Folks.
I see where some of you are coming from but, please lets reign in the judgements on my instructor's intellect. I can assure each and every one of you that he is not an idiot.
Far from it.
His general point was that in the event of a bear attack I would have very little time to react (something already concurred in this thread), and that I would need to be lucky to hit much in that time and under duress, (something else that has been confirmed in this thread). So anything that could increase the chances of two hits as opposed to one, with faster follow ups would probably increase chances of survival. He also said that if you hit a bear he'd likely feel nothing if in a red mist (something else again agreed on), so you had to hope for a critical hit: once more the chances increase if you can get more than one shot of.
So all in all, he was pretty much saying what has been said on here: hope for a critical hit, but ultimately don't count on a handgun. The only difference is we seem to be mainly looking at .44 in terms of power, and he was looking at it in terms of rate of fire.
He saw me shooting my .44, and my follow-up shots were not fast.
Admittedly, this is only the second time I have shot magnums out of it. Other times it was only .44Spl.
I am virtually certain that I would be able to shoot a .45 3 or 4 times in the time I can shoot my .44 twice.
Still practice makes perfect, and I am still pleased I bought my Redhawk!!
I'll carry it, but with a can of spray, too