...Sometimes our emotions get the best of us, they can even screw with our logic and good common sense. I'm just as guilty at times of this character flaw. I wish you well with a 45ACP, but nothing you can shoot from that gun will really crumple a big black bear they way you will be hoping it does. Re-Read that article I wrote, most of the cops also had significant dissapointment in it's performance after they shot bears...
Yes, emotions do get in the way of reason on this subject. I've been butting heads with internet ninjas on this topic for years. JJHACK, Kutenay, I appreciate what y'all have had to say on this thread.
I've had a lot of "bear encounters". I would estimate the number at somewhere between 40 and 60 over 40 years of back country hiking, fishing, and hunting. Some have been very close, as in being able to smell the bear's breath. Because almost all occurred in Canada's mountain parks, I was unarmed for most of them. Being educated about bears was/is what saved my fat @ss. Now I live in Wisconsin and hunt, hike and fish without fear because 1) I can now carry a handgun openly in the woods and 2) there ain't that many bears here.
I'm not a bear hunting expert. The only black bear I've ever killed died 30 years ago, and I shot it in my friend's garden in the Swan Hills under an agricultural protection permit, using an army surplus 303. But I've gone through the National Parks bear course, and I've killed a number of deer and hogs with handguns, and I've got access to a lot of data on the performance of handguns on
human targets thru my medical and LE connections. For good measure, I've spent a lot of time over the years researching actual handgun performance on bears, mostly because I like bears and I like hunting with handguns.
Everything I've experienced in bear country, and the sum of knowledge I've accumulated about handgun GSW's lines up pretty straight with what JJHACK has posted. I've not been mauled personally (sorry about that, JJ, sucked to be you!), but I've witnessed the effects of a bear mauling on two occasions in backcountry, and several more times in the hospital. (That doesn't count the steel outhouse in the Kananaskis that I watched a juvenile grizzly crumple up like an empty Budweiser can, BTW...)
For handgun hunting purposes on bear, I would be willing to use any caliber from the .41 Magnum on up, not including the .45 ACP (or God forbid the .45 GAP). The .45 ACP's statistical performance on human targets in officer-involved shootings isn't that much better than the 9mm, and is outshone by the newest factory ammo in the .40 S&W. I happen to carry a .45 ACP as my off-duty gun most of the time, but I have no illusions about it being the 'ultimate' round. I carry a 1911 because I like the ergonomics, I shoot it well, and BTW, I carry the fastest, heaviest ammo I can buy. Even then I expect to have to put multiple rounds into an adversary if I have to finish a fight. I have several cases in my files of felons who absorbed 4 or more rounds of .45 ACP in the chest and kept on fighting.
In truth, the only rounds that really have DRT potential fire projectiles of significant mass at significant velocities. These are almost all "magnum" calibers. We're talking 230+ grains at 1100+ fps, and in truth, I like 1300 fps better, and I like 1400 fps a LOT better. In an autoloading pistol I think a hot 10mm would be minimally acceptable, but a .460 Rowland would be a lot better. A good double-action revolver with a 4- to 6-inch barrel chambered in .44 Magnum (or possibly .44 Special, if you handload) or .45 Colt is ideal. I prefer S&W N-frames to the big Rugers, but that's quibbling. I like the .357 Magnum and have taken several deer with this caliber, but it would not be my preference for bear or lion. Still, as JJ says it will do with a good 158 gr bullet at 1300 fps or a 180 gr pill at 1150 fps, I have no reason to argue otherwiwse.
I lived through the whole hardcast bullet fad and survived, and managed to harvest every animal I shot with those dang things, thought it involved a lot of blood trail tracking sometimes. I cast my bullets soft now, 1:20 to 1:30 alloys (tin:lead), mostly. I still like the way LBT-WFN profile bullets work on game though in these soft alloys, but a Keith-style SWC may be as good. Soft lead bullets work very, very well on game (and people). I've grown to mistrust Cor-Bon ammunition over the years, but their new DPX ammunition may win me over. We shall see. I've seen very good performance on deer with .44 and .45 caliber Speer Gold Dot HP bullets and there's nothing there to suggest they wouldn't work well on bear or lion as well.
Fact is that bears are big, strong, determined animals. If you think you will have to deter one with a firearm, it had better be a
powerful firearm. This means a serious rifle or a slug gun, not a handgun. If you are
very skilled with a big bore handgun, you
might have the opportunity to stop a charging bear, but I wouldn't take those odds to Vegas.
