this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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Seriously emptying an entire .357 revolver or .44 wouldn't help? What about hollow point bullets?
That's insaaaaneee
It entirely depends on the bear species, but in general guns are a last resort defense against bears.
Primary defense is avoidance and making it so they can avoid you. A bear will eat you, but is unlikely to hunt you. For most bears we're an unknown quantity so they'll avoid us, since other food is reasonably available with less risk.
A bear has heavy fur, thick skin for storing winter fat deposits, and dense bones. While bullets will injure the bear and perhaps even kill it, it won't be enough to save you.
Much like how hitting someone on the head with a glass bottle will hurt them, almost certainly injure them, and potentially kill them, the type of injury is likely to be a fractured skull or brain bleed. Extremely serious and deadly, but they have minutes of functionality and hours of bewildered stumbling before they black out.
So it'll likely die... Later. For now you have a scared, confused and pissed off bear.
I believe hollow points have less penetration power, so it might not even get through the hide. Other bullets will get through fine, but are unlikely to stop the bear dead.
Woah. I must ask further in my quest to understand last resort bear encounter gun tips. What about an .45 calibred pistol with an magazine alternating between normal and hollow points? I get the skull take, even some fighting dogs are immune to 9mm skull shots. I don't live in America, don't own a gun but know a lot about guns, just very interested in this topic
.44 magnum is barely on par with an intermediate rifle round like 5.56 against large game. And that's before considering the massively lower felt recoil or the fact that a rifle is much easier to aim
So .500 blackout?
I carry a .45-70 rifle with me when I'm up north. The high powered rounds I have for bears will also fell an elephant. (In theory. I really don't want to find out.)
I haven't heard of .500 blackout before, and google gives conflicting info on whether it's "necked down .338 lapua magnum" or "like .510 whisper"
polar bears have historically been felled with "panicked shooting with ar-15", and the "standard recommendation" seems to be "magnum rifle round"
Dude, you're not killing a bear with a handgun before it eats you.
Your question is 100% valid.
All these people piling on you claiming a bear will just shrug off having a hand gun emptied into it. That just sounds like bullshit to me, they aren't robots... Bullets aren't pellets that shit will penetrate and any species with a survival instinct will back up.
I simply cannot believe what people are saying? Is there any proof or is it all just made up speculation people make by extrapolating size and injuries caused by bullets?
Angry humans can take several 9mm rounds to the abdomen and continue to advance.
Bullets also aren't magical death pellets. A bear has about 20 inches of hair, skin, fat, and muscle to get through before organ damage, assuming you miss a bone.
A bear that hasn't committed to an attack is entirely likely to decide "fight" isn't worth it after the equivalent of getting stabbed in the shoulder by a screwdriver.
If it's already decided that violence is the right way to handle the "you" threat it may continue to attack until it cannot. Then it becomes relevant that many guns don't have the power to disable a beat before it gets to you and does serious damage. The bear dying in 30 seconds doesn't help you if it's last act is to break your arm, and put a two inch deep slash in the side of your neck. The goal isn't to kill the bear, the goal is to keep it from attacking you. That requires a lot more gun, since the near can move and attack very fast.
This is also deep in the realm of "what if". Most bear encounters involving a firearm resolve successfully without even shooting the bear. They don't like loud noises and will run from basically anything. The most encountered bears will usually run from shouting and waving your arms.
But if you're looking to get a gun for bear defense, you need to consider that they're extremely durable critters, and to cover what can happen probably requires more than most handguns can deliver.
Avoidance is a better first defense, followed by pepper spray.