44mag or 45long colt min calibers

That front blade is hell on the hemorrhoids when that bear slaps that noise maker out of your hand and shoves it up your posterior! Nothing replaces a good rifle, even #6 bird shot in the face works great!!!

clay i want to kill the bear not make it mad, i would never use #6 bird shot, slugs maybe but not bird shot. it depends on what kind of bear you would run into, around my house where it is all black bear, i would use a good 357mag or a 12 ga with 00buck or slugs, if your talking grizleys i would want at the very least a 44mag, and if possable a good rifle.

It does seem that every bear guide or researcher I've seen carried a rifle. Almost all bolt guns too. If it were me, I'd have a big bore lever gun. A Remington 7600 woods carbine in .35 Whelen would be nice too. I'd still like to risk it with a revolver though.

The perfect Bear defense pistol for Black Bears of any size in my opinion would be the 480 Ruger with a 9.5" barrel loaded with the 425 Grain Wide Flat Nose Gas Check rounds offered by Grizzly Cartridge. You could shoot a Black Bear in the face with this and have the bullet come ripping through it's asshole. If that's not powerful enough for you, then you're by no means a man or in any condition mentally to be walking through the woods where there are critters such as the Great Bears. Don't listen to people who criticize a big revolver such as the one I mention as being un handy in a dangerous situation because of it's long barrel, I own one believe me, this is not true. If you were gooing to be in the woods with Brown Bears though, you are definitely going to want to be carrying a 45-70 levergun rather than a pistol. If you were going to be carrying a pistol though, it would be wise to step up to the 500 S&W loaded with the heaviest Wide Flat Nose solids available for the gun.

In Alaska I carried a S&W Model 629 44 mag with 8 3/8 inch barrel and felt undergunned. I went to a Model 660 Remington rifle in 350 rem mag. It is a lot of power in a small light rifle. Just sling it over the shoulder. It will kill any bear that walks.

There is no such thing as a "bear defense pistol".

Everyone will have a story told to them by the friend of a friend, who knew someone who's cousin killed a bear with a Davis .25 automatic.

But the only person I know who personally faced a bear (with witnesses) emptied a Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum at a range approaching point blank. It was a friend with a rifle who made the kill, while this man dropped the pistol and jumped off a tall rock.

It was not a very big bear either, but still a good story for him.

Why, oh why are you picking on a Davis .25? Everyone who is anyone carries a Davis! I am crying fitfully and writhing on the floor about what you have said to hurt the feeling of the poor little Davis! Oh how I love Davis, brave little aoutomatic who boldly gives it's life to save it's owner from grizzleys and other denizens of the forest. What a great gun for all to see!

yeah, make sure you have that front sight filed down smooth...wont hurt so much when the bear put it where the sun dont shine...

for bear protection, youll want a short-barreled 12 gauge shotgun with the biggest slugs it can handle...