12 Ga. slug for Bear?

[CorpsVet]

I never intend to shoot a bear, however in the past few years on the rare occasins I go deer hunting I use a .41 Mag. revolver. This past fall I saw some bear sign and I'm not sure the .41 would be sufficient to stop a bear if necessary.

I have a 12 Ga. rifled barrel slug gun and wondered if it would work to defend against a bear.

Thoughts?

 

[tRidiot]

If your shot placement is good, yeah, I would think so... but man, I hope I never have to find out. I'd like to shoot a bear some day, but not at slug gun range defensively.

 

[Okie4570]

Either will do the job, use whichever you're more proficient with. Personally I would carry my .41rm gladly over a 12g any day. Keep in mind if a bear were actually on you, you can still operate your pistol with one hand and be able to fire it point blank.

 

[CorpsVet]

Either will do the job, use whichever you're more proficient with. Personally I would carry my .41rm gladly over a 12g any day. Keep in mind if a bear were actually on you, you can still operate your pistol with one hand and be able to fire it point blank.

Iwould likely take both into the field, just have the slug gun for bear defense, just wondering

 

[swampratt]

Arrows kill bear all the time and have for decades.
I would think a bullet could do the same.
Very cool story with a lot of replies that you will enjoy reading.

Bella Twin and her 22 rifle 1953 world record grizzly bear kill.

https://www.ammoland.com/2014/11/wh...a-world-record-grizzly-in-1953/#axzz6jqVA9Ycr

 

[druryj]

Either will do the job, use whichever you're more proficient with. Personally I would carry my .41rm gladly over a 12g any day. Keep in mind if a bear were actually on you, you can still operate your pistol with one hand and be able to fire it point blank.

...as he's chewing your arm off.

 

[MacFromOK]

Yeah, I'd think 3" magnum slugs would be an adequate bear stopper.

12 gauge is approx 0.73" (18.5 mm), so a bit over .70 caliber.

 

[YetiSam]

I shot my black bears (in Alaska) with a 30-06 and a 450bm. 12 ga will do fine. All shots were sub-25 yards.

 

[Gunbuffer]

If you’re talking about black bear here in Oklahoma, a 9mm is just fine. You guys watched too much grizzly Adam’s 50 years ago

 

[Gunbuffer]

In oklahoma, we only have black bear, which are very much reclusive and not aggressive as they’re more herbivores and scavengers more than anything else. Nextly, the average size of our black bear here is probably no more than 120-140 pounds, so think pudgy 12 year old kid size.