329 PD as a Bear Gun?

[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.