Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .45 ACP for bear protection - what bullet?

^^^^^ This I would excel at!!!


Roy

Doing a little research on the 255 Buffalo Bore bullets and found this post. Thought it was interesting.


"I am a Bear hunting Guide in NH and have been using the buffalo bore 200 grain super loads for many years and have shot more than a dozen bears with this load never had a problem and all the bullets recovered penetrated deep and remained intact. last year I tried the 255 grain acp loads and killed 2 300lb bears with one shot a piece, both bears shot in the skull and exited the throat, shot distance was 5-10 ft. I've seen rifle bullets not exit. I was impressed."

Tom Parker

Roy

Nice! My Springfield V16 LongSlide built for the 45 Super should do really well with those loads. How do they feed?

No surprise here

kind of what I was thinking

Bears are a perfect excuse to buy a S&W 629 4" .44 Mag. Elmer got that one right.

He got a good bit more than that right too.

I was researching hard cast bullets for a 45acp load and stumbled across this old thread on the Fire. It's very entertaining to read all the posts and subsequent opinions regarding guns and bullet choices, etc.

I have to wonder what they would think if they knew in the future that Phil would use a lowly 9mm with BB 147 hard cast ammunition to kill a charging Brown bear while defending clients...LOL

The older I get, the more I shoot, and the more I hand load them, I'm thinking cast bullets of one flavor, or another will handle any situation I would need a handgun for!


Frog---OUT!

I have been packing a .45 ACP with a heavy hard cast 250 +P flat point for years. It penetrates feet rather than inches and is not hard to shoot fast if you practice.

In fact in the thread not too long ago "semi autos for outdoors defense" I ran a quick test and put six shots of the heavy 250s through my G21 onto a steel plate in 1.56 seconds. With a reaction time of .43 from the low ready, that is 1.13 seconds for 6 shots. I figure that is fairly decent in terms of putting heavy, deep penetrating slugs into a target.




Below is a link to that thread:


https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/19448800/1

They are my personal favorite in bear country.






Sometimes I have been known to carry a 10mm as well though...

A couple of years after this thread first died out, I shot a Buffalo Bore 255 grain +P hard cast flat point .45 ACP out of a Glock 30SF against a line of water jugs. I made my first rather lame video of it.



The round passed through all 10 jugs and was not recovered. (Because of the jug positioning with the handles, the round was going through some air between jugs 6-10 and wasn't going through a full 6 inches of water on each of the back 5 jugs.) I need to try that again but with some hard barriers.

I wouldn't hesitate to carry that gun and ammo combination in grizzly country, although now I would use Mackay's +P hard cast ammo.

Why didn't you start another thread? There's too much crap in this old one to wade through.

This board should close inactive threads after a year to keep morons from reviving them.

I'm shooting Buffalo Bore 255g hardcast at 1100 fps out of my Springfield V16 in 45 Super. I'm sure it will be fine for our local black bears which typically dont go over 400 lbs. Would rather take a picture of them though. Killed enough bears.

And here you are, keeping the thread going. 😂

Cheyenne, I always enjoy and appreciate your bullet penetration testing videos!
I’ve used the Buffalo Bore 45 acp Outdoorsman Load on big feral hogs and deer here at the ranch for years out of various 1911’s and my Glock 21 and Glock 36.
Rarely have I “caught” or retrieved that bullet in a hog and never in a deer.
Wouldn’t hesitate to carry it in “bear country” although I’m usually packing my Glock 20 10mm with the hard cast Buffalo Boar Outdoorsman Load due to the higher magazine capacity.
As you mentioned, I would now purchase Mackay’s Lost River hard cast load due to the better pricing and availability. And will do so when I run out of the last of my stash of Buffalo Bore Ammo.

I was also searching the other day for your extensive video on testing all the various .380 loads that included the Buffalo Boar hard cast load and the Underwood Xtreme Defense 68 gr Lehigh loading and can’t seem to find it. Can you please post a link if possible. Thanks ! And keep up the great posts!

LOL !

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Hard to beat a good Hard Cast bullet for a handgun for hunting.
And I enjoy revisiting these old threads.

Friends,

I just posted these up in the classifieds. Long story short, I have been working on, and shooting these for about a year now. I had mentioned these quite a while back but I wanted to test them more. Putting a BUNCH of them through various guns, finding the Goldilocks spot in terms of reliability accuracy and velocity.




This is a .45 ACP +P 250 Grain Hard Cast Flat Point Poly Coat.

It absolutely hammers through full size Glock and 1911s.





First to be very clear. This is for full size handguns only. This is not for Lightweight Commanders. Not for aluminum frame, short barrel 1911s. This is not for Officer's ACP/Officer's Models.

This load was developed to be fired in full size, duty type weapons, such as the Glock 21, 5" 1911 Government Models, HK USPs, S&W 4506, etc.


The velocity from a 5" 1911:970 FPS
From a Glock 21 Gen 5: 940 FPS
From an HK USP: 942 FPS
From a S&W 4506: 960 FPS


The concept is getting a good mid range .45 Colt (revolver load) that has been incredibly successful and popular for so long with handgun hunters, for its ability to put down large game/animals, and put it in an auto pistol that is easier to shoot. You end up with a lighter recoiling, easier to shoot sidearm, with much higher capacity.

This is what I consider to be the ideal outdoorsman's load, if he/she is practiced with a .45.






These, paired with a Gen 5 Glock 21 are about as good as it gets. The Gen 5 is about the softest shooting .45 I have ever shot and you can absolutely HAMMER with this load. 5-6 rounds per second on target is very hard to beat when you are punching out 250 grain slugs.

Good stuff Mackay!

Your posts are gonna FORCE me to buy a Gen 5 Model 21 with the Optics Cut and order some Lost River Ammo to try out.

Getting harder to focus my “old eyes” on the open sights of my old Gen 3 Glock 21. 😬

Let me start by saying that I’ve never been anywhere near a wild Grizzly bear. Black bears yes. I have a 5 1/2” stainless Bisley Blackhawk in 45 Colt. My main load for this revolver is the 45-270-SAA 285 grain semi wadcutter loaded with HS6 to about 1100 fps. Powerful but controllable. I would bet this load would shoot through a bear broadside. That being said, the more I listen to guys in the know, the less I think a single action revolver is a good bear defense weapon. I would think a double action revolver in .44 magnum or .45 Colt would be better. My Glock 20 loaded with 220 grain hard cast flat points might be even better. 15 +1 as fast as you can shoot. Just musing from my safe living room. If forced to I would fight with whatever pistol I have on me.

Ron

Until recently I’ve been a die hard revolver guy. After shooting the “newer” autos and reading about the testing by guys like Mackay and others, I’ve come to the conclusion that a good auto pistol with quality ammo (preferably hard cast) is hard to beat for defense purposes especially.

For anything I would hunt with a handgun a .45 or 10mm would be all I would need using the same ammo. As a bonus, they’re much more pleasant to shoot. Blasting with a 460 S&W isn’t as much fun as it used to be. 😏