Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Handgun Choice for Flyfishing in Bear Country

For what it's worth, I agree. Muzzle flip with big-bore magnum revolvers makes fast AND accurate followup shots hard. Muzzle flip in a short barrel big bore using full house hardcast gas check bullets can be downright vicious. And bear defense isn't bear hunting. I'd wouldn't choose to carry the same handgun for defense that I would bear hunting. If I had a bear come at me, I'd want to pump as much lead into it in as short amount of time as possible. I carry a 10mm Glock. I don't even carry full house loads, but rather Hornady 200 gr XTPs, 15 of them. It's a moderate power 10mm load that I can fire fast and accurately - at least fast and accurately enough to hit the front end of a bear. But I wouldn't hunt bear with it.

It's been proven that a 9mm can stop a bear. Someone with a Glock 17 9mm and some good 147 gr bonded hollow points, like Speer Gold Dots, in a 17 or 19 rd magazine, a gun that they can fire fast and accurately, would be better served, IMO, than they would with a big, heavy .44 Magnum or .454 that they can't fire fast and accurately.