Quote:
Originally Posted by Wetwork
10mm Glock seems to be the hands down winner in the Alaska/Montana "Oh crap a charging brown bear?" Not the 9's or 44'mags. Seems many hard, fast hits on critter is king. Google is your friend.-WW
ps. Humans aren't bears.
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While my activities in this regard have slowed markedly in the last ten years, I spent a good 30+ years actively hunting big game at just about every opportunity. My wife complained I "wasted" far too much of my vacation and free time in this pursuit, but that's another discussion.
In that time, I managed to hunt quite a few western states (including Alaska and Montana on many occasions). I often hired guides for my out of state forays, splitting costs with my hunting partners. We never once met a guide, or anyone on his staff (cooks, horse wranglers, general camp chore personnel, etc.), who carried a semi auto pistol of any kind. Not once. Ever. Big bore revolvers, at least in my first hand observations over the years, absolutely rule this roost.
One of their seldom discussed, but key attributes that professional guides value is their reliability under the adverse conditions encountered on extended stays in the wilderness. The guides I've hunted with just don't trust semi autos under those conditions, regardless of how "good" modern pistols have become. Coastal Alaska with its constantly wet, salt air environment, bone chilling cold and snow in Montana - both can and will interfere with the function of a semi auto before they will affect a revolver.
Then, of course, there is always the "power" available in a big bore revolver. We are looking for a different kind of "power" in this application. Penetration is the only thing that matters - forget expansion, velocity, "shocking power", or any of that. Penetration. Period. If it won't get through their thick skulls, if it won't go deep enough to get to the vitals, it simply doesn't matter how "hard" or how "fast" you hit them. Superficial surface wounds won't stop them, no matter how many you can inflict. Penetration. Did I mention penetration?
The only way we achieve sufficient penetration in handguns is through tough bullets that are very heavy for caliber. The guides I hunted with all liked 300 to 320 grain bullets in their .44's, 300 to 350 grains in their .45's. No semi auto in this range of bore sizes will handle that kind of bullet weight. That in and of itself rules them out for these guys. Add in the other factors mentioned above and, well, like I said - I never met anyone in one of our hunting camps armed with any kind of semi auto.