Which concealed carry piece in bear country?

[Jeddak]

My bear experience is limited to Alaskan bears (both brownies and black bears). I carried a Raging Bull in 454 Casull. I would not carry a hollow point in a handgun. Bears have a very tough hide and bones. The front of their scull is sloped enough that even rifle rounds do not always give you a one-shot kill. You want penetration, above all. Choose the heaviest bullet you can.
I carried either Buffalo Bore ammo with solid brass bullets or Winchester JFP with a very hard lead nose or my handloads with Freedom Arms JFP.
Load of choice for 44 mag was a brass bullet. My buddy spent every spring and summer in bear country (seeing them weekly), that's what he carried.
454 Casull develops about 50% more energy than a 44 mag, that's why I chose it. I did not work in the Bush, so carrying a revolver twice the weight of his 44 mag was OK.
Ruger Redhawk can handle very HOT 45 Colt loads, approaching 44 mag velocities, but with a bigger, heavier bullet. That's another choice, if your roll your own.

Aim for the COM, and practice firing DA, if you carry a revolver, you will be able to get off 2, maybe 3 shots before the bear is on you, so PRACTICE.
In semi-auto I would choose the hottest load with the heaviest bullet in 10MM or 45 ACP.

Bear sprays----we called them Bear Tabasco. You could always tell who was a tourist from the Outside on the trail; they carried bear seasoning and bells.

And yes, mama bear with cubs is the most dangerous. Never get between the cubs and mama.
On another hand, about 10 years a go a hiker was killed on very popular Bird's Point trail, outside of Anchorage. Brown bear, two females hiking, with bells, making plenty of noise. A brownie still charged them. One escaped (ran), another was half-eaten, while she played dead. I hiked the same trail a week before, never saw a sign of bear. It was July, so food was plentiful, salmon run had already started.

 

[hseII]

The real reason I bought a model 69

 

[howl]

The USFWS did a study many years ago to examine the effectiveness of cartridges in penetrating a brown bear's skull. They found the minimum needed to reliably stop a brown bear was a .338 Win Mag; assuming you could put the bullet where needed. In Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance the author found through a survey of reports that spray was more often effective on brown bears than handguns. The opposite was found to be true of black bears.

Guns were found to have been more effective than sprays on black bears. Maybe that is surprising, or if you consider black bears do things like stick their heads up bee hives, maybe not. In any case, blacks are nowhere near as stout as browns and they're much quicker to flee. The only exercise approaching study of use of handguns on black bears was done when developing the Hornady XTP bullet. Those folks determined a 240gr hollow point changed a black bear's mind quicker than other bullets like hard cast lead solids. Which is handy, because I'm not sure I could ever practice enough to call my shots on targets as small as the brain, spine and shoulder bones when they're coming in at speed and bobbing all over. Miss those with a hard bullet and all you do is punch a clean hole through a bear that didn't notice it was hit. Hammer the bear in the vitals with an expandable on the other hand, and supposedly they turn inside out and get.

Another way to look at it: Could you draw and hit a can of soup if someone threw it at you from 20 yards? Not gonna hit a black's brain, either. If they rolled a kick ball, though, most of us could light that up.

 

[DinkyDau]

Air Horn.

 

[user 71]

 

[captdave77]

There are several documented black bear attacks in Buckhead.

 

[B. Byrd]

There are several documented black bear attacks in Buckhead.

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So the question is what do you carry to protect yourself against those things.

 

[270win]

That killed the thread...

I took one of these to Yellowstone with me this summer. Very comfortable to carry and plenty of power...and really accurate too if you don't flinch!

 

[JBKnifeworks]

When the bear starts to bite you, stuff a tank of flammable gas in its mouth. Step back, say(smile you sum*****) and shoot the tank with an m1 Garand.

 

[RdKill]

LOL people talking about momma bear with cubs being dangerous obviously haven't spent any time around black bears. Here's how momma bear protects her cubs. She runs away but not too far. The cubs go up a tree. When the danger (me or you or whomever) leaves, she comes back and retrieves her babies. There has never been a recorded case of a human killed by a momma black bear protecting her cubs. Black bear attacks are almost exclusively cases of bears being fed by people (tourists usually) and then associating people with food...same goes for gators.

A black bear that does not run away (1 in a million) may have intent to eat you or may not...probably not but still, for the sake of argument, let's say it wants to eat you. Shoot it and wound but not kill it, you just sealed your fate. A wounded bear is every bit as ferocious as you probably thought a momma black bear with cubs would be x 10. A warning shot is your best first shot if you want things to end peacefully. I just yell HEY! and stomp at them...then laugh as they mow down the underbrush hauling ass.