slugs or buckshot for bear or hog?

old fart

New member
i just bought a pardner protector, and will be using it for home defense as well as a camping (hiking) gun. what would be the best for it in case i run up on a bear that decides to take me out? i'm gonna load buck shot for the home but don't know which would be best for bear. i live in kentucky and coyoties will be my major threat but those black bears sightings are starting to happen more often as well as wild hogs, so i waNT TO BE PREPARED. thanks
 
either would be fine, although i would keep a few slugs handy. I dont think you are in much danger here in ky though.
 
i do believe coyoties will be my main threat but you never know, i didn't even know wild hogs were near me till this last deer season. a guy just 15 miles from my home was deer hunting and was forced to kill one that charged him. it weighed 394lbs, now thats pretty big for a hog in kentucky and i thought they were only in the east.
 
If the bear is supposed to have a bad day you load with slugs. If you want you and the bear to have a bad day use buckshot.
 
"If the bear is supposed to have a bad day you load with slugs. If you want you and the bear to have a bad day use buckshot."

LMFAO
 
Quite a few threads on this issue here and other places. Buckshot lacks penetration, sectional density and is essentially equal to a .380 shooting nine shots all at once. If that is what you want against a bear, go for it, but not my cup of tea so to say. Slugs all the way.
 
I don't care what anyone tells you buckshot will not work effectively on bear. Period. I have personal experience with this. I (in my less experienced days) have personally shot a 300 lbs black bear in the vitals from 25 yards with 3" mag hardened 00 buck and it didn't even phase him. Absolutely use slug. And not all slugs are created equal either. The cheap federal or remington expanding slugs you buy from your local gun shop for deer hunting are nowhere near the level of effective as brenneke black magic magnums.
 
Last edited:
First one 00 the rest slugs. Better to hit with 00 than miss with a slug. This was the configuration I used as a salmon fishing guide in Alaska. Sometimes a double 10ga with 1 of each.

Also carried .44 with the front sights filed off.
 
...or bear pepper spray. There's an old thread somewhere on here where we talked about bears and slugs vs bear specific pepper spray. Yes it's dog the bounty hunter cannister style mace.

Depends if you're hunting, or defense :)
 
sluuuugs! sure 00 has 9 pellets but whose to say all of those are gonna hit the bear depending on how far away your shooting from and they dont have the penetration youll need for a tough skinned bear imho
 
Now I of course will agree slugs are best for the bear, but cmon guys some of you are making it seem like 00 Buck is basically throwing a rock at the bear.

My Mossberg 930SPX is modified to be NJ legal, so instead of the factory +3 Choate extension it has a +1 on it, making it 5+1 instead of 7+1. I almost always have it loaded with Hornady TAP FPD 2 3/4" 00 Buck. I *AGREE* I would be better hitting a bear with a slug than a round of 00 Buck, however, I am REALLY Confident that if I shoot the bear with 6 rounds of Hornady TAP FPD 00 Buck it's going to at the very least stop and most likely die in its tracks.

Also, I do agree, if you shoot the slug and MISS you not only are in big trouble, you might have to deal with the ramifications of where and what that slug did, if u live the encouter with the bear.
 
Back
Top