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

No thanks. It reminds of flare gun.

I was sorting through some random boxes in the basement the other night and found a 20 year old bag of reloads in my basement. They were 40 cal loaded with 180g lazercast flat nose bullets over longshot. I had the velocity listed at 1170fps and "camping loads" was written on the bag.

I carried that load during a lot of campouts during my broke college years. At the time I only had maybe 6 handguns. Two were colt anacondas a 4" and 6" both 44 mags but I mostly just camped in black bear areas then and felt more comfortable with the 40. Most of the time around town then I carried a glock 19 with 124g gold dot +p loads but when I was in the woods I preferred the larger flat nose on most 40 ammo. Even the cheap factory 40 had a flat nose.

I bought a S&W mountain gun in 44 mag in the early 2000s and then when I moved back to grizzly country I started carrying it loaded hot with 310g Lazer cast true shot flat nose bullets. A friend used one I've my loads to knock a black bear out of tree and said it worked great so I stuck with that for years. I bought a 329 pd about 2006 or so and stayed with the hot 310s.

As I got older I realized I really can't handle that combo anymore. I've since worked up a lighter load with 270g gold dot jsp at about 1100 fps but even that seems a bit much in the 329. I've wanted to go 10mm for woods carry but my glock 20s were never reliable. My xdm 10s have both proven reliable so finally the last year or two I've mainly packed a 10 with either 200g xtps at 1150 or 200g hard cast at 1200.

A friend I've hunted with since I was 11 is the only one I personally know who had to stop a bear attack with a handgun. He used a single six in 22 mag to drop a nice boar at his feet. First shot glanced of the top of the skull and a quick fanned 2nd shot went in about 1/4" above the eye socket.

Bb

The fly fisher guy will most likely never have to shoot a bear but it’s a given that whatever he carries is going to get wet, is there anything that survives a dunking better than a Glock?

Biggest worry I have around these parts is running into feral hogs or people while out looking for warblers. Where nobody shoots them feral hogs become remarkably fearless. Most worrisome encounter was with a really big boar hog maybe 20 yards out that huffed and puffed and absolutely did not want to give way.

Look at hog trap videos to see how fast a feral hog can dash. As in a phenomenon stated elsewhere is this thread, the 3” S&W Mod 60 loaded with hot .357 rounds shrank in my hand to insignificance as I contemplated the odds of an effective hit double action in a heavy-recoiling revolver during the brief interval said boar would be inbound. After a long two minutes or so that big hog pirouetted like a sumo ballerina and crashed off into the yaupon scrub.

So that same week I got a 10mm Glock 29: 10+1 200gr Hardcasts in a package much easier to shoot fast and well. Practice was expensive tho. Then some years later Mr Shoemaker took out that grizzly, so I traded off the G29 and went to what I should have been packing all along, my trusty Gen 2 Glock 19, 15+1 147grain Hardcasts, even easier to shoot than the G29.

Well, I’ve since fired that G19 exactly twice in response to hogs, once against a single boar hog and once against a sounder, both times a single round into the dirt to get the fuggers to turn around when they ignored my shouting and just kept ambling in my direction. Thirty yards out for the boar, ten yards out for the sounder {“sounder”: group of sows and young)

I’d tell that fishing guy you can’t go wrong with a G19, works great for home defense and carry too.

Yeah, a SIG SAUER P226 MK25 will survive a dunking better than a glock. It is designed to.

Have fished Northern NM a bunch and would be way more worried about 2 legged predators than a bear confrontation.

I would think that if you ever did fire that in a surprise bear attack the positive aspect would be that you would not have to listen to the bear growling and snarling and the bear wouldn't have to listen to your screaming because you would both be deaf.

THAT is a sleeping bag gun if I've ever seen one !

Ouch, cue the Timothy Treadwell being eaten alive recording.

Bump this up so as to not repeat typing out the same information again reference recommendations.

Yes because it is such an amazing source of information. Amazing! Truly amazing! Just awe inspiring!! Should be bumped up once a week!

When I moved to Alaska, I asked around about what handgun to carry. I was told multiple times that 44 mag was the minimum. I didn’t like the idea of “minimum” so I got a S&W 460. MISTAKE. That thing was so big and heavy, I never wanted to carry it. I traded it for a 329 PD. It was so punishing to shoot. A real pleasure to carry, but punishing to shoot. Traded it for a Ruger 454 and had Wild West Guns customize it. Loved that gun. Also got a G20. Ended up carrying the G20 the most. 200 grain hard cast Double Tap loads.

If I was buying one today, I would either get a 9mm, 40 S&W, or 10mm Glock or Springfield and not look back. I really like the idea of carrying a Glock 34 or 19.

Good analysis. Probably 100 times more likely to encounter an aggressive dog or human than a bear. He’ll want a fairly light and compact one for easy carry while fishing.

I guess I live in “bear country “. A bird feeder on the deck won’t last a week. We’ve had them at the back door slider a few times. I usually carry a 43x but it’s not because of bears. They’re just not that big of a threat.

It seems like .44 mags aren't considered enough by many on here. But for a relatively compact, hard hitting handgun it's hard to beat the 5 1/2" Ruger Superblackhawk in .44 mag. They have the small grip frame like the .357 Blackhawk and a fluted cylinder. I've owned two of them. I had a 2.5 lb trigger put on the first one and would occasionally shoot it in IHMSA matches just for the heck of it. I shot the first one a *lot*,...enough to cook the forcing cone out of the barrel.

I bought the second one to use for hog hunting after I got tired of dragging rifles through the Rhododendron thickets that grow down in the hollers of the Cumberland mountains. I was shooting a lot back then and at the time, I could give something within a hundred yards a lot of trouble with that 5 1/2" 44 mag.

I cast a *bunch* of the Lyman 429421 bullets back then and used them to put together "Elmer's load",...hardcast Lyman 429421 over 22 grains of 2400 with a magnum primer.

It's a handfull.

My opinion, if you can't get it done with a 44 Mag 5 1/2" Ruger Superblackhawk using Elmer's load, you probably need to think about using something other than a handgun.

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Oh yeah,....if you're going to do a lot of shooting with any of the .44 mag Superblackhawks, you need to Locktite the grip frame screws.

You had really better consider what any handgun will do to stop a bear this big when he decides he is going to eat you. That is a mature 6X6 bull elk he is dwarfing...

Back to posting dumbshit stuff again....

That is the very little remains of a raghorn 6 that has been decomposing for a week and been gnawed on by everything with teeth.

And the camera angle has the bear in front of the antlers far enough to exaggerate the bear's size.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W_6w0a_DnL2Sq2400pyUrOmbWngKlOkF/view?usp=drivesdk


My god you are stupid....

Speaking of stupid, you are the poster child. You obviously haven't seen or been around any grizzlies, or you would know better than make that ridiculous statement. Of course you knew I would reply, and I am. You are the reason they put rubber mats around the teeter totter.

Here are more pictures and the size of that head on that grizzly isn't small.









Here are more pictures of the area once those bears got done eating and tearing up the forest. If you notice those trees that have been uprooted weren't done by a small bear. Good Lord you are dense, maybe the military could replace depleted uranium with you...

I don’t think that big fella is of much concern to the OP’s friend as he’s in a different state. I ‘ve camped among the big bears a few times and have much more than handgun level respect for them!

Imagine one of them coming at you at 40 mph,....which they are capable of.

Wife & I got to stare down a brown bear at about that distance. He wanted to share camp with us despite our urging him otherwise. We felt FAIRLY comfortable with two rifles but are glad he chose to call it off. He seemed more curious than aggressive. Still made for a good memory.