[marktwain]

.44 magnum and beyond. The .44 magnum has an excellent reputation. It does not appear much is gained by going beyond it. The Danish Sirius dog sled patrol in Greenland issues the 10mm as a protection against polar bears.

[marktwain]

.500 Smith & Wesson revolver, image courtesy Rock Island Auction, inc.

[PGR88]

A friend hunts mule deer in Montana. He carries a 10mm on his chest for bear.

It seems most bear stories I read about, 10mm meets the requirements.

[Delta 21]

Absolutely everything to love about penetration in above .44 caliber.

Griz takes a few hits from a .454 Casaull in the head, shakes it off and runs off. They killed it later with long guns.

Using a .22 for hassenpfeffer and a .454 Casaull for bear defense sounds like a lopsided endeavor.

The encounters start out with the shooter trying to make a pin point shot on a huge sow bear, seconds later just happy that the fur was flying as they pulled the trigger.

I praise these guys for going BIG.

[telescope115]

I shot a Ruger .454 Casull once. 2 rounds, and gave it back to its owner. Too much gun for me! I was more comfortable with a 10mm.

How does a .454 Casull jam? I thought that was one big point for revolvers over autos- they don’t jam like autos.

[MNnice]

You don’t have to kill the bear to “defend” against it. A few .357 rounds to the face will drive any bear away.

[Navy Patriot]

Excellent article, nicely linked for detail!

I am impressed by the restraint of several of the Outdoorsmen - Hunters first person accounts. Many sincerely try to discourage the bears before resorting to lethal firearms use.

[Paal Gulli]

The S&W .460 mag always has interested me because it can safely shoot .45 Colt and .454 Casull, as well as .460 S&W (and not that you’d want to but also the .45 Schofield). And in a sufficiently strong revolver (i.e., S&W .460, Ruger Blackhawk, Magnum Research BFR), you can load the .45 Colt hotter than the .44 Remington Magnum.

So you could shoot lite .45 Colt loads for plinking but carry full-house .460 magnums when you’re in bear country.

With a hot .460 load you don’t even have to hit the bear because the bark from that thing (65,000 psi Pmax!!!!) will set the woods on fire, which probably will do more to discourage the bear than the gunshot.

[Georgia Girl 2]

There’s a new incident in Alaska on YouTube. I think it was just a few weeks ago where father and son hunters got jumped by a grizzly in Alaska. The son shot it at close range with a 10 mm and it died in top of him. The father also shot it with a .40 cal.

The son is filming the video and shows the dead bear about 15 behind him and a wound on his leg that he can’t decide if he shot himself or the grizzly bit him.