I go hiking in Alaska a couple times with a Super Redhawk on the chest but now I want the Glock 20.
My husband seems to believe he will get the non res wilderness permit for Canada (he did get a California concealed carry to my surprise) We had a home visit form the police and he took a poetry psychiatric test;)
The battle length requirement it just passes 4.1 (4.4?)
But the stack might be an issue.
Maybe paltry test?
I might recommend you hold the Springfield XD M along side the Glock. Most folks who do not have large or XL hands say the Glock is too large. The XDM seems to delight them however.
Doesn’t hurt to hold both.
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A full power 10 give good account of itself but you should not use HP ammo. A solid flat point is best for killing anything larger then about 300 pound and the ability to break bone is important.
Any bullet through the vital organs of an animal will usually kill it (some time later after the shot) but the idea is to STOP it before it mauls or kills you. having a bear die 30 minutes after you do (or even 5 seconds) is of no value to the one trying to stop the bear.
Many if not most people do not fully understand how a “stopping round” really stops most attacks from animals. In a large majority of cases the thing that stops the attack is a broken spine or pelvis. A destroyed shoulder joint is great because after the supporting bone is destroyed the bullet does some damage to the lungs heart and liver. But those that just slam animals to the ground are shot in the front end (how all attacking animals come at you) and the bullet having gone through the hearts/lung area then travels full length and had power enough to break the spine, hip or pelvis. If you watch slo-mo videos of charges stopped, you’ll see it, once you know what to look for. The animals (Lion, Bear, Buffalo, Hippo or what-ever) falls first at the back end and you see the rear leg or legs go flat and the body slams down on it’s belly and chest before rolling. The reason is a bullet going through to break down the rear end and the rear end is giving about 80% of the power to the charge.
So straight line penetration with enough power to break a BIG bone after it’s gone 3-4 feet deep is the key. Going through the front results in death in 10-15 seconds but breaking the spine, hip or pelvis is what drops then in their tracks. Death is a few seconds later. Now, 10 seconds might seem short , unless you see what a big animal can do to you in 10 seconds. Stopping is the key, not simply killing.
In 357 Mag, 41 Mag 44 mag and the hot 45s, the best of the lot are the LBT style, cast hard and heavy for bore size bullets.
The bullet we had for the 357 was a 187 grain Gas Checked (gc) . the 41 was a 265 grain gc, the 44 was a 320 grain gc, the ones we made from the hot 45 Colts (Rugers only) were 325 plain base and the 335 gad checked, and the big boy was the 370 gc for the 454 Casull. The 10 MM seem to be at it’s best with bullet of 180 to 200 grain. It is a bit more powerful then the best of the 357s and about at the level where the 41 magnum hand-loads start. So as compared to the 41, 44 and hot 45s there is no argument the 10MM is not as powerful. But it’s still quite powerful and it’s claim to fame is the lack of recoil it produces at that level of power, and the fact that the auto pistols hold over 2X the ammo of a revolver. I say it’s on the low end of the list of Bear/Elk/Moose/ horse and cattle killers, but it IS on the list. All more powerful rounds go into guns with far less capacity and far more recoil.
So as a balance of user friendliness and a useful level of power it’s probably one of the best options out there ----- especially for those that do not have many years of experience shooting thousands of rounds from heavy caliber revolvers.
I do not own one, but I do have a high degree of respect for them.
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As an important side note:
The down side to all autos is they do have some limitations as to bullet shape (so they can still feed reliably) and you can’t simply use heavier and heavier bullets because being magazine fed you can’t go any longer with the loaded round that will fit into the mag and if you go too deep into the case you get a bulge around the middle of the shell case which also causes reliability issue. If getting a 10MM ALWAYS check the load you want use for reliability. No auto pistol is OK (in my opinion) until it has fired at lest 400 rounds of it’s ammo with ZERO malfunctions.
A revolver will fire anything that will fit in it’s chambers and not stick out the front of the cylinder face.
Autos need to feed from the mag.
Check feeding by firing, before you bet your life on one.
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Thanks for that 
I will
My brother (agent) is taking me to some good stores in Virginia so I’ll have the opportunity I hope.
Have any thoughts on the Sig Sauer P365 on reliability? (I know it’s not a bear gun) I have a new one that I’ve never had the chance to shoot but I heard some people had some issues in the first hundred rounds or so.
There are some really big hand gun calibers now. .454 Casull and up.
For bear with humps, Marlin Guide Gun in .45/70. Now it is possible to buy 4 grades of ammo right off the shelf. No hand loading is required. People commonly use them in Africa to hunt dangerous game.
I am telling you for real, when you run into the coastal brown bears in the thick alders or Wyo grizz, you do not want a pistol. I carried a .44 mag the first time out and quickly gave up on the idea after that.
I can tell you for real I can not hike where we go with a Marine twenty years younger and carry a long gun.
Lyons being a treat is very rare but it does happen now and then.
The Sig 365 is a gun that had a series of early problems but from what I am told they have all been ironed out now.
Personably I have only a little time with one and so my opinion is not well qualified.
They are small and compact and that leads toa sharper recoil, but overall they seem to be good now. I would stay away from the early ones unless you get a very good deal and even then it may be a good idea to return it to SIG for their upgrades.
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Yes it was one of the first out.
One complaint was about it “going off” id dropped Sig addresses that issue and so making a phone call to them to ask if they have an upgrade is a good idea.
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Thanks, I figured you would know what was going on.
On the GLock 20, I will just buy Buffalo Bore hard cast in the caliber I need.
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Excellent choice,
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I feel the Redhawk is good if I got knocked down but it just does not have enough rounds. I prefer my husband carries something and right now he doesn’t because he does not worry about bears.
I had a mountain lion following me once at Lake O’Neil running around the lake. It’s in California on Camp Pendleton. The Marines saw it stalking them when they reviewed the night vision training, very creepy.
I remember when that woman was attacked on her mountain bike and lost half her face.
some people would do well to take this subject a little more seriously.
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If you yammering about the last post, why not relax. That was intended as a direct message to another member about training tools. I typically prefer to pass such info by personal email to avoid disturbing people with sensitive dispositions. I dont have that member’s personal email. Sincerely sorry to trigger you.
Not triggered. Just tired of people assuming that black bears run the other way.
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Gotcha. Never know when an animal had a bad experience with another human. A tupically docile bear could start off with an attitude by something you inadvertently did. @szihn pointed out that gunshots may be a signal that a meal is close at hand. If you happen to come across a hungry bear eating a fortuitous carcass, it’ll automatically degend the catch with the same determination that it protects its cubs.
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