Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska 10mm 220gr Hard Cast enough Grizzly?

Going to Alaska fishing. I'm not sure where yet but it's a free tag a long type deal ...so no complaints! Anywho I was figuring I'd bring my Glock 20mm and load it up with Buffalo bore 220gr hard cast in case I ran into a bear problem.

I usually shoot 200gr bullets from this and it's my favorite handgun. I shoot it all the time and very good with it. So I figure moving to the 220s isn't a stretch.

Other posibilities - include: buddy has a S&W 460v 5" which I've shot and can do so so with it but I really need to work at it to get the bullets to go where I want them and it isn't fast. (that's shooting 395 corbons HC)

Then a 454 casull 2.5" taurus - about the same as the 460v in terms of accuracy and quickness etc.

Next option I was looking at was a 44mag ruger alaskan loaded up with some corbon 300s or 340s?


I feel the best with the G20 as I can put em where they need to go and fast. But is it enough for a nice size grizz charge?

CNS being required but not always attainable maybe better to miss a little and use the 44 over the G20? Thanks in advance

btw I don't expect to encounter anything but might as well be prepared for the worst.

Personally I would NOT feel undergunned with a 10 mm Glock at all. Right bullets to penetrate assumed.

May not be the best choice, but take something like a hot 44 mag like mine in a 329PD and the first shot is fine, but the follow ups are hard to control.

I've often thought of the souped up 45 like the 460 Rowland would be a better personal choice or a 10mm. Though I'd also think it fairly rare to draw the gun in time to fire, and to get off more than 1-3 shots anyway. So there is the thought that one well placed larger round MIGHT be a better choice.

The best is a heavy rifle starting at 338 win mag IMHO though a shotgun with GOOD hard slugs wouldn't be a slouch either.

Should be plenty........

Was thinking the same. TSA will surely frown upon ammo for such in luggage however. Seriously wonder about 20 mm ammo in Alaska too.

I wouldn't be afraid to venture out armed with one either.

looking at the #s...

with my G20 10mm 220 buffalo bore hard cast combo = 1200fps & 703ftlbs

Ruger alaskan 2.5" 44mag bufflo bore 305gr HC figuring 1175fps & 925ftlbs

Ruger alaskan 2.5 454casull buffalo bore 360gr HC figuring 1200fps & 1175 ftlbs.


Question that lingers in my mind is: Say I hit the brownie somewhere near the brain but not in it. Will approx 500 ftlbs of energy MAKE THAT BIG OF A DIFFERENCE in the outcome? (10mm 220 703ftlbs vs 454 360 1175ftlbs) ?

I took my G20 to Yellowstone recently. Maybe I could make a killing shot during a charge and maybe not, but I sure liked having it and a full 15 round clip in my fanny pack when we were hiking. A guy in Jackson Hole told me "be sure and carry bear spray too....after you kill the bear, spray him down real good with it"...As Mr. Ken Howell said recently "One day it will be a felony to be killed by a grizzly"

IMHO if you hit outside the brain, its just gotta make sure it penetrates totally any vitals it hits so the bear dies eventually. Extra energy isn't going to impress the bear at all.

Hmm, wonder if it was a felony for a bear to kill a man, would it stop them?

Non-sense for laws to penalize someone defending themselves - that might be a big case re: one's rights to protect self. Seems the 'elected' want to re-write the Constitution.

Talked to a Montana Fish and Game officer who works in an area with a lot of grizzlies. I asked what sidearm he carried and it was a Glock 10mm - FWIW...




Johnny $

Man...the recoil of that 20MM must be brutal. doubt I could handle it.

Lefty C

Pepper Spray.

Or a shotgun.

Do you really think you can hit a charging bear with your handgun. Next question, do you think you can stop a charging bear with your handgun.

Wish you luck..

funny, that...

i spend a lot of time on griz turf and i don't have any problem with our current laws protecting grizzly bears. the laws don't stop you from defending yourself or someone else, but you can't just shoot at every bear you see, which some people think is their god-given right.

A game warden works out at the gym when I do and I spoke about this the other day. Thinking he said most of his guys/galz carry 40's day in and day out. But...when it came time to sort out a bruin out came the shotgun and the 06.

Dober

That energy stuff just will not kill bears. Holes, big deep ones is what will do the trick.

How does that pepper spray work when the bear tries to come in your tent, as is reported every year from New Mexico to Alaska?

Of all the recent bear attack incidents, in most of them the victims would have had a chance to pull a handgun and fire at the bear multimple times (in several the victims were trying to do things like kick the bear, etc ...). I don't have the time right now, but I can link you to numerous videos on line where bear (including sows protecting cubs) ran like hell the other way when they heard the first handgun shot (even when it didn't hit). One guy in Alaska last year killed a brown bear with a .45 ACP. But the point is that you don't necessarily have to vaporize a bear to make it go away. They're animals, not Mechagodzilla. Unless there is someone who can point me to any contrary evidence, I have seen nothing to suggest that even the biggest bear will get "angrier" and more aggressive while being shot with a handgun. I've been looking for some contrary evideence (I also killed a big boar brown bear last fall), and have seen nothing but an assumption that shooting a bear with less than a .458 Lott will make the bear attack faster and more aggresively. I think there is nothing to this. We all know a wounded bear who is then pursued by the hunter will be more willing to attack than other bears, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a bear being shot with ___ caliber handgun before it flees. There is no evidence (unless anyone wants to show me) that bears who are being shot with handguns do anything but tend to run away. You don't need to explode their shoulder, liver, and spine to make them do so. And bear spray doesn't work in tents, where I spend 1/3 of my time in bear country.

A bear does not need to be "pursued" in order to be provoked into an attack. Bears are known to sometimes attack at the shot. They don't always run away.

That said, I prefer a handgun to pepper spray.

I'd rather have a 12 ga. over a handgun and a rifle (of almost any cartridge) trumps all.

I would never say that they "alaways" run away. But can you identify any examples of a bear being shot with something like a 10mm or bigger and coming on stronger? I'm not saying it has never happened, but I've never seen a confirmed report of such. I'd like to hear of a few examples of it compared to the numerous examples of the bear running away when being shot or even just hearing the blast from the handgun. The 2010 .45 ACP example comes to mind.

Also (for the people who think handguns are just for macho fat heads), a few times in the remote world (including in the Marines), I saw a few guys step on their handgun. Not smart, I know, but what happens to a spraygun when you step on it? And can you protect yourselves from a persistent, armed person with it? Couldn't they just back off and come again later? And can a spraygun work to acquire emergency meat if you are trapped somewhere? Handgun sounds better to me as an emergency tool.

On the other point, I'd like to hear of the confirmed reports of a 10mm+ handgun causing an attack as opposed to the many confirmed reports where they prevented one. Not saying it would always work, but there is a myth that shooting a bear with a .357 or whatever will just get you killed the quicker. I think it's a myth. I'd like to see actual reports to the contrary rather than just the mythical logic that, unless your firearm can break the shoulder and vaporize the CNS of a charging big bear, it's just going to make you deader quicker. Myth, I think.

Forget that FE BS. A wide meplat hard cast bullet that penetrates deeply through vitails will kill and kill well



I prefer at least a 45 Colt with 325 grain wide meplat hard cast at about 1300 fPS + or -

A handgun is much better at getting into action inside a tent than a rifle or shot gun