^^^ _cy_, that is a very interesting jacket configuration on the JHP rounds. I don't recognize the load. Can you please share the ammunition specifics?
Back in '85 I bought one of the Lew Horton 624s, an N-frame 44 Special with a 3" barrel and so-called combat grips. I loaded some nice lead-bullet loads for it and put a couple hundred rounds through it, then cleaned it and stuck it in my desk drawer......for 25 years! I loaded it with those 200 grain Silvertip factory loads. It did defensive duty in my office for all those years, never having to be used, fortunately. Then one day I was at a gun show and discovered what they were asking for those things these days! I decided to retire it, took it to the range and shot the old ammo, then brought it home found the original box with tools and even a special holster that it came with, cleaned it up and put it away. It's a safe-queen now. The decades old Silvertip ammo worked great after all those years!
Box it came in said, Federal 158gr lead semi-wadcutter 357C. have not been able to find any more. very close to Gold Dot .357 158gr. have only practiced enough with this round to establish point of impact is close enough to practice rounds. needless to say, recoil is fierce shooting out of an 11oz revolver. while not fierce as some folks rant with bleeding hands, etc. if you don't put in range time on a regular basis. you will have trouble with control. would not want to hunt bear with .357. but would be confident using a .357 for self defense against a bear or other predator.
B.C. man kills grizzly that attacked him Hunter set upon by bear that knocked him down and crushed his jaw http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/09/24/bc-grizzly-attack-fort-nelson.html Posted: Sep 24, 2012 4:41 PM PT Last Updated: Sep 24, 2012 7:00 PM PT Conrad Boyes is recovering at home from a broken jaw and hand and arm injuries after he was attacked by a grizzly bear. (Submitted by Paul Alberts) ...what a bunch of posers, all jackin' off over your pistolas. You wanna know what it feels like? You gonna be safe with your little hand cannons? Run the video in the article, and listen to what it took, and then maybe put down the vaseline and stop pullin yourselves off over your 'hot hand-loads'. Two rounds from a 12 gauge at point blank, and the bear still had time to chew on him. :huh Pistols!,....for fuck sakes, give your heads a shake boys.
I'd still rather have a shotgun, but pistols/revolvers will absolutely get the job done. As with any firearm shot placement is most important (followed closely by penetration IMO). Any round that will fully penetrate through the torso of a bear will work, it's where it penetrates that really matters. The only way to reliably stop any mammal instantly is the brain stem, but that's small and may be relatively well armored on a bear so your best bet really is to make as many holes in the heart/vascular system as possible. Even then you're still talking seconds to minutes before the animal loses consciousness from low blood pressure.
In fall a bear will have 6 inches of fat on him and in extreme cases up to a foot on certain parts of his body. At best a shot gun slug will penetrate and do damage. A hand gun cartridge at best will penetrate the fur and hide and get lodged in the fat. All you have done now is piss him of. When I shot a bear in my tent years ago it took 15 plus rounds of a mine carbine round out of a rifle before he expired. The trophy black bear I shoot took 4 rounds of 30-6. One heart , one lung, a back and a neck shot. Till he expired. It was the neck shot that took him down.
Yeah, for such a large animal that you're most likely going to be shooting in a rural setting I'd be banking more towards +P+ fmj type stuff in a large caliber. Rifle & shotgun always beat handgun, but it's not always practical to carry one of those.
I watched a guy at a fish camp in Alaska skinning out the skull of a black bear that he shot nine times in the head with a .45 pistol. You could see where most of the bullets made a little red/black dent in the skull, but it was the last which went through an eye socket that apparently put him down. If a 250 lb black bear is that stubborn, I can imagine that a big griz would just laugh at a head shot with a pistol.
I listened to the video and it sounds like he probably had a sawed off shotgun, most likely semi-auto. It would have been hard to handle a pump with one arm and your chin in the bear's mouth, and forget a bolt gun. More recommendation for an auto 12 gauge or auto .300/.375.
Not that I have any experience with this subject but I would want a easy to carry (low weight) and something that has penetration such as .44 Mag. My personal short list is the S&W 329PD.
There was a guy in Alaska who shot a brown bear six times in the back of the head with full .44 mag loads (240 grain at the time) while it was attacking his fishing buddy, and every shot essentially bounced off the skull. The last place you want to shoot a large animal is in the head if all you had is a handgun. The place to shoot a brown bear that is charging is the front shoulders then the rear hips. If your shot penetrates well enough it may break the bones in the shoulder and hips, thereby making it hard for the bear to move forward. Then you go for a kill shot with the lungs/heart. If you go for the kill shot first then the bear may live long enough to kill you. That said, I spent some time in Alaska and Montana in areas where brown bears frequent (Kenai peninsula and GNP), and I never saw a single bear, much less had trouble with one. I saw plenty of sign, but no actual bears. On the Kenai I ran into a park service guy (and gal) and he was carrying a .458 Mag rifle. I was just carrying a .44 Mag handgun with 300 grain Barnes "bear loads" (1300 fps, heavy jacket JSP). More people are killed or injured by moose in Alaska than bear. A lot of people who live there have large dogs, many of them partially intended as protection from bears. So they go walking the dog in the bush and moose stomp on the dogs think they are wolves, and sometimes also stomp on the owners too. I doubt I will ever need a handgun for bear. I don't hunt predators, and the case where a bear attacks a human is just plain rare. Feral dogs yeah. Feral pigs - maybe (I would like to hunt feral pigs someday).
Good gun - I own one. I suggest you try one first - and without the wood grips (they come with rubber grips).
When I was in college I was home for a long weekend one fall and decided to try coyote hunting. I borrowed my dad's coyote call (sounded like a wounded/dying rabbit, supposedly) and a rifle and headed out to a remote area. I found a spot on a hillside with a big bush behind me, overlooking a large meadow area. I shoved myself back into the bush, facing outward, and began blowing the call. After about an hour of that I decided nothing was coming around, so I stood up to stretch my legs and move onto some other location, and heard a crashing bawling noise. It was a black bear that had snuck up behind the bush and was sniffing around about 20 feet behind me. I had not heard his approach. I don't know who was more frightened, I yelled and he took off. Damned glad that wasn't a griz. :huh