I have an acquaintance of mine who has a son stationed in Alaska with the Air Force who uses a Ruger 1911 in .45 ACP for bear protection. Using +P I don't think he's that under gun for close work. Heck, I wouldn't feel under gun with standard velocity .45 ACP for close work.
Not what I would use for serious bear hunting but for close range work it should do.
Clearly you don't know what your talking about. A 45 APC is only 500 foot pounds and inadequate for grizzles. A 30 06 would work pretty well and the smallest pistol round I would use would be a 44mag with good bullets.
A hit with a .45ACP is better than a miss with a .44 mag. Certainly a .44 mag is better but if all you have is a .45 ACP I don't think you are under gun if you are close enough. As I said it's not for serious bear hunting.
As was posted above a bear was killed with a 9MM and IIRC it was a Browning Hi-power. Again not for serious bear work but apparently it worked this time at least.
If I'm going to be out in the woods I carry bear spray with my 1911 in .45ACP as back up.
