Is the 10mm enough for a bear gun???

Does the 10mm have enough power to kill a bear before it kills you?

  • 10mm is effective on a bear

    Votes: 65 62.5%

  • 10mm is not effective on a bear

    Votes: 39 37.5%
  • Total voters
    104
Here is a link I got from google...

http://www.thepersonalsurvivor.com/bepesp.html

It is a form a pepper spray, or Oleoresin Capsicum which is the chemical that makes Habbenero peppers so hot. Sorry for the bad spelling... Only difference is it is distilled and made super concentrated. Usually suspended in some sort of propellant, like alcohol or water. when used properly it will cause burning to the eyes and nasal areas thus causing disorientation of the target. Generally speaking, it will cause an animal to flee when the flight instinct kicks in. In humans it causes then to stop what they were doing, grab their face and drop to their knees. I don't care how big you are, it will drop you! There is very few documented cases of anything animal or human building a tolerance to it.

It just works, period!

I have never used bear spray and don't know what the differences are, but I have used several types of spray for humans and they are all 100% affective. We used foggers, sprays, high pressure sprays, and water cannons with 50-50 mix with water. Man, I love the water cannon! The foggers were alcohol based and they should never be used inside near a flame....I've seen what that does and it is not pretty, but the foggers are very affective, probably the most because the alcohol hold the OC on the target and magnifies the affect.

Again on a bear it may be different and I would do some research on the web first before buying one.

Hope this helps....

Mel:cool:
 
Thanks for the link I stand corrected.Give me the Bear spray and the 500 S&W,just in case its windy in the wrong direction.
 
I saw a TV show last week that was about bear attacks. They showed a big momma charging a camara man in a boat. It is hard to believe how fast they are. Don't worry the bear stopped its charge just short of his boat. I bet he had to change his shorts though.;)
 
ibe4buckshot

Is the 10mm enough for a bear gun???
Does it have enough power to kill say a black bear or grizzly?
My dad caries a .44 magnum when we go hunting in colorado. I would rather carry a glock in 10mm than a large frame revolver. Would the 10mm do the trick for me.
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You ask two different questions.
My answer to the first is no.
My answer to the second is yes.

Since your poll only allows one answer, I answered NO.

Even a 22 rimfire can kill a grizzly, but I would not go looking to hunt one with a 22. I may be overly cautious, but I would not want to face a grizzly with a 44 magnum loaded with hard cast 260gr bullets with a muzzle velocity of 1300fps. Even a 454 Casull with 300gr bullets at 1500fps would make me uneasy.
A 600 pound grizzly is a different proposition from a 300 pound black bear.

You might consider a Marlin lever action 18.5 inch barrel in 45/70 or 450 Marlin that throws a 400gr bullet in the 1900fps range; only weighs seven pounds.
 
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I would not hunt bear with a 10mm, but to carry as a last ditch self defense gun I would much prefer it to a 44 revolver. As others have said, bear spray would be my first attempt, but the Glock 20 would be in the other hand.

With 200 gr hardcast Doubletap ammo you are going to get just as much, if not more, penetration with the 10mm as a 44. The gun is much smaller and carryable, is more accurate in rapid fire and is better suited for outdoors carry. Much less to go wrong with a Glock. It is more likely to work when needed.

A lot of people do not think the 6 shots vs 16 shots is a concern. Me, well I do not plan to stop shooting just because a bear may be chewing on me.

It also depends on the threat level. If I am in an area where the odds of an encounter are small I would be more likely to feel confident with a handgun. The greater the odds of an encouonter the more likely I would be to insist on a shotgun with slugs, or a rifle powerful enough for the species of bear in the area.
 
go with the 44 anyday, i live in alaska and see bears all the time...even get um in the yard a few times a year..and iv seen how wicked fast and adgile(?)they are and trust me ud b luky to get off 6 shots if u gota bear comin at u let alone 16 but if ur serius about it go buy a mossy 500 w/ a pistolgrip and go slug 00buck alternated but most of all its SHOT PLACMENT dont panic every bear ive ever shot has died within 30yards even with my bow but ive also seen a bear hit pretty good at 20yards with a 45lc and keep munchin on my bait than walked away and we never found him.....my 2cents
 
Just a comment on using 00 buck on bears or oak trees. Many years ago I found that firing a load of 12ga 00 buck into an oak tree had the buck shot just bounce off the tree. There is no sectional density to buckshot and very little penetration into hard objects like bone and muscle.
 
Does it have enough power to kill say a black bear or grizzly?

Black bear, yes.

For a griz, I'd want a grenade launcher. In my book, even .44 mags seem way too light for those monsters. :eek:
 
Another bear thread. Folks can use the search function and find 100 of 'em.

Let's see...

Does it have enough power to kill say a black bear or grizzly? My dad caries a .44 magnum when we go hunting in colorado. I would rather carry a glock in 10mm than a large frame revolver. Would the 10mm do the trick for me.
Click to expand...

So you are going hunting. You don't say what you are going hunting for or what your primary firearm is. Most any rifle that one would hunt deer with will be better defense against a bear than any handgun, this includes the 30-30. If you are going hunting than the primary weapon will be the first to be called on as bear defense, unless you are hunting rabbit.

Many handgun rounds can be called on to hunt bear. Hunting bear and defending yourself against bear attacks are two different things though. In the former you have ample time to take a well aimed shot. For the latter take the most powerful caliber that you can handle well in a gun you handle well. Should a bear charge you of a sudden you will have time for only a few rounds fired at a fast moving target. Some practice doing that helps.

More folks die each year from attacks by dogs than bear attacks. More folks die from bee stings, deer and snake bite than bear attacks. But if you want to worry about bear go right ahead. It helps to study on them some.

tipoc
 
Blacks yes Grizzly and Coastal Browns no it is not enough. Having spent a ton of time on the rivers in AK with the big browns i would not feel safe with a 10mm. To much bear to stop. i carry a .454 and that may be to small
 
People have a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the 10mm. I think a lot of the is what went around, that the 10mm was the same as a 41 mag. Well, it isn't even close. The 10mm is about the same as a 41 mag police load. That load was a 210gr bullet at 1150fps, which is running that round to 2/3rd to 3/4 throttle. The 10mm with a 200gr bullet at top speed is close to that, but still falls short.

I shoot a 357 mag with a 173 grain hard cast bullet at about 1350fps. I would not be afraid to hunt medium black bear with that load. Griz and the others NO WAY! The full power 10mm is roughly equivalent to that 357 load except the 357 will cut a smaller channel deeper than the 10mm.

Now note I said hunt, meaning that I have time to pick and place my shots. When something wants to either eat me or make me look like I went through a Ronco vegetable chopper, no I want bigger than that.
 
I didn't vote; I think it depends on the bear. 10mm might stop a blackbear if the ammo is hardcast and the barrel isn't too short. If we're talking about brownbears, I'd only take 10mm if that's all I had handy, then I'd buy something bigger when I got home.

The high ammo capacity of an automatic doesn't mean much considering most charges happen too fast to even get off a single shot.

As a general backcountry gun, I think 10mm is fine. Autos are pretty light, and the caliber is plenty powerful for threats you're more likely to face.
 
People have a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the 10mm. I think a lot of the is what went around, that the 10mm was the same as a 41 mag.
Click to expand...
Correct. What started this was the fact that the 10mm SilverTip loading from Winchester slightly exceeds the ballistics for the .41 Mag SilverTip loading. It's an interesting bit of trivia, but ignores the fact that the Winchester's .41Mag SilverTip loading is definitely on the light side of the spectrum for .41 Mag.

A better comparison is between the 10mm and the .357Mag. Other than bullet diameter, they are very close in performance by just about any measure you care to use. .41 Mag easily outperforms both even in midrange loadings.
 
wackadoos

The 10mm cartridge, properly loaded, is adequate for black bear.

The 44 Magnum, properly loaded, is the bare minimum for grizzly defense.



ps: a 340g .430" projectile offers more potential hole-length than a 220/230g .400" projectile, unless it's fired from a rail gun
 
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