I do not understand needing a defense load for black bears. I have lived around them my entire life and never seen one to worry about. Last fall the neighbor lady (a couple hundred yards away) asked me to get rid of some raccoons that were tearing up her bird feeders so I set out a camera. The first thing I see on it was a 450 lb bear. I told her I was not going to trap it and shoot it. I did get rid of 11 raccoons and she lives with the bear like I do. One comes every spring and tears up the bird feeders so we put them away for a week and there's peace and harmony in the universe. Once on the farm I did load a rifle and go out to make sure the one eyeing up the boar hog changed his mind. Other than that one the worst behavior I have seen out of them is ripping down trail cams. Around here they are just inoffensive varmints. Large varmints to be sure, but nowhere near the PITA a red squirrel is let alone gophers. I am 72 now and I have never ever seen one that didn't leave as soon as it found out I was not friendly, and that includes sows with cubs.
Miles I was of like mind for years myself, until I had a big Boar decide the dead steer he was feeding on wasn't big enough for both of us. I admit I startled him but there was no doubt of his intent. came at me from about 30 yards. I backpeddled as fast as I could ,tripped over a cotton wood log and broke my left leg going down. when he showed his head over the log I gave him 210grains of 41 mag through the bottom jaw and out the top of his skull. the skull measured 6 9/16x11 3/16.
darn thing cost me $16k in hospital bills and never touched me.
in the words of Robert Rouark " carry enough gun".
that said I would use the stoutest load that gp100 can handle under a hardcast wide nosed bullet. you are looking for penetration of either the skull( bad idea) or as deep into the body as you can get.
carry enough gun and as much luck as you can muster. it only takes one sore head to ruin your year or three!
