Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns New bear load for my 10mm.

Thanks to Texas Rick's suggestion, I bought some Double Tap 10mm, 200 gr. WFNGC bullets and loaded them up. Up to 10.1 grs. of AA#7 was tested. At 9.8 grs., the ejection pattern was very close to my well tested 10.7 gr. w/ 180 gr. bullet load. But at 10.1 grs., the brass was flying quite a bit further.
9.5 grs. appears to be a safe and sane load. It is recommended by Accurate Arms with 200 gr. cast bullets, and they claim 1150 fps. with it at a little over 35.000 lbs. psi.
It shotts 2 inch groups out of my 1006 Smith and the bullets land about 1.5 inches higher at 25 yds. than do my 180 gr. loads.
Very impressive penetration. With 9.5 grs. of AA#7 driving one, it penetrated over three 2.5 gallon water jugs, placed end to end. That's over 36 inches of water plus six plastic surfaces.
Did not have the ability to explode the first jug like the 180 gr. HP load does. But it did split the first jug while throwing water back to me at 15 ft. E

Sounds like a good load, E.
I am looking around for some good powders to try in my 10mm-I may give that AA#7 a closer look, though I am thinking about loading mostly 165-180gr pills-at least initially.

10mm for bear? Hope they're small bears!

I have read more than a few Glock 20s are toted in Alaska territory for Bear defense....better than a 357 or 45 auto in my book. 15+1 w/200 gr might not be bad, but whatever you have, that first better count if you must shoot fast!

If I were to carry a pistol for the sake of defense against the Bears, it would be my .460 Remington. However, those 10mm are great against human torso's perhaps but not so great when put up against an animal such as a bear.

They are not even in the same ballpark as the .444 Marlin etc. So why even think about using such a caliber on a bear, especially a big bear? NO THANK YOU SIR!!! I stick with my rifles for bears period.

Never heard of a .460 Remington, but I do carry a G20 mag loaded with 15 DT 200 gr. WFNGC reloads to reload my G29 I carry off duty. Not worried about bear defense of hunting, just shooting through light cover if necessary...

I've not done "scientific" penetration tests, but it appears logical that a hard cast .400 bullet at 1,300-odd fps will penetrate at least as deep as one moving a bit slower and .029 bigger in caliber.

Hope it's a small bear!!!! Do what!!!

First he is in California (which is a sad thing to say about a man) so I'm sure there is a severe shortage of 1500 pound Brown Bears in the area.

Second, although I have very little experience on "normal" size bears (and none with the 10mm), I do have a bit of experience with hogs up to 400+ pounds. If a 200 grain cast bullet from the 10mm will penetrate the 3" thick gristle plate on a hog, then shatter the shoulder and finally exit the other side......I think any bear will be in a heap of hurt if he meets the same load.

Erimicus.....you might want to try Blue Dot or 800X. Those are the powders used by Double Tap. Their data shows up to 10.0 grains of 800X for 1350+ fps with the 200 grain WFNGC. I stopped at 9.0 grains and get just over 1300 fps from my EAA Witness.

No doubt for bears, in a handgun esp. you will want all the gun you can handle, and hit fairly well with, that's dead reliable and accurate, loaded with appropriate bullets.

I'd much rather a 33 or 35 bore carbine w/partitions and and a 375 or 416 would not be too much if one needed to stop a charge, as a 45/70 or 444.

12 Guage slugs should do ok as well.

Handguns of any kind certainly would not be as confident building as a rifle/shotgun, but if it were all one had, it would be better than no weapon.

Thanks, Rick, I'll look into it.
California is where my roots and family(s) are. The gun laws here suck. But, I can go and hunt anywhere I want.
I'm not an advocate of any bear hunting with anything less than the .41 Magnum. That's just for Black Bears. I think anyone who hunts the great bears with a handgun better have some serious backup in the form of an african Big Five rifle.
However, for defending oneself, odviously we must make sure our choices have some chance of doing the job. This load sure looks like it would work. E

AA#7 is probably as good an all around powder for the 10mm as can be found, especially with 165-180 gr. bullets.
I see IMR lists their 800X at 8.4 grs. with the Hornady 200 gr. XTP at 34,200 psi. Lyman lists their lead cast, #2 alloy 401633, 200 gr. bullet at 7.7 grs. for 1181 fps. They, Lyman, list AA#7 at 10.2 grs. for 1184 fps. Both of these generate 28,200-28,400 CUP. E

A recent Glock Annual actually profiled a team in Iceland, or Norway, or some such. They are carrying a 10mm for polar bears, but it's a back-up to some sort of rifle.

My 10mm loads are down to Blue Dot, Longshot and 800X. 800X is really good for top loads but I would think it meters like paper plates. I don't meter loads anyway, too paranoid. I weigh everything. If you do like to meter your charges BD & Longshot would likely be better. Blue Dot gives you quite the light show and Longshot is LOUD.

Never even considered the metering problem. I am like you in that I have never metered charges when reloading. I've always weighed each charge.....seems to give me more accurate loads and piece of mind.

I'm paranoid too....especially when working with near maximum loads (not a bad thing to be when nearing max!!).

Good deal.
In that case I will give AA#7 a whirl.

thanks,E.