You don't say where you live. How often do people in your neck of the woods have to take a shot at a bear? If you're just risk managing the worst case scenario (there are bear in the bootheel, but the last one around here got hit with a car, and some people have said it may have been killed a couple counties away and drug onto the highway at night. It's not something we worry about), I'd stick with the 642 and buy some Hornady Critical Duty or Critical Defense. If people take a shot at a bear more often than, say, once or twice a year, I'd step it up . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .