the same thing in a smaller, lighter package with nearly 3X more ammo. A 40 loaded hot will come close.

I hike in the same areas. Bear there are very common as are people. The bear have absolutely no fear of humans due to so much close contact. Usually not a problem, I've had several pass within 15-50 yards and they ignored me.

But incidents there are becoming more and more common. You'll get lots of false advice about just leaving them alone and not having food close by and you'll be just fine. I don't have any control over what the hikers did 5 minutes or even 5 days before me did. If they taught that bear that humans will give them food then it will expect a handout from me.

I have little doubt that a 180-200 gr hardcast bullet fired at 1100-1300 fps will do about as good as anything. You can do that with 40, 10mm or 357 mag.

I've carried a G20 loaded with DoubleTap 200 gr at 1300 fps for a while. I wanted something more compact and tried a G23 for a while, but just didn't feel as comfortable with it. I bought a G29 about a year ago and it seems to be about the most power available for the size.

S&W 69 with 240gr XTP. Hornady and Fiocchi load them. Fiocchi are cheaper.

As I said, I have been doing a lot of testing and when completed and written up I'll check again to see if Lee Hoots is interested and if not will publish it elsewhere.
But the simple answer to the question of whether or not a 9mm offers adequate protection against black bears, the answer is yes. Would it work on a 1000# brown bear ? It certainly will penetrate deep enough to reach the brain from any direction.



And it should come as no surprise to anyone on this forum that bullet construction, sectional density and velocity are all major factors in penetration.

458 , on a related note, how do you feel about using hard cast lead in a factory Glock? I hear a lot of noise about this, but have never tried it.

Maybe ignorance is bliss but so far they work in mine.

I won't say its impossible, but in a realistic situation, to become aware of the threat, draw the weapon and fire 6 rounds into a small target at 7 yards or there abouts all in under 3 seconds, I think one would have to be beyond well practiced..

I don't recall my old IDPA times draw and fire, but thinking even shooting 1-2 times a month I was no where near that fast...

But if you could, you should be well protected.

Having lived with and among big bears for nearly 40 years I would say that normal situations with them is not really comparable to those with inner city humans. The ability to draw your weapon quickly is not usually an issue as there is no reason to not have a weapon already in your hand if you perceive a threat. And a bear poses no threat if it is still at 7 yards. Or even 3 yards !
Notice that my pistol is still in the full flap holster as I attempt to scare these two sub adults away from the airplane. And there are at least 3 other adult bears just outside of the photo.





If you can hit something the size of a 12 oz can or grapefruit multiple times in rapid succession, at 10 feet or less you should be relatively safe.
I find tossing items into the air and shooting them is a good practice for instinctively hitting smallish, moving targets .

They'd have to be pretty close for me to feel the need to shoot, as long as I already had a round in the gun and the gun ready to work.

My guide friend has had to fire a few into the dirt in front of them a couple of times but has never had an actual DLP issue.

IMHO awareness is the most important thing.

you are absolutely correct.

My apologies to Mackey - I thought his post read had 1-2 beers under his belt. I'm sorry about that.

No I hadn't, but your post made me laugh so hard I may go out to the cool meat shed and get one

Reading posts on a phone probably isn't a good idea. Not the first time I misread a word or two in a post. Beers to bears makes a slight difference in the meaning. <G>

Exhibit 1.

Saw this sow with 2 cubs yesterday. Pics not best quality but was more interested in getting some distance plus they are zoomed a bit. We were 50 feet from them. BTW: smallest cubs I've ever seen. They couldn't have weighed more than 10 lbs. Momma isn't too big herself maybe 100-125 lbs. Most encounters go this way.

On some of these threads I am pretty sure the posters had a LOT more recent experience with beers than bears.