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

going to AK ...is my 4" 357mag enough as a backup gun?

A strong .357 with a full house 180 or 200 gr hardcast load is bottom rung for bear protection. In reality you are highly unlikely to have a bear problem.

Depends.

Back-up for what, loaded with what, and shot placement.

IMO!................NOPE! Not a 4" 357 mag.

Black bears,,,,yes!......."BIG" BEARS??,,,,Absolutely NOT!!!

A 44 mag imo, would be a bare minimum for the big bears.

Much better back-ups for the big bears are the,,,454 Casull,,,460 S&W,,,500 S&W,,,and if you`re a single action fan, a 45/70 is available from "Magnum Research" along with the above choices from Magnum Research as well. They are BIG!!!

A handier 4" barreled double actioned 500 S&W would be my top pick (I gots one), followed by the S&W one revolver two cartridge combination of the 460 S&W and 454 Casull in the same barrel length.

A 357 for big bears????..........NO! NO! & NO some more!!!!

I wouldn't go buying a handgun for that "just in case" moment you will probably never experience. The way I see it, your 357 is better than nothing and should that moment arrive where you need to use it, it will be at close range. Hit him with the first 5 and if that don't stop him, save the last round for yourself.






J/K of course.

I don't know a lot about Alaska bears. Got a ton of "face time" with Oregon black bears. I'm pretty sure what is inadequate for Oregon bears is even less adequate for Alaska bears. With that in mind ..

I don't consider the .357 mag in any way adequate for black bear protection. When that's all I've had available to carry, I loaded it for 2 legged social situations and approached bear considerations as if I were unarmed. Don't let the puny gun inappropriately influence your "bravery" w.r.t. bears.

I'm not a huge proponent of bear spray, I like lead dispensers instead, but if all I had were a .357 I'd sure as hell pick up some bear spray.

Tom

hmm I have a glock 20 in 10mm how about that?

currently have some 125gr bonded stuff I think it runs about 1525-1550fps ~600ft lbs? Think I have some 158 bonded running 1300fps


in the 20 in 10mm I have the 180gr double taps which are bonded...think those are running 1350fps 728ftlbs

also have the 155gr barnes tac xp all copper stuff like these running at 1400fps 675ft lbs

Take a look at the DblTap 10mm 200 gr WFN GC @1300fps
http://www.doubletapammo.com/php/ca...05&osCsid=jv48g1eul9glsiu4o66e6hulb0
I'm absolutely no bear expert, not even a novice. But I wouldn't feel quite so naked in bear country with a Glock full or those. If a problem arose I'd just shoot him for a while and hope he dies before killin me. Betcha they'd penetrate some.

.................The way you see it, your analogy is a brilliant piece of work!!!.......NOT!!!..................Why risk it!!!

Buying a more powerful handgun for that,,,,"just in case moment",,,,CAN SAVE ONE`S LIFE!!! And is a very cheap price to pay for added insurance against a BIG bear.

It`s those UNEXPECTED just in case moments that can suddenly arise with little to no warning, where being under-gunned can certainly get one either mamed or killed!!!!

Whether it is needed or not, buying a more powerful handgun IS worth the price for added defense on a hunt, especially if hunting alone.

If that's what you got, then it's big enough. Save the last round to shove in his mouth. When you hit the back of his throat, touch 'er off.

well I have no problem buying a bigger gun IF i have to. Doesn't sound like 10mm or 357mag will do the job.

Fisherman killed a brown bear on the Kenai a few years ago with a 9mm. Not my choice at all, but if a 9 will do it, a 357 properly loaded will as well.

A strong 357 will push a 180 gr 1200 fps from a 4" barrel, and that'll penetrate the skull of any bear. As with any gun, you have to make the shot count.

Just remember, 95% of the people who give advice on bear guns have never even seen a grizzly or brown in the wild, under 1% of those giving advice have been uncomfortably close to one in the wild, and 0.00001% have had a DLP event.

Like Ironbender asked "backup for what?" Will you be hunting, fishing, sightseeing, or what? If you will be rifle hunting, why do you need a handgun backup? Even a .30-30 rifle is more powerful than a .357 pistol.

Don't get me wrong, I often carry a pistol while I'm hunting. I currently have two .357 mag pistols and two .44 mag pistols. I have only hunted in Alaska once. It was a DIY caribou hunt some friends and I did on the peninsula, SW of King Salmon. I carried my .44 mag Super Blackhawk. I didn't need it, but I just wanted to carry it.

Years ago, when I lived in NW Montana a friend and I were fishing in the back country. We both carried pistols, he a .357 and I my .44 Ruger. When we stopped for lunch, we decided to do some plinking at saucer sized rocks. His .357 would knock the rocks down, maybe breaking them in half. My .44 mag would shatter the rocks into gravel.

In 34 years of hunting the Montana back country, the only grizzly encounter that I've had was one year near West Yellowstone. We were camped at the end of a road, and we had a moose and two elk hanging in the stock rack in the back of my truck. One night I went outside to check the horses, etc. just before turning in and a 300 lb grizzly 10 yds above me on the bank started to snap his teeth at me. I had the lantern and was carrying my .44 Ruger. I fired one shot in the air over his head. No reaction. I fired another shot into the tree next to him. Again, no reaction. So I picked up a tennis ball sized rock, threw it and hit him. He ran off and we never saw him again.

I've killed a couple of balck bears with pistols. Both were one shot kills, but the bears were not charging. To kill a charging bear, I would want as much firepower as I could get...and you have to be cool enough to shoot it accurately. I guess a .357 would be better than nothing.

And, as you've posted several times Paul, most people don't practice enough handgun to be proficient *enough*, let alone when the teeth are coming at you at 30 MPH!

Almost any rifle is better than almost any handgun.

That said, my wife carries a 357 with Buffalo Bore HC 158s when we are riding. I'd rather she carried something bigger, but she doesn't like anything bigger and would not shoot it as well as the 357.

Placement, bullet, cartridge.

Good advice right there from someone who's been there done that....well stated Kurt.

fishing and sight seeing...backpacking. Guess it would be the only thing I'd be carrying. so good question "back up for what?"

yeah I guess it all comes down to shot placement. With a charging bear. At least with a handgun I would think the only option is to try to get a head shot? Or maybe with a 454 or 500 there would be enough there that a head shot is no longer required?

This is one more thread where the people who don't live here and, in some cases, have never even been here, are busy telling us how we're wrong. It's really pretty funny sometimes, and just silly others.

1200 lb all pissed off starving to death brown bears can't be stopped by .357's shot poorly -- there is no doubt for that. Of course, such bears essentially don't exist... The 10' male bears almost never present a threat to anyone -- it's the 300-400 lb females hanging around the edge of the feeding frenzy in the stream that are dangerous. Of course, if you can't hit it right with a .357 you still can't kill it -- but then you can't with a .458 Magnum rifle either -- if you can't hit it right.

The simple reality is, if you can hit it lethally at close range, you can kill a threatening brown bear with a .357, assuming good, solid bullets for penetration. As noted, they have been killed with even lighter firearms, like the fisherman with the 9mm. The primary issue is not the firearm -- it is the shooter.

And paying attention will go massive dimensions away from bear issues at all, which you tend to understand if you live here, and don't if you don't.

Dennis

Sometimes I think bears, especially big brown ones, are the most stressed and stretched excuse for buying another gun.

I really could give 2 [bleep] if you like my analogy, I didn't write for you. Tell us how many brown and black bear attacks you've experienced. Yeah, that's what I figured, zero, nada, zilch, none. Walking through the wilderness in Alaska being paranoid about bears is no way to experience this great state. Your probably one of those guys that carries a 416 rifle and 500 SW handgun while hunting, THAT makes a lot of sense.