Many years ago, as a very young man just returned from my first all expenses paid vacation to sunny Southeast Asia, I decided to try bear hunting on lovely Fort Benning, Georgia. Having studied the subject a bit I proceeded to gather up some bait from local butcher shops, fruit and vegetable stands, etc, ending up with a couple of good sized sacks of rather smelly stuff that would properly be called garbage.
My hunting gun selection was a bit limited, but I had a Mossberg 20-gauge shotgun with adjustable choke that did fairly well with rifled slugs out to about 50 yards (which is usually a pretty long shot in those southern pine forests and swamps). I had taken a number of Georgia whitetail deer with that combination with no problems.
Having set out my bait I settled into ambush mode early one frosty morning. Sure enough, within a couple of hours a black bear obliged me with a visit to bait #1. I remember waiting patiently for several minutes until the old bear moved into what I thought to be the ideal position, offering me a clear heart-lung shot from about 20 yards range. I took the shot and the bear reacted immediately, rearing up and screaming, then rolling over several times and biting at his rib cage area. I chambered a second round and put another shot into the bear's chest, which resulted in little change in behavior. A third shot finally seemed to put the bear down, but he continued thrashing around on the ground. I decided to wait him out, hoping that he would bleed out quickly.
After about 10 minutes the thrashing stopped and the bear was lying still. With a fresh round chambered and the magazine topped off I approached from his rear and watched for a minute or two. The bear was still breathing and shuddered with each exhalation. I worked around to the side, about 3 yards from the head and carefully put one right behind the ear. The bear rolled over, thrashed up onto his feet, and ran about 20 feet right into a big old pine tree, collapsing in a heap. After about 10 minutes I walked over and prodded the still carcass with the barrel of my loaded shotgun. No response.
At that point I was rather delighted with myself. My little family would have at least 150 lbs. of meat in the freezer for the winter, and I would have a bear skin with full bragging rights!
I pulled out my knives and saw, then went to work. Let me first say to those who have never been around a bear in the wild, they stink to high heaven; a skunk has nothing to compete with the stench of an old bear that has been living on garbage, road kill, and gut piles during hunting season. I had just about decided against keeping the hide, just because of the terrible smell, when it was time to start recovering that meat for the freezer.
Bear meat is dark and musty smelling, and as greasy as a side of bacon ever thought of being. I cut, sawed, and hacked that carcass until everything that might be useful for consumption had been collected. Several trips to the car were required to carry out my winter's meat supply.
Spent much of that day butchering the big chunks into what I thought to be roasts, steaks, and other edible portions for the freezer. After the experience of dressing out and cutting up that nasty old critter I decided it would be best to wait a couple of weeks before having the first meal.
We decided to start out with a nice roast, done up in the pressure cooker with onions and spices, some mashed potatoes and pan gravy on the side. We could not finish that first meal. Bear meat has the most god-awful aftertaste, and that greasy quality makes it just linger in your gut and on your palate for hours.
I offered bear meat to everyone I knew, and lots of folks took home packages. When asked if they wanted any more they all politely declined.
I know that this thread is about self-defense against bears, specifically debating the use of the .40 S&W for that purpose. If anything, the bear in my story probably needed some means of self-defense against me. All I will add is that I will never willingly take another bear. I will do my best to leave them alone and hope they will return the courtesy.
If I ever have to defend myself against a bear I will do my best with what I have on hand, whether it is a .44 magnum or my Gerber pocket knife. While doing so I will remember a modest size black bear that took 4 rounds of rifled slugs from 20 yards or less and still had powerful life remaining in him.
