20ga Bear Defense While Upland or Waterfowl Hunting

[ctwiggs1]

I just can't imagine a scenario where I have time to take my 3 2shot rounds out of the shotgun and load bear defense ammo.

If you're that concerned, carry a handgun.  But to be honest... At point blank with modern loads I have a hard time believing 2 shot won't penetrate a black bear skull.

[asmith]

There is few concerns....
Most dedicated bird guns usually some kind of chokes in them.
Depends on the choke ,you most likely will not be able to shoot buckshot or slugs.

Shot placement....
If it was me ,right in the throat or neck. Your looking for vitals that the birdshot got can get to. That is about your only chance is in the throat.

Cut shells
Ever hear of a cut shell ,I'll see if I can find the video for ya.
Don't try this at home.

I used to do this while chukar hunting in California, in case I ran across a deer during season.  Never got to fire one at a deer, but I did fire a couple at a boulder to test it out.  Man is it LOUD when it hits.

[Goshawk]

Hello,

First time posting. I have scoured many forums about this, and there does not appear to be a reasonable solution for non-toxic ammo in 20ga that would work to defend against bears in this scenario “legally”. There are very niche manufacturers of “tin” rifled slugs, but they don’t come in 20ga. Steel 20ga (petal?) rounds must not be shot in choked barrels. Can’t legally hunt migratory birds/upland while in possession of lead ammo.

What I did was order 5x custom TSS rounds 20ga #BB 1-5/8 payload. I expect to never use them, but in addition to sometimes bear spray carried I wanted another option.Their cost shipped is $70/5 rnds, which is fine. In a 7lb. O/U I expect these rounds to take a chunk out of my shoulder.

At defensive range and within reason, what could I expect from this while choked at Improved Cylinder to Modified vs. bear face? I expect it to work for any other predator, but bear is the primary concern. I know its no slug but I imagine I can’t ask bears to be patient while I swap chokes.

Bear Spray.

[Kola16]

The OP is probably a new hunter and not from a state with bears. OR the OP is actually wanting to shoot a black bear if the OP stumbles upon one while duck hunting. Black bears are not a problem. The amount of black bear attacks in general is crazy low for the number of human to bear encounters there are. The amount of black bear attacks on duck hunters is zero, or as close to it as possible. Preparing for a black bear attack while duck hunting would be like wearing a seat belt while walking. It is unnecessary.

There was a grizzly bear attack while duck hunting in Alaska. It is the only bear attack I can find while duck hunting. So the odds are what, 1 in a trillion of getting attacked by a bear while duck hunting? In the Alaska case, the duck hunters shot the griz with 12 gauge 3" #4 steel shot. It was slowed by the 2nd shot and severely slowed by the 3rd shot. The friend then fired 3 more shots of 12 gauge 3.5" #4 steel and the bear went into a death roll on the ground. They then reloaded and fired many more shots...
The hunters say they carried slugs in case they encountered a rogue grizzly, but there was no time to grab them.

So in a self defense situation, any duck loads in the gun would work at close range.

If the OP is indeed wanting to shoot a bear while duck hunting given a chance, you have options, but using #BB TSS would be illegal since you need #1 buckshot or larger by law.