Shoot (pun not originally intended, but hey) remember the guy who took down a bear with a cheap .45? I think it was a brown bear but actually don’t remember that part. I just remember it was one of those cheap .45 pistols.
It was a HiPoint .45, an inexpensive pistol, but they work. The incident is included in the article on defensive use of pistols against bears. It is incident 16 in the article.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/pistols-for-defense-against-bears.html