329 PD as a Bear Gun?

[44Steve]

Hi, Steve here . Own a 329 PD, She's a hard dog to keep under the porch. It is my carry and home defence gun.I allways take it with me on deeper woods walks. (Bears) Still looking for the most comfortable holster.It is a hand full to shoot magnums out of.But i am a glutton for punnishment. Mostly i shoot 44spl.out of it. .Am still working up magnum reloads ,even with the best crimps , she wants to start pulling bullets out of the crimps. It only weighs 26 oz. empty. I would recomend it to a regular magnum shooter. I love Mine.

 

[SuperMan]

I have two friends with the 329PD and I have a 357PD (.41 Magnum). The .41 is much more pleasant to shoot with loads designed for bear...as in penetrators.

Best penetrator loads for both guns are the CastCore from Federal. The .41 is 250 grains and the .44 300. Both are very soft shooting as the velocity is only about 1100 fps from a 4" barrel.

For two legged critters or softskinned 4 leggers, the Speer 200 grain Gold Dot HP .44 Magnum Short Barrel load is 1080 from a 4", real easy to manage and EXPANDS EVERY TIME because they use the .44 Special DEEP HP bullet.

As someone said before the Hogue grips for the 500 S&W X-Frame guns slip right on and are a big plus in handling recoil. The V rear and FO front are great for close up work...

Bob

 

[batmann]

I second NE450No2 choice of the MG and the Buffalo Bore load. The Mountain Gun offers the best compromise between weight and power IMHO. Coyotes or small Bears, load it with Buffalo Bore's 255 gr 'Heavy' .44 Spl and that should handle most of you neess. If you go where the big Bears are, load it with their 255 gr .44M load.

 

[R. G. Amos]

Nothing less than 454 Casul

 

[sonny]

For large brown bears there are those who believe a .357 is the ticket. Let him get close, shoot him in the head and hope for the best. A .357 solid has plenty of penetration. /QUOTE]

Years ago, I was in Great Northern Guns in Anchorage. They were selling .357 bullets (special-order) turned from solid brass for some fella who wanted penetration and no mushrooming.
Sonny

 

[sonny]

I think the issue is that there has been sprawl into their habitat and they have acclimated to humans ..... and in some ways lost their fear. .

Here in central Florida, I live in a residential community (subdivision) and we see coyotes strolling thru our backyards looking for snacks like little dogs. Saw 3 in a pack cross the road in front of me near one entrance to our community several wks ago. They do fear man, however, for the most part. Read one news article where a pack of coyotes took down a woman hiker in the boonies in Canada and snacked on her. Not a good thing. I always "carry" any time we go out for a walk...even without our subdivision...plenty off coyotes right here on the golf course.
Sonny

 

[dwrd960]

329pd stoppages or sticking

New to the forum. Just got a .44 mag 329pd and have been having problems with firing 300 and 340 grain ammo. The shells seem to mushroom inside the chamber after firing and are difficult to eject and sometimes cause stoppages. Is it the pistol or the ammo causing the problem? I have no "sticking" problems when shooting with 210 specials. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[dla]

New to the forum. Just got a .44 mag 329pd and have been having problems with firing 300 and 340 grain ammo. The shells seem to mushroom inside the chamber after firing and are difficult to eject and sometimes cause stoppages. Is it the pistol or the ammo causing the problem? I have no "sticking" problems when shooting with 210 specials. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

I've heard of this. I suspect that you are shooting some very stiff loads - loads that would have sticky case extraction from a steel cylinder. The titanium cylinder can be more sticky on hot loads.

I get just a hair of stickiness with top-end 240gr loads. It may help to make sure the cylinder is clean and dry. But otherwise you'll need to back off the loadings. Some ammo makers really push the cartridge to the limit, but I honestly don't believe an extra 100fps is worth the decrease in reliability.


329pd information

 

[akviper]

I like my 329 for backpacking and hiking. Our brown bears are second only to the Kodiaks in size so I usually pack a WWG 45/70 as well. I don't see the logic in packing a huge heavy revolver that weighs almost the same as my 45/70.

 

[AKAOV1MAN]

Just my .02: Bears, Cougars, Coyote, Wolf; I have taken them all. In 95 I got a bear peremit for AK, and got a really nice Brown Bear, after that I only refer to Mister Bear.
All of the above except bears die fairly easily Cougar (mountain kion) can easily be taken with a .22 if necessary. Coyote are smallish and a .22 or larger will do for them, although I have taken most of mine with a 30-30. Wolves I feel better with a 30-30 or shotgun W/slugs or buckshot.
Mister Bear is a very different situation. Obviously Black Bear do not need as much oomph as the Grizzley or Brownies. But all Bear have very hard heads, and their spinal cord is protected by heavy muscle and tissue.
When you talk Bear protection, you are talking about stopping a Bear not just killing him. For a bear attack, that is a charging Bear you need to get an effective central nervous system hit, that means brain pan or spinal hit.
First you have to be able to hit a very small spot(s) on a large animal (Brown/Grizz-very large) that is moving 20-30 mph toward you, and humping and swaying all over the place. Just a killing shot is not going to stop that animal, it must be precisely into the brain or spine, causing loss of motor control to the animal. Having the animal die a few minutes after he has claws on you is not sufficient.
Not only do you have to hit one of the two spots, your bullet must be able to penetrate to the right spot. This means a fast hard heavy slug, semi wadcutters seem to work better in handguns, and I favor a flat point for rifles and they seem to penetrate straighter and further.
I am not trying to scare anyone, my suggestion is that you do ANYTHING but face off against either species of Bear. If a Bear decides for any reason that he wants you, he is highly likely to be successful, there is always the chance that after a mauling a Bear might lose interest and leave, it has happened many times.
I am not so sure that "Bear spray" is not useful, it might confuse the Bear long enough for you to get away or place a number of killing/disabling shots.
Just my .02, I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Don't piss off any Bear, they can all get ugly rerally quickly.

 

[dla]

Just my .02: Bears, Cougars, Coyote, Wolf; I have taken them all. In 95 I got a bear peremit for AK, and got a really nice Brown Bear, after that I only refer to Mister Bear.
All of the above except bears die fairly easily Cougar (mountain kion) can easily be taken with a .22 if necessary. Coyote are smallish and a .22 or larger will do for them, although I have taken most of mine with a 30-30. Wolves I feel better with a 30-30 or shotgun W/slugs or buckshot.
Mister Bear is a very different situation. Obviously Black Bear do not need as much oomph as the Grizzley or Brownies. But all Bear have very hard heads, and their spinal cord is protected by heavy muscle and tissue.
When you talk Bear protection, you are talking about stopping a Bear not just killing him. For a bear attack, that is a charging Bear you need to get an effective central nervous system hit, that means brain pan or spinal hit.
First you have to be able to hit a very small spot(s) on a large animal (Brown/Grizz-very large) that is moving 20-30 mph toward you, and humping and swaying all over the place. Just a killing shot is not going to stop that animal, it must be precisely into the brain or spine, causing loss of motor control to the animal. Having the animal die a few minutes after he has claws on you is not sufficient.
Not only do you have to hit one of the two spots, your bullet must be able to penetrate to the right spot. This means a fast hard heavy slug, semi wadcutters seem to work better in handguns, and I favor a flat point for rifles and they seem to penetrate straighter and further.
I am not trying to scare anyone, my suggestion is that you do ANYTHING but face off against either species of Bear. If a Bear decides for any reason that he wants you, he is highly likely to be successful, there is always the chance that after a mauling a Bear might lose interest and leave, it has happened many times.
I am not so sure that "Bear spray" is not useful, it might confuse the Bear long enough for you to get away or place a number of killing/disabling shots.
Just my .02, I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Don't piss off any Bear, they can all get ugly rerally quickly.

No offense, but I totally disagree.

Bears do not come in one size, or attitude. We can all watch a nice video of a sow charge where the guide turned her around and off to die with chest lung hit. And we can watch another video of the hunters in the raft where a fellow turned the charging sow with shot in the water.

The worst case scenario might be a bruin that cannot be dissuaded by anything short of a CNS hit, but there will be lots of bears that give it up when shot elsewhere.

Understand that pepper spray does work, and it doesn't cause a CNS shutdown. It does cause enough unpleasantness that the Bear gives up. A firearm can do the same thing.

No, you don't have to use holy Garret Hammerheads to gain a Bear's cooperation. Yes, you actually have to hit the bear, and I've seen enough bad shooting to know that hitting something the size of a car is iffy for some folks.

A can of bear spray is 11oz and $50. A 329pd is 31oz and $900. The bear spray has better stop statistics. The choice is there for everyone to make - America is still fairly free after all.

 

[akviper]

Pepper spray is not 100% on bears or people. You also need the bear to charge from down wind and let him get within 20 feet before you can effectively engage it. Just something for the pepper spray advocates to think about. The much quoted stop statistic study covers USFS and USPS field teams that are rarely armed with anything but pepper spray. A very few are allowed twelve gauge shotgun or 30-06 rifles. Handguns are rarely allowed so I'm a bit inclined to suspect the validity of the famed pepper spray "study". Here in Alaska there are a few documented large bear stops using handguns every bear season. Most of the time, a warning shot will send a bear running. While not my first choice in a bear encounter a heavy load handgun will beat the heck out of teeth and fingernails.

I'm surprised no one mentioned the small aerial flares. They have been very successful in turning bears when fired at them. Unfortunately they have a few problems during the dry season.