Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bear protection: 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP?

I just saw this thread. Thanks very much for sharing your expert opinion!

I’ve got no bear shooting experience, and I don’t have the time or, quite frankly, the ability to get good with monster caliber handguns or even a Buffalo Bore 180 hard cast out of my .357 SP101 (tried it a couple of times :)). I can hold my own with a semi-auto in service calibers, and practice stuff like shooting from weird positions and while moving, and shooting at moving targets. I like the idea of merely switching ammo and carrying my everyday guns while bowhunting or just tooling around in the woods. jwp475’s test using Buffalo Bore .45 ACP +P 255 Hard Cast Flat Nose against water jugs got me thinking about merely doing an ammo change. Since then, I did his test using my gun, tested here. I also tested the 9mm +P Outdoorsman in both the Glock 43, tested here, and in a Glock 19, tested here. (As an update concerning the Glock 43, I recently was able to get two rounds to register over a chronograph, and I got (IIRC) between 1025 and 1030.) So, I am pretty sure these rounds will penetrate deeply in soft tissue, and I am looking forward to seeing what they do to skulls! I’ll pay for that data!

The last couple of years I carried the G30 while bowhunting. I am carrying the Glock 19 more on pavement, so I am toying with carrying it in the woods this year. The black bears aren’t too big where I hunt, and there are no grizzlies. The biggest threat probably is a moose.

Thanks again!

I wonder how well bear spray works from inside a tent if the bruin decides he wants a midnight snack? I'm guessing not too well. More spray may end up on the sprayer than the sprayee. Adds a Mexican flavor to the meal I guess.

I have no experience with bears, but would want to hurt him DEEP, a good semi auto pistol that I could shoot and was past 100% reliable with a hard flat nosed bullet is where I'd start looking.

I bought a Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 mag with a 7.5 inch barrel after a close encounter with a black bear while bow hunting. In retrospect the bear wanted to get away from me as bad as I did from him. That big hogleg proved to be too big to carry on my hip and ended up in my pack where it was of no use.

I bought a Ruger SP101 .357 with a 3" barrel and it is small enough that I carry it most anywhere I go in the woods.

My point is that your chosen weapon needs to be comfortable and small enough that you actually carry it or you won't carry it. Colorado doesn't have Grizz so my .357 is plenty.

I had a black russian boar scare me so bad while bow hunting in a ground blind here on the farm I don't leave the house without a pistol on me, carried my little LW commander in 38 Super loaded with 125 gr Barnes copper hp's at 1341 fps a lot last fall and winter.

That roguey bastard had 3"s of tusks showing and weighed at least 250 lbs, he was a noisy jittery twitchy buckwild sombitch that had blood on his mind, the wind didn't give me away, glad he didn't smell me!

10mm

Any three would work fine if you wanted to avoid the agony of being killed by a bear, that is if you were planning on shooting yourself. Be sure to open your mouth wide. Stick the barrel into the mouth pointing upwards. Squeeze the trigger. Don't jerk the trigger and miss.

how about the 45 auto with best load? no coments about 45 or just a mention.

In the past 33 years of living and guiding on the Alaska peninsula from our families homestead I have never had to kill a bear in defense of live or property. DLP as the state refers to it.
Two days ago I was guiding a married couple and we bumped into a bear at close range on our way to the fishing stream. We yelled and it ran but circled around and then charged. The couple were 10 or 12 feet behind me and the bear came out of the brush so close it was within 3 feet of my clients before I could shoot. They both intentionally fell to the ground just before I shot the bear behind the shoulder. It immediately spun and I continued shooting, all the while keeping the position of my clients in perspective. After six quick hits the bear turned and ran 20 yards and died .

We were planning on a quick couple hours of fishing and rather than packing my normal S&W 44 Mtn gun I was packing a S&W 3953 dao auto with 147 gr Buffalo Bore 9mm ammo.

Wow!!

Phil,

Just curious, after this experience, have your feelings about packing a 9mm changed?

It's amazing after 33 years it would happen on a day you are packing a 9mm. I'm glad you were able to use it effectively.


Shane

Double Wow

Good job Phil!

My compliments Phil. Having spent some time with DOA S&W autos your using one of them and achieving multiple rapid hits is even more impressive!
I realize you've spent a vast amount of time around bears and no doubt finished off some wounded ones that were charging but what you did with a compact 9mm......well holy cow!

Me thinks this settles the OP's question for me anyway.

Wowza! That is timely.

I too am curious about an autopsy. I did end up with a 40 S&W and am looking at the Buffalo Bore ammo. Think I'm done looking at it................

Thanks for the post.

Unreal!

I ordered some of that 9mm after reading your previous post on this thread and now feel like a genius. Thank you so much for sharing your life of genuine experience with us theorists.


mike r

Talk about remaining cool and collected! Wow!

Um, that had to be a bit......nerve racking.
Glad it turned out well for you and your guests.

All six in the chest? Exits?

As I said, this only happened a few days ago and the clients have left and I still have to turn the hide, skull and paperwork over to F&G in King Salmon this week. Like any shooting incident, it will take a little time for all involved to process and is not something to seek notoriety for. But it can be used as a learning experience and I have yet to decided how much and where I want to share it.
It is a coincidence that this forum topic, , my recent testing of 9mm and 357 Buffalo Bore ammo and then this incident came about at the same time.

The quick takeaway is to use common sense, listen to advice gained by experience, and take time to become comfortable and confident with your weapon of choice.

Tim Sundles, the owner of Buffalo Bore ammo, designed ammo for the "lessor" handgun calibers specifically for people who didn't want to expend the money and time to gain profeciency with large caliber handguns but still wanted something that gave them a resonable chance of surviving highly unlikely encounters like this with a handgun that they already own and are familiar with.

I had originally offered my article of my testing with the ammo to Lee Hoots, the editor at Wolfe Publishing, but he says he is not interested as there is not sufficient interest in the subject. I will eventually explore the possibility of working with AK F&G or somewhere where the topic is relevent.

Oh, and as much as I appreciated the light weight of the little 9mm, it's larger magazine capacity and ability to rapidly make multiple hits, I am not yet ready to give up either my S&W M-65 357 or my S&W 44 Mtn Gun ! And the jury is still out on whether a pistol like my son's Hamilton Bowen 475 Linebaugh would have been an asset or a detriment as complete pass throughs could have endangered others. Plus I was able to achieve 3 hits with the 9mm, each eliciting a response from the bear, by the time it would have taken me to recover and shoot a second shot from the SA Linebaugh.

Glad everyone made it through the encounter okay. Definitely a hair raising episode.