Survival and Emergency Preparedness

I was sitting on my porch (at my house in the woods) last evening @ 8:30 pm when a rather large black bear walked by about 50 yards away. I see them on the trail cams all the time but that's only the second bear I've seen live on my property. I did happen to have a 9mm on me at the time. Tonight I'm sitting here with a 44 mag.

In the bear's defense, they are pretty skittish and avoid contact whenever possible.

Yep, that would give you pause to consider the caliber of the gun you had at the time.

One of the reasons I switched from carrying a 9mm to a 10mm on the AT trail in Va

Whatever makes you happy, but I have come to have a different perspective. I've yet to see the black bear that a 9mm ball round wouldn't through-and-through. And, personally, I can shoot a LOT of controlled and targeted 9mm rounds in the time it takes me to empty a 6-round cylinder of .44 Magnum.

I live in what's been called Bear Canyon since the Spanish Colonial days - I almost always carry a 9mm when hiking (and I'm up in the National Forest behind the house almost every day). But it's good you do what's right for you.

Changing from the 9mm to a 10mm was a good excuse to the bride...
really tho, fiq since they both had same capacity, if I hit with 1 or 2 on a moving target, I rather hit with the more powerful.
In my 5 encounters with black bears... 1 ) they weren't overly large 2) 4x they ran away after some noise ( 1x the bear stood her ground , in spring , so fiq there was a cub nearby, we backed up and took another path around )
Never really feared an issue from them. ( but there also are some STRANGE people out there on the trails )

Didn't even realize it but my wife showed me a cell phone pic she took of the bear from the porch. As I said the black bears around us are very skittish so I'm not worried. It was however an excuse to dig the 44 out.



A very pregnant doe showed up the next night. I got pictures of her on my camera but I forgot to bring the SD card home.

No bears, but we have seen a few bobcats on the farm. Neighbor got the picture of this one that they put in the local newspaper.

I see bobcats on my trail cameras all the time. Only saw one in person. I was hunting the food plot a couple years ago and there was pile of logs next to it. A bobcat came out of the woods and started rooting around in the pile. Pretty soon he came out with a woodchuck in his teeth.

I bold yell with arms raised might get a black bear to skoot.

If not...I tend to agree that as long as you can hold your nerve, 10 rounds of 9mm to the face/eyes region is going to be a strong persuader, especially as it closes.

That said, I'd be wearing my Ruger Blackhawk with Hardcast Buffalo Bore...

I think the problem is the holding your nerves while being charged at. AS long as I don't have to hold my bowels, I might be okay.