Black bear sidearm

[MHWASH]

I almost always carry while in the woods. Mostly 9mm, typically loaded with hard cast bullets. Hard cast bullets give you the penetration of a fmj with the tissue destruction close to a hollow point. I chose to carry a 9mm over a 10mm because of the weight difference and shootability during stressful situations. I've practiced shooting both rapid fire while standing still and while backing away.

I always carry when black bear hunting. Out of the 9 bears that my son and I have shot, only 2 died right where they were shot. Most run to the thickest stuff they can find. Luckily all have been dead, but the majority of the time they're in places where it's not practical to carry a rifle.

[buckfvr]

I almost always carry while in the woods. Mostly 9mm, typically loaded with hard cast bullets. Hard cast bullets give you the penetration of a fmj with the tissue destruction close to a hollow point. I chose to carry a 9mm over a 10mm because of the weight difference and shootability during stressful situations. I've practiced shooting both rapid fire while standing still and while backing away.

I always carry when black bear hunting. Out of the 9 bears that my son and I have shot, only 2 died right where they were shot. Most run to the thickest stuff they can find. Luckily all have been dead, but the majority of the time they're in places where it's not practical to carry a rifle.

This post prompted me to weigh my XDM 5.25 10mm 15+1 vs. my XDM Elite 3.8 9mm 20 +1 and the result is the 9mm is 6oz lighter.  Insignificant..... 10mm when the bears are awake, 9mm otherwise.  Its just what I do, Id only recommend that a person for sure packs a handgun.

[MHWASH]

I almost always carry while in the woods. Mostly 9mm, typically loaded with hard cast bullets. Hard cast bullets give you the penetration of a fmj with the tissue destruction close to a hollow point. I chose to carry a 9mm over a 10mm because of the weight difference and shootability during stressful situations. I've practiced shooting both rapid fire while standing still and while backing away.

I always carry when black bear hunting. Out of the 9 bears that my son and I have shot, only 2 died right where they were shot. Most run to the thickest stuff they can find. Luckily all have been dead, but the majority of the time they're in places where it's not practical to carry a rifle.

This post prompted me to weigh my XDM 5.25 10mm 15+1 vs. my XDM Elite 3.8 9mm 20 +1 and the result is the 9mm is 6oz lighter.  Insignificant..... 10mm when the bears are awake, 9mm otherwise.  Its just what I do, Id only recommend that a person for sure packs a handgun.

I'll have to weigh mine. But my 10mm is a 1911, and my 9mm is a 365 XL.

[nwwanderer]

Anything you choose must be used a bunch, muscle memory under stress might get er done

[brokentrail]

This may be some info folks reading this thread will be interested in, at least one bear hunters opinion.

http://www.bear-hunting.com/2019/12/back-up-bearguns

[Igor]

This may be some info folks reading this thread will be interested in, at least one bear hunters opinion.

http://www.bear-hunting.com/2019/12/back-up-bearguns

One take-away from that article:

I’m not fond of autoloaders for our use. The .45 ACP or .40 can be had with hardcast bullets, but they have less penetration than a .357. If shooting in an emergency and not held tightly, they often jam, called limp-wristing. It takes hundreds of rounds without jamming to trust an autoloader to one’s life.

That's exactly why I carry a revolver chambered in .45 Colt.

[skagitsteel]

I'll chime in on this one.  I currently carry a glock 20 10mm with 220 grain buffalo bore, I used to carry a .40 Springfield with 165 grain.   Summer of 2019 out hiking with the pack goats I had a l good sized boar stalk us, then charge.  1 warning shot, then 6 successive rounds to stop the bear (which finally rolled at 8 yards).  I would guess I hit it 3-4x of the 6 shots I fired inside of 15 yards, it is harder than most people realize to deliver well placed shots from a sidearm at a charging bear.  The .40 stopped an attack and did eventually knocked the bear down, but the bear did get up and limp away after rolling down the very steep hillside we were on.  I promptly switched to a 10 mm after the incident.  Personally I found the semi auto to be ideal for firing successive rounds in a short time, getting back on target quickly with each shot.  A large revolver would have been emptied too quickly and been longer to re acquire the target with a lot more recoil, however the .40 certainly seemed to light. Best bet is to carry something you can shoot well and have some practice with.  I have always carried the sidearm mainly for the cats, but to date I have not had a cat mess with the goats in the backcountry.   

[Rat44]

I have carried many 44 Mags over the years as my woods gun.
Last one I had gave me a lot of problems that S & W could not seem to fix.
It was a first generation Mountain Revolver.
Switched to a 45 until I acquired a S & W M69.
Its only a 4" 5 shot but I feel confident in it doing its job.
And yes,I practice with a speed loader often.

[dilleytech]

9mm is a tale of two guns, self defense hollow points behave like a completely different projectile compared with fmj.  The latter has proven almost useless for self defense and the former has worked well.

That said, I don't carry it for anything other than people.

Personally, I've never understood the alternating round idea, especially with FMJ.  I can't think of a situation where 9mm FMJ would be the best solution other than making holes in paper with factory ammo for the least cost possible.

Hollow point defensive rounds don’t penetrate well enough to take frontal animal shots. Personally if I’m shooting a charging bear penetration it everything and fmjs would be much better then your typical hollow points. All though I wouldn’t be loading cheap slow plinking fmj’s. I have a buddy that used to bear hunt with hounds he shot a bear at point blank on the head with his 10mm hollow points and they just pancaked with zero penetration. His Buffalo bores left softball sized holes.

[Platensek-po]

Anybody reload hardcast bullets for woods defense? If so what bullets do you recommend? I buy my self defense rounds for 2 legged animals purely for legal reasons but I figure for woods defense I can roll my own. Any suggestions would be great!

[KFhunter]

The one caveat to BFR's is that when the bear is on you trying to pop your skull like a ripe grape, you can jam that big old nasty revolver right up in their guts and get one trigger pull just as the light begins to shrink down into a smaller and smaller tunnel then blinks out

maybe you wake up, maybe you don't!   





The revolver won't go out of battery when you press the muzzle up into their guts

[Stein]

9mm is a tale of two guns, self defense hollow points behave like a completely different projectile compared with fmj.  The latter has proven almost useless for self defense and the former has worked well.

That said, I don't carry it for anything other than people.

Personally, I've never understood the alternating round idea, especially with FMJ.  I can't think of a situation where 9mm FMJ would be the best solution other than making holes in paper with factory ammo for the least cost possible.

Hollow point defensive rounds don’t penetrate well enough to take frontal animal shots. Personally if I’m shooting a charging bear penetration it everything and fmjs would be much better then your typical hollow points. All though I wouldn’t be loading cheap slow plinking fmj’s. I have a buddy that used to bear hunt with hounds he shot a bear at point blank on the head with his 10mm hollow points and they just pancaked with zero penetration. His Buffalo bores left softball sized holes.

9mm FMJ doesn't stop people, I certainly wouldn't trust it on bears.  There are tons of stores in Vietnam where they couldn't use hollow points and they would spray a handful into a guy and he would pop up and keep shooting back.  Hollow point works like a different beast in people. 

For bears, hard cast would be my choice.  Alternating bullets guarantees 50% of the time you have the wrong tool in a situation where you are lucky to get one shot.

[BLDtraLR]

I'll chime in on this one.  I currently carry a glock 20 10mm with 220 grain buffalo bore, I used to carry a .40 Springfield with 165 grain.   Summer of 2019 out hiking with the pack goats I had a l good sized boar stalk us, then charge.  1 warning shot, then 6 successive rounds to stop the bear (which finally rolled at 8 yards).  I would guess I hit it 3-4x of the 6 shots I fired inside of 15 yards, it is harder than most people realize to deliver well placed shots from a sidearm at a charging bear.  The .40 stopped an attack and did eventually knocked the bear down, but the bear did get up and limp away after rolling down the very steep hillside we were on.  I promptly switched to a 10 mm after the incident.  Personally I found the semi auto to be ideal for firing successive rounds in a short time, getting back on target quickly with each shot.  A large revolver would have been emptied too quickly and been longer to re acquire the target with a lot more recoil, however the .40 certainly seemed to light. Best bet is to carry something you can shoot well and have some practice with.  I have always carried the sidearm mainly for the cats, but to date I have not had a cat mess with the goats in the backcountry.

To a tee     I carry the same glock but with Underwood 200 hard cast and they shoot just fine with a stock barrel check your 220 buffalo bore i found as did Hickok45 on youtube he is awesome and has alot of good vids on there That some of the rounds like to tumble with the stock barrel not taking that chance in a pinch. No problems with the underwood.  So here is a thing we do and i would recommend it for some GREAT REAL life practice, Think the guys on eastman did it also.  Take a walk down a trail and have your buddy roll a tire down the hill at you whithout knowing where he is. See how many times you actually hit the tire before it's on you. First time i was lucky to even hit it. Now that we have practiced it it's getting better maybe 5-7 out of 10-15 rounds sometimes better and it's alot of fun.It is also highly recommended to put a ghost site on your gun much more easy to get back on target and hit center mass. Just my     

[Dan-o]

I'll chime in on this one.  I currently carry a glock 20 10mm with 220 grain buffalo bore, I used to carry a .40 Springfield with 165 grain.   Summer of 2019 out hiking with the pack goats I had a l good sized boar stalk us, then charge.  1 warning shot, then 6 successive rounds to stop the bear (which finally rolled at 8 yards).  I would guess I hit it 3-4x of the 6 shots I fired inside of 15 yards, it is harder than most people realize to deliver well placed shots from a sidearm at a charging bear.  The .40 stopped an attack and did eventually knocked the bear down, but the bear did get up and limp away after rolling down the very steep hillside we were on.  I promptly switched to a 10 mm after the incident.  Personally I found the semi auto to be ideal for firing successive rounds in a short time, getting back on target quickly with each shot.  A large revolver would have been emptied too quickly and been longer to re acquire the target with a lot more recoil, however the .40 certainly seemed to light. Best bet is to carry something you can shoot well and have some practice with.  I have always carried the sidearm mainly for the cats, but to date I have not had a cat mess with the goats in the backcountry.

To a tee     I carry the same glock but with Underwood 200 hard cast and they shoot just fine with a stock barrel check your 220 buffalo bore i found as did Hickok45 on youtube he is awesome and has alot of good vids on there That some of the rounds like to tumble with the stock barrel not taking that chance in a pinch. No problems with the underwood.  So here is a thing we do and i would recommend it for some GREAT REAL life practice, Think the guys on eastman did it also.  Take a walk down a trail and have your buddy roll a tire down the hill at you whithout knowing where he is. See how many times you actually hit the tire before it's on you. First time i was lucky to even hit it. Now that we have practiced it it's getting better maybe 5-7 out of 10-15 rounds sometimes better and it's alot of fun.It is also highly recommended to put a ghost site on your gun much more easy to get back on target and hit center mass. Just my     

Glock 20 with Underwood Hardcast here as well.

May I never need to use it!

[BLDtraLR]

I'll chime in on this one.  I currently carry a glock 20 10mm with 220 grain buffalo bore, I used to carry a .40 Springfield with 165 grain.   Summer of 2019 out hiking with the pack goats I had a l good sized boar stalk us, then charge.  1 warning shot, then 6 successive rounds to stop the bear (which finally rolled at 8 yards).  I would guess I hit it 3-4x of the 6 shots I fired inside of 15 yards, it is harder than most people realize to deliver well placed shots from a sidearm at a charging bear.  The .40 stopped an attack and did eventually knocked the bear down, but the bear did get up and limp away after rolling down the very steep hillside we were on.  I promptly switched to a 10 mm after the incident.  Personally I found the semi auto to be ideal for firing successive rounds in a short time, getting back on target quickly with each shot.  A large revolver would have been emptied too quickly and been longer to re acquire the target with a lot more recoil, however the .40 certainly seemed to light. Best bet is to carry something you can shoot well and have some practice with.  I have always carried the sidearm mainly for the cats, but to date I have not had a cat mess with the goats in the backcountry.

To a tee     I carry the same glock but with Underwood 200 hard cast and they shoot just fine with a stock barrel check your 220 buffalo bore i found as did Hickok45 on youtube he is awesome and has alot of good vids on there That some of the rounds like to tumble with the stock barrel not taking that chance in a pinch. No problems with the underwood.  So here is a thing we do and i would recommend it for some GREAT REAL life practice, Think the guys on eastman did it also.  Take a walk down a trail and have your buddy roll a tire down the hill at you whithout knowing where he is. See how many times you actually hit the tire before it's on you. First time i was lucky to even hit it. Now that we have practiced it it's getting better maybe 5-7 out of 10-15 rounds sometimes better and it's alot of fun.It is also highly recommended to put a ghost site on your gun much more easy to get back on target and hit center mass. Just my     

Glock 20 with Underwood Hardcast here as well.

May I never need to use it!

    Saying we like to use    " Not sure why you wouldn't "