Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 44 mag bullet for bear

Garrett Hammerheads have been very good for me. They do not expand so if you need penetration, they are tough to beat for factory fodder.

Will your Contender barrel shoot heavier bullets accurately?

Some barrels do not shoot heavier weights accurately.

If yours will shoot the heavier weights fine, i would opt for a 300-305-310 grain SWC type hard cast bullet with a wide meplat and push it around 1000 to 1100 fps. That will be heavy enough and fast enough to shoot clean through any bear you are going to encounter, yet still be reasonable in the recoil department.

The bullet on the right is a 305 grain would be a good choice.

I second that. Flat nose makes holes.

There's not much to argue with in these two posts. There aren't many combinations in your Contender chambered for the .44 Magnum that won't work nigh-on perfect for black bear at the ranges usually encountered over either bait or dogs.

http://arsenalmolds.com/products?product_id=91

See the 310 grain in this line up https://leeprecision.com/bullet-casting/hand-gun-bullet-molds/

more then you need for black bears, but so what?
They do work very well on everything from antelope to moose.

I’ve never shot a bear with a 44 but I’ve shot several deer and one rather large boar. Most were with 240XTP and I believe 23.5 H110. I’ve used them out of rifles and revolvers. Never caught one as they all fully penetrated and caused rapid kills. I’ve used a few nosler 240 hp and soft points and a few 240 white box. They all worked very well. My nephew shot a few deer with 300xtp and didn’t like them as he felt they weren’t expanding at handgun velocities. I shot one deer with the 300xtp out of a rifle and if memory serves me correctly it passed completely through a medium sized buck on a strong quartering angle. He dropped at the shot.

Timely thread, i sized a bunch of WW 44 mag brass last night, they're in the tumbler now, separated my loads, 300gr A Frames and 340gr Rimrocks, will set case trimmer to max length and check for any too long, prime with CCI-350's and wait to load next go around, will do same with the brass from loads mentioned above when they're shot up, my stainless Ruger Bisley 44 mag is off at Alan Hartons getting it's barrel cut to 5.5 inches.

I think either load would be great for any bear, will be fun getting this rig ready for fall.

Black bears aren’t as hard to kill as some people let on. I’ve killed them with 175 grain silvertips out of my bisley Blackhawk chambered in 41, not 44 but an animal wouldn’t know the difference when hit with either. As long as you stay away from the shoulder, drop back a little and put it in his lungs he’s gonna die fast. The bullet choice is left up to your fancy. The reason I shoot the 175 silvertips is because they pop less than the 240 xtp’s I’ve shot in my bisley. Bears are real thin skinned, the only real issue is their hair and fat sealing up the exit wound and leaving you with no blood trail. That’s where a good expanding bullet comes into play. When I run out of silvertips I’ll probably go to 180 barnes.

Check twist rate on those 225 Barnes. I was going to use them in a muzzleloader and I didn’t have enough spin. Ended up using the 200 gr version at probably 2200 fps or so with a max load of BH209. Shot a 160 lb live weight buck at around 50 or 60 yards. Broke the near shoulder, scrambled the insides and exited the off shoulder. Found 3 petals within a couple inches of the exit. I would not hesitate to shoot a 300 lb critter with that load. The pic below is top to the left and bottom to the right of the carcass hanging. This is after I removed the offside shoulder. The hole that looks like it has a couple of sticks in it is the exit. Those sticks are a broken rib.

I like a 300 grain hard cast bullet.

A friend has shot a half dozen "pest control bears" with his .44 mag 16" Rossi carbine and Hornady 240gr. XTP bullets. He lives in a remote area of Northern BC and gets the call from his friend the conservation officer when a nearby neighbour has a bear causing mischief. He doesn't like using that bullet any more for bears. Said he had poor penetration and had to shoot several bears more than once. He prefers flat nose / non hollow point bullets now.

Don’t over think it. Anything over 200 grains and solid. In my bear camp in northern Minnesota I’ve seen most all in the last 40 years.
Shoot what your most accurate with and stay off the shoulders. Bears have big lungs and don’t survive nor go far when you whistle lead thru them.
I carry a 44mag and have done well with it. I use Hornady 225gr STX. Why? Got a deal on em.
Enjoy your hunt.

Osky

These 300 grain Hammers at 1100 might not bounce off.

I have a couple of molds that make bullets like the center one in your picture. One of my molds makes a 245 grain flat base bullet that I use for practice and plinking, the other makes a 250 gr bullet with a gas check. These are the ones that I load with a near max load of WW 296, and I wouldn't hesitate to use those bullets on any black bear.

Your certainly put a heavy crimp on those bullets.

I had nothing but trouble when shooting 300gr bullets in my 44mag revolver. Impacts were too high and there wasn't enough adjustment in the sights to accommodate for the divergent bullet path. I tried a higher front sight, but it dragged in the holster. I hated the too tall front sight anyway, so I removed it.

I have a fair supply of Nosler 250gr Partition bullets. They are my "go to" bullet for black bears when carrying a 5" S&W 629.

Anything over the 200 grain mark in a 44 mag that expands should work fine. 296, H 110, N 110 are good powders. I ran Speer 240 JSP’s with a good dose of VV N110 out of a Taurus Tracker SS and knocked a 250 lb BB out of a tree no problem. Stone dead when it hit the ground.