Best bear gun?

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Venom007

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am going on a trip to the upper west coast. Bears are there so I am wondering what would be a good gun to bring against them? I have a .357 but am hearing that is too light. Should I get a better gun for the job? What is the best bear hand gun?

thanks
 
No personal experience and not an expert, but I've usually seen .44 Mag or .454 Casull recommended whenever I've read up on the topic.
 
Upper west coast as in Alaska or somewhere else?

10mm Glock loaded right gives you a semi option but may not be bear level. .44mag, 45LC in a tough gun, or .454 would be my thoughts.
Many will go with a rifle or shotgun if the risk is higher.
 
In the PNW (Pacific North West - Oregon, Idaho Washington) a 357 is plenty for anything you will find in the wild. I usually carry a XDs 3.3 in 45acp when I am in the back woods. Cougars are usually my biggest worry... so I just stay away from those types of bars.
 
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Venom007 said:
am going on a trip to the upper west coast.
Click to expand...
You didn't say what you're going to be doing at the "upper west coast" - backpacking, climbing, day hiking, fishing, car camping, touring in a motor home, or what? It makes a difference. That said, back in our younger years, the wife and I did one heck of a lot of backpacking, climbing, and day hiking in the Idaho wilderness. I carried a heavily loaded Taurus 41 Magnum because there are grizzlies here, along with black bears, cougars and wolves.
We also each carried a large canister of strong pepper spray. But our first line of defense was to make a lot of noise while hiking through brushy areas or other areas where we might surprise a bear.
In all the time my wife and I have spent in the backcountry, we have never even seen a single grizzly in the wild outside of Yellowstone Park. And the only black bears we ever saw were running away. We did come across the occasional cougar track, but cougars are generally very reclusive. That's except for the ones that wander into the big city of Pocatello - about 25 miles from here. It seems like that's been happening about once a year lately. The Fish and Game Department had to tranquilize and deport one from the Idaho State University campus last winter.
I guess it's been 20 years ago that they introduced wolves back into Idaho. And the first area they introduced them was up around Challis - one of my wife's and my favorite backpacking areas. They never bothered us, in fact we seldom seen one, and we enjoyed hearing them. They even howl during the day sometimes - a fact that we didn't learn from watching TV and reading Jack London novels.
At any rate, no matter what anyone says on these internet message forums, if you're going to be doing serious backpacking or climbing in the backcountry, you're not going to want to be carrying a danged "shotgun loaded with slugs" or a "large bore rifle" when you have a 65 or 70 pound pack on your back. Rifles and shotguns make lousy hiking staffs, and if you're carrying one in Idaho, you'd better have a valid Idaho hunting license or you're going to get a ticket, and maybe lose your gun on top of that.
 
For where you are headed, the minimum that I'd go with is a .44Magnum loaded with a 300-grain HCFN @ 1,100 fps. Better to have plenty of power than not enough...
 
If coastal brown bears are a concern I'd prefer a 44 magnum or larger revolver, or a 10mm automatic loaded with very warm hardcasts bullets.

357 mag is an alright choice if loaded with hot and heavy hard casts, but personally I want a bigger hammer.
 
Bear guides in Maine mostly carried 45 automatics, but I saw a wounded black bear shot dead from a treetop by a guide with a 9mm. Based on this, and the fact that i don't care for wheel guns, I would carry a 45 auto or a 10mm. If I didn't have a 45 or 10mm but I owned a 357, I would carry the 357.
 
I live in bear country in Arkansas -- I sometimes see Blackies in my back yard. I have 185 acres of woods, and usually carry a Colt Woodsman when out in the woods. I do not consider Black bears to be a threat.
 
Your 357 loaded with proper bullets is more than adequate. A 357 loaded with 180 or 200 gr hardcast bullets will work as well as anything else. If you don't handload Buffalo Bore and DoubleTap both make very good loads. The bigger guns add range needed for hunters, not really any better performance up close in a SD situation.

Something like this:

https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=162

While I'd feel better with something bigger, even 9mm ammo loaded with heavy hardcast bullets has proven to be effective on the larger bear in Alaska.

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/alaska-man-kills-charging-brown-bear-with-a-9mm-pistol/

My personal preference is a Glock 10mm. With the same 180 or 200 gr hardcast bullets performance is equal to 357 mag. But my G29 is over a pound lighter, 2" shorter than my 357 and holds 11 or 16 rounds of ammo depending on the magazine I'm using. I've carried it camping in grizzly country. I won't say I slept great, but nothing else would have been any more comforting. If a 357 is all I had then I'd use it.
 
Some comments paraphrased and quoted from an article in the August 2018 American Rifleman. The title of the article was "Nine Lives of the 10mm Auto" and it was written by Jeremiah Knupp (Field Editor).

Apparently Denmark's Sirius Dog Sled Patrol has been carrying 10mm autopistols to patrol Greenland since 2000. This is in case of encounters with musk oxen and polar bears.

According to the article, "...the 10mm Glock has proved successful in several close-range encounters with both polar bear and musk ox, most involving multiple rounds fired rapidly at extremely close range." Although they have tested .357Mag and .44 Mag revolvers as alternatives since adopting the 10mm, they have stayed with the caliber due to capacity and shootability.

It's probably worth pointing out that recruits get 28 hours of basic pistol training followed by CQB and night shooting courses.

Why am I posting about polar bears in a post about grizzlies? Polar bears are as large, or maybe even a tiny bit larger than the biggest grizzlies/brown bears.
 
I carry a S&W 45 shield with Buffalo Bore loads when we hike in NH, ME or MA.
-mike
 
I commonly hike and camp in Shoshone and Custer National Forests (Shoshone noted as the largest pop of grizzlies in the lower 48) and usually carry a .44 mag with Corbon FNHC. Back at camp I have a 12-gauge with 603 black magic Brenneke slugs. (Also usually have my PX4 loaded with Buffalo Bore.)

I also carry bear spray and used it twice and it works.

In area with only (or primarily) black bears (southern ID, UT, CO) I started to carry only the .40 Buffalo Bore 200 gr in my PX4.

A friend commonly hikes up in the Cascades and other areas of the pacific NW and he carries a .40 Glock with the 200 gr Buffalo Bore, multiple mags and bear spray. He is saying the problem up there is not bears anymore, but humans.

But there is really no "best" bear gun.
 
GunnyUSMC said:
When hiking in bear country a 25 Auto and a hiking partner, but never your best friend. If a bear attacks, shoot hiking partner in the leg and run. ;)
All joking aside, carry something big, 44 mag are large.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of a recreational wreck dive I made too many years ago. I was paired with a fellow from Utah. We were lucky to see several 8-12’ sand tigers. When I turned to show him the big sharks he had his knife out. I gave him the NoNo sign and signaled him to put away knife. We enjoyed watching them for the 10 or so minutes before the dive was over.
Back on deck I told him his punny dive knife was definitely under gunned for those big boys.
He replied oh it was wasn’t for the sharks, it was for me. He had been told if they got aggressive to stab me and swim like hell!
Funny, for some odd reason, I never dove with him again?
 
For black bears and probably many lower 48 browns the .357 you have should be fine. Spray is pretty useful too for simply curious bears (though loud noises also work fine here too).

In black bear country I usually carry a 10mm, maybe a .45 ACP with hard cast. Then again WI blacks are pretty small and usually too scared of humans to be a bother. Though hunting with dogs can really bump up the chances of an aggressive encounter.

In AK in big coastal brown land I always had my .44 mag with heavy hardcasts and usually a 12 gauge with 3 1/2" slugs in the boat.
 
My brother use to live in Alaska and carried a Ruger Redhawk in .44 Magnum with a 5 1/2" barrel. I got him an old British canvas flap holster that was originally for a .455 Webley Mk.VI for him to use whenever he took one to hiking through the woods. Both gun and holster served him well though he never did come across any bears or any other kind of dangerous animals while he was there.
 
If you have to ask, then you don't need anything you wouldn't carry anywhere else. Bears kill an average of 1 person per year in North America. If you're intimately familiar with the circumstances of a particular activity that will result in you being at high-risk, like you're a wild-life photographer going to document bears during a salmon run, then you should already know what protection is appropriate. If you don't then you really have no business doing such a thing. On the other hand, if you're simply traveling outside the city for the first time, you don't need anything new. There are at least a hundred armed robberies in Alaska every year and hundreds of aggravated assaults, but usually not a single death by bear (the average of one death is more likely to happen in Canada). Tickets to Anchorage really don't need to be accompanied by the purchase of a Redhawk Alaskan in .454 Casull. But if you want one, go ahead. Don't ferget yer 10 gallon hat and single-action when yeh go ta Dallas too.
 
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