A couple years ago I went on a camping trip around southwest Colorado that had us in and out of towns and rural areas where wildlife might be an issue. This was right after a couple of the big bear threads started here and after reading them I felt fine carrying my typical 9mm with the same carry ammo.
FWIW the lone bear we saw on that trip was across the river and still made itself scarce at our presence.
Last edited by Bigghoss; 04-14-2019 at 02:41 AM.
Originally Posted by MattyD380
If I were going on this trip, and felt like I needed to carry two guns from your list to add better effectiveness on black bears specifically, I’d probably pack the G35 with 180gr FMJ or hard cast in my ruck for the drive and the G26 in the car on my belt loaded with my normal HST or Gold Dots. Upon reaching the hiking/camping area, I’d swap them. Going to town for dinner, or leaving in the car, switch back.
Or you could just carry the G26 and switch ammunition- JHP in the car or in town, 147gr flat point FMJ or hard cast while hiking/camping in the bear country. I wouldn’t use JHP from any service caliber on any bear unless that was all I had on me when I needed to do it. And then I would go for head shots if possible.
Phil Shoemaker, Alaskan fishing and hunting guide, used a 9mm loaded with hard cast to defend clients from an Alaskan grizzly. Bear went down, no humans hurt. Last year (IIRC), a New Mexico hunting guide used a 10mm Glock loaded with JHP to defend himself from a large black bear. It only stopped after a contact range head shot, while it was chewing on him and after several body shots failed to penetrate. What you load and where you hit seems to make more difference than cartridge shape, caliber, or gun.
I have hiked, camped, run rivers, fished, and hunted in black bear country most of my life. Every (infrequent) bear encounter I’ve had has resulted in a bear running away, no shots fired or pepper spray deployed. That said, I still “load for bear” when out in the woods. That is, whatever pistol I’m carrying is loaded with solid projectiles, preferably flat front and preferably hard cast. If I’m hunting birds, that is the only time I carry a shotgun. I’ll have a few slugs in a separate pocket in a different layer than my birdshot - birdshot in the vest, slugs in a pants cargo pocket, or something like that. Rifle hunting, I just roll with whatever hunting projectile I’m hunting with, nothing special just in case for black bear. Grizzly country, if I ever end up doing anything there, might promote a shift.
Hope you have a good trip.
Carry your usual (most proficient) carry gun. With your regular load you know the accuracy of.
Don’t reinvent the wheel on short notice and try to cram something new in with your trip planning and you other needs.
Take the Shockwave, I guess. I wouldn’t want to hump a four pound hunk of iron around for a very low percentage chance encounter with a bear in the lower-48. That’s just extra weight to carry.
I have a question for those knowledgeable bear folks here. My hunting land has IN THE PAST been bear free. Now it seems they are everywhere judging from all the game cam pics posted in the only little store within 25 miles. This is truly wild, old growth mature forest land with no easy access, no homes, no utilities and best of all, no people. Access is only by short wheelbase high clearance 4X4, UTV, etc. We have a particular boar who is a definite asshole bear. He loves to tear stuff up in one of the camps about 500 yards up the mountain from ours. He tears stuff up just for the sake of tearing it up, as there's no food involved. Scatters fire wood, destroyed tree stands and other general mischief. Game cam pics show that this bear is a full grown adult. He's torn a few of those up too. Like I said, he's an asshole.
The question: I noticed the false charge in the video posted earlier and got to wondering. Are truly wild bears who have had basically little to no interaction with humans more apt to commit to an attack than those who have interacted in their past? I generally have a .357 Sig or .45 ACP with bonded HPs when out and about down there. In camp a shotgun or rifle is always handy.
Edit to add: Black bears here. No big browns or grizz.
Last edited by Spartan1980; 04-14-2019 at 10:21 AM.
We have substantial black bear presence in the area I live. My daily carry is a 9mm Glock stoked with Hornady Critical Duty 135 +p. I carry the same gun in and around the house, and the same gun when we venture to the local National Forest.
Last edited by StraitR; 04-14-2019 at 10:48 AM.
I don't know that there is a hard answer to that question.
Living where I live, and living the life I have chosen to live has given me an incredible education about animals, and one of the things I've learned is they do have individual personalities. For example, by observing the deer that frequent our property throughout the year, I can predict with some accuracy which ones I'm most likely to get a shot at come archery season.
Having said that, my expectation based on the reading I've done is that bears that are more habituated to humans are most likely to attack. Bears with little or no exposure to humans seem to hit the "orient" part of their OODA loop and their default response seems to be GTFO. If you think about it, for a bear that has never had human exposure, we must seem truly alien and bizarre.
I think the bear you've described in your post is a bad encounter waiting to happen, and I would not fault somebody for deliberately setting out to turn him into breakfast sausage and a nice rug.
Last edited by Lester Polfus; 04-14-2019 at 03:27 PM.
I was into 10mm Auto before it sold out and went mainstream, but these days I'm here for the revolver and epidemiology information.
Dude,
If it's going to be black bear country and no chance of running into a grizzly, just carry what you normally would for every day defense.
As mentioned earlier, add a can of bear spray to your tool set (get a can of inert spray to practice with). Outside of some weird shit happening, that bear is going to be hauling ass as soon as it realises you're around. If it decides to get froggy a decent service round will put it down.
As an aside, you can place the spray in your off hand as disigned ( index finger through the ring if I remember right) and still get a badass two handed grip on your pistol should the need arise.
Practice with what you have and enjoy the outdoors.
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Of whatever interest it may be, this is the story of the guy that developed UDAP
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