.44 Bullets For Bear....Again......

[JSH]

Real men don’t need no stinking guns ! View attachment 1570192

My money is on the bear………
Never been around them. If I were to visit or hunt a known bear area, I would have already been testing and reading from those that have been there done that, got the T shirt. Handling heavy recoiling pistols is not easy and is learned. Practice, practice.
As I turned older and later in life, I now have a great deal of respect for 45 Colt Blackhawk loads, I see no need for me to have something more obnoxious that I can’t control, the 45 lot with heavy loads is no joke.( edit had to add, I have a 480 Ruger Bisley that is now loaded down, that I’ll always have). It is a hard thumper, but many can’t handle it for a cylinder full and do well.
I have no worries about any feds involved if I were ever to get in the predicament of me shooting a bear, I deal with that when the time comes if I were to come out on top.

The OP with his light rig, may well look more towards a heavy 44 Special load rather than a full tilt magnum. Once again multiple shots, administered in a vital small target.

If you’re a nervous, jittery, spooky fellow you maybe should rethink your vacation area. This is in regards to the comments on adrenaline, a chemical that can not be controlled by many, but all of us have.

Look at YouTube on Mark Sullivan, he is collected in the ways of adrenaline. He doesn’t walk funny enough to have cajones as big as bowling balls.

 

[White Eagle]

hard cast is a marketing term
cast boolit is definitely the way to go
alloy choice is key though you don't want to hard that the boolit breaks apart
you want straight line full penetration 15-16 bhn should do
look at what Elmer did with his boolits and alloy

 

[nakneker]

As far as handgun bullets go I’m a novice at best. I would have never thought a hard cast would be as good as a solid soft point, something like the Sierra 300 grain but it’s obviously has a huge following reading through the thread. Time to read up.

Bears are something I do have a lot of experience with, I lived in Bristol Bay around Katmai National park for 3 years, guided back country salmon trips and had constant run ins with big brown bears, a couple false charges but that’s about it. I also worked on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona helping a couple cousins for a year, lots of big black bears and contact was dang near daily. My take on bears is they are much like humans, most are good natured and will leave you alone, they want to be left alone and then every so often you run into a mean or grumpy one. When that happened in Alaska we would back out of the fishing area and let them have the hole. The Black bears were more moody and the honery ones were no fun. Game and fish came and trapped a few that tore camp up and they also dispatched two that kept returning and tearing things up. If you look at big black bears in the B&C records you’ll find Arizona well represented, something quite a few people don’t know. In Alaska we carried 338 win mags, shotguns or bear spray, only used the spray once. I’m headed up to Kodiak the end of next month for some silver fishing, high density of brown bears where we go,

Now that Game and fish has cut back on the lion tags in Arizona or the quota I should say and let wolves get a hold here, we are having more and more “Bad encounters” with wolves, lions and bears. Had one fatality last year from a black bear and few bad encounters with hunters, hikers and nimrods.

I don’t hike the back country without a handgun any more and neither do my children who are out in the woods a lot. Predators and maybe even worse, bad human beans.

 

[ISS]

Hmmmmmmmmm... I have lived in Idaho since the late 1970's. Used to visit Elmer Keith on a regular basis. I went with his 240gr SWC at 1400, until about twenty years ago. Then, I got a 320gr RFN mould and shot it around 1100fps. Screamer, and weekly use got me used to it. Six shots under 3" at 10 yards.
I would worry more about the wolf packs running out here more than a bear. We got the Canadian Lobo species now, and a big male might tip the scales at 180 pounds. Think a dozen, or maybe a few more.

ISS

 

[Tangent]

Interesting thread. We don't have these issues in sunny England but a few rewilding types have suggested reintroducing apex predators. The public here would have hysterics, no common sense, the sort that go up mountains in t-shirts and flipflops and then wonder why they get hypothermia! That said we get a lot of panther sightings and supposedly some DNA was found recently on a kill. It's possible as some were supposedly set free when the licencing changed in the 60's I think. Plenty to eat too as we have more deer now than the middle ages, no predators and most of the public don't seem to know what "a venison" is

 

[Stormbringer]

I would use a 240 JSP and not feel under gunned. Black bears are not all that large, or hard to kill. Been a part of several bear hunts in Idaho. Hunting over bait, 357, 44 mag, and bows have all been quite effective.

Nothing is quite as eerie as the death moan from a bear. Heard it many times!

 

[Tommie]

Best shark repellant: stay out of the water.

Bears? Yep.

I’m a pansy.

 

[Webster]

We're going camping in Idaho next month and I'll have my 329 PD as a belt gun, I've been looking at bullets suitable for bear and the preferred bullet is a heavy 300-ish gr hard cast bullet. I know Lehigh has a Xtreme Penetrator that is solid copper in 220 and 250 gr, has anybody compared the hard cast to either one of these for a bear application? Thanks

I read an article many years ago about shooting training for the CIA and FBI type people. The worst thing you can do if your life is on the line is to shoot one shot , then wait to see what affect it has. They train to shoot 2 quick shots and if the bad guy is still standing keep shooting until it falls to the ground. A person or animal only has to live a couple seconds to kill you.