Drop leg holsters will beat you to death unless they are strapped down so tight as to limit your mobility.
A good paddle holster mounted on your pack belt or clip on mounted on the shoulder straps is a much better option based on a good bit of experience with all of the above.
If a bear gets close enough that I have to shoot it the last thing Iâm going to throw at it is a rubber ball at any velocity.
Remember too that in a life and death situation the last thing youâd want besides not enough gun is too much. If you cantâ shoot it accurately, reliably, and quickly the bear is going to be using it for a toothpick when he gets through eating you.
I have yet to see anyone under about 275lbs that can handle anything bigger than a .44mag with bear loads in a practically sized defense model pistol and the long barreled hunting rigs are completely impractical for defense by a hiker/back packer in virtually all situations.
With the right bullets it would probably do better than you think. The .357 Sig is known for having excellent penetration characteristics.
When the Texas DPS was carrying them they recorded more one shot kills with the .357 Sig than any other caliber theyâd ever issued and they only carried it I think for something like 5 or 7 years. Iâve had that confirmed by three high ranking DPS officers and 2 DPS instructors. Several game wardens had equally positive reports on the Sig when used on big hogs.
I would want a hot deep penetrating JHP in it though rather than a standard defense load.
The rubber round is not welded there. The thought is the noise and pain could chase it without killing it.
A Smith & Wesson bear kit .500 has , I believe, a 2 1/2" barrel. My dose of reality would be this, if you didnât have time as an experienced shooter to fire 2 shots than you probably didn"t have time to dig it out of a back pack either.
A defensive handgun is pretty worthless in an emergency if you donât have instant access to it.
I would never bury a defensive weapon in known bear country in a pack. Nonlethal options are great for human threats, but if I am life threatened by a bear, I will do my best to put him down. I donât want to worry about him coming back at me while I reload my rubber bands or while I continue my journey. Besides, there wonât be deputies coming to pursue and take down and cuff the attacker to keep everyone safe from a marauding bear.
This would be why the bear kit is a belly bag. Or a least all that I have seen
Did you notice in the article how ineffective the nonlethal defenses were?
That would be why only the first round is rubber. And, as I said earlier it isnât welded there!
If you are reloading rubber rounds then you replaced the 4 hpâs completely changing the situation.
My point without the humor is that my first shot, which could be the only one I have time for, is going to be something solid, fmj not hp to penetrate. If the nonlethal does not stop the agressive charge, there very lilely wont be time for another round.
AnywayâŠIâve seen an agressive black bear charge. That was sufficient for me. I stay with my choice.
I am not a hunter. I would not know what drops large animals best. My point was that the rounds can be whatever you choose, but, I will stand by my choice of the Smith.
Bear Hand guns?
One question: why would anyone want to give a handgun to a Bear?? That doesnât sound right. 
Duh. We have the right to BEAR arms. Might as well make it a fair fight.
^^^ Just beautiful
Any bear that can run at me at 35 mph (=> 3000ft/min or 51 ft/sec) has got a free pass to not find me waiting around to see him go by. That said, if I had the (cough) âopportunityâ it would likely be one arm already in his mouth and me not caring if I hit my arm pulling the trigger, gun jammed into the fur under his tongue, with a serious prayer I was aiming at the bottom of his brain. Strikes me the scenario is an all or nothing event if you didnât see him earlier and were unable to bring a significant RIFLE to âbear.â
Well I decided what I want to get after going to Shooters Roundup. With my wifeâs problems with Sig and and all the best feeling 10mm I shot there was the Springfield 1911 TRP 10MM â RMR.
Which leaves the bad news. It was also one of the more expensive pistols with a MSRP north of $2k.
So for right now I purchased some
Fort Scott copper spun 9mm rounds to hold me over to use in my M&P 2.0 full size.
Check out these. Hard hitting for 9 mm, and geared for penetration.
