When a bear is charging you, your life literally depends on the decisions you made up to that point. Do you have the right equipment for the job and are you proficient with what you have chosen?
My name is Caleb Stillians and I have dealt with many bear encounters during my time as a professional hunter and guide in the state of Alaska. I have encountered various secondary weapons in the backcountry, from the 500 Smith & Wesson Magnum to the 460, .44 Magnum, the 10mm, and so on.
I am often asked, “What is the best handgun for bears?” My answer is simple: shoot-ability. The 500 and the 460 Smith & Wesson have a capacity of five rounds and weigh in at 3 1/2 pounds, making them cumbersome to carry on your chest or hip. A handgun that slows you way down when Hunting sucks, and when you get tired of carrying it and then put in your pack what good is it then?
The recoil is manageable, but you won’t get fast follow-up shots because the gun will rise off target every time you pull the trigger.
Typically, most people are not sufficiently trained with a handgun and they will rush and shoot too soon and miss their 1st shot. If the bear then runs away that is a win! However, if that bear stays committed to its charge you may be in trouble. The revolver will make follow-up shots difficult, as there is little time for a follow-up shot before the bear reaches you, given their ability to charge up to 35 mph.
Let’s face it, the overwhelming majority of bear encounters involve bears that don’t want to eat you; they just need an attitude adjustment. Another problem with revolvers is their limited round capacity. Most of the time when I encounter a bear, I need to yell at it, shoot a few shots, and then the bear will be like, “screw this, I am going the other direction.” However, there’s always that 1% to 2% of bears that are not having it.
They are not bluffing, and the warning shots are not doing anything. If you are tied down with a 5 to 6-round capacity, you are limited in the chances you can utilize your handgun noise to scare the bear away, and that should be our goal.
If you shoot three warning shots and the bear, for whatever reason, decides to commit to the charge, now you only have two rounds. This, in my opinion, is the biggest problem with revolvers as a bear gun. You want 12-15 rounds so you have warning shots to scare the bear away before you have to escalate it to killing the bear.
These reasons are why I do not believe the 500 or the 460 is the ideal bear gun for secondary protection. I emphasize the importance of considering mobility and weight when hunting, as heavier firearms are less desirable to carry.
I also think that the .44 mag, although easier to manage, suffers from the same constraint of round capacity, limiting the user to 5 to 6 rounds.
I carry a modified Glock G20. Other great options are the Springfield XD-M® ELITE, and SIG P320-XTEN. I appreciate all of these because I can load them with 220-grain hard cast ammunition and they offer a 15-16 round capacity to handle bear encounters. I enjoy the comfort of knowing that I can fire off 3 to 5+ warning shots to try and scare the bear away, without running low on ammunition. If the bear decides to go ahead and charge, the 10mm has significantly lower recoil than the other options discussed, allowing me to put superior firepower downrange and hit the bear with more rounds, more quickly, and still have great bullet penetration.
I also like these 3 striker-fired 10mm’s because it is easy to practice dry fire drills. Dry fire practice involves ensuring your gun is clear and safe, with no ammo. You then manipulate the empty gun to get comfortable with manipulating the firearm.
I can not emphasize enough that hunters, hikers, and everyone in-between need to get in a minimal amount of dry fire practice to become minimally proficient with their weapon.
The 10mm, striker-fired guns are great options for this, as revolver guns are more challenging to train with and can potentially damage the firearm if dry-fired excessively.
How do I carry my handgun?
I believe the best way to carry whatever firearm you end up choosing is on your chest while in bear country. The reason for this is, that it’s always accessible and it will not get hung up on brush like carrying on the hip will.
I use the Kenai chest holster made by Gun Fighters Inc.
GunFighters is a USA-made product and is a veteran-owned and operated company, it is the superior product on the market for carrying your handgun in the wilderness.
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