Been looking at the glock 10 mm with hot bear loads for a back up in case a grizzly decides to invade my space. My gun shop owner says 44 mag over the 10 mm. He's a WY resident and says the 10 mm hype is just that. Im about having close to 3x the firepower vs a wheel gun....what say ye?
The 10MM is not hype. It is one of the most renowned cartridges around the world. So is .44, just been around longer. You also have a lot of old timers and past generations who only had limited options (which were good options) but may be biased and telling the new generations about it.
I think being bear aware, cautious and picking your travel is key. Also practicing with gun and drawing from holster. Is more important.
There is no such thing as stopping power or knock down power. Both rounds will kill a bear, doesnt mean that bear is magically gonna stop anytime soon. In my mind the most important thing is to puncture the skull and cut the nervous system off. That can be done with both rounds, question is do you do it with one shot of a revolver or a few rounds in the same time with a pistol.
10mm is very easy, fast, and controllable to shoot. and gets rounds off quick and you'll have 15 rounds plus, and less expensive ammo. Also lighter gun in general.
A revolver usually will have more recoil, more time for follow up shots, and also be close to double the price if you choose to shop good brands. Ruger, Smith and Wesson, etc. Plus weigh a ton more.
If you go full size 10mm make sure it is a Glock 20 or so. Make sure you handle it too. It is a thick boy and you definitely notice the grip size. Springfield just reintroduced there full size 10mm again and is selling like hot cakes. But they discontinued it previously, years ago because it was failing and coming apart. We will see how much they improved soon. Sigs new 10mm feels awesome, is about 17 rounds I believe and is cut for MOS too. However this similar model is under lawsuit for other things and SIG seems to like to test stuff out on customers first. I would wait for the next generation or so for people to find bugs with them. This is just my experience with talking and selling guns for jobs over the years and handling and dealing with them all.
HD Semi Auto Shotgun with slugs and bear spray would be my choice in bear country but usually carrying bow, rifle, and or shotgun isn't very practical.
Either way you go, buy a known brand. Lot of brands jumping on the 10mm fame and lots of cheap revolver manufacturers.
to a Smith 44 which was so heavy, I rarely ever took it. Honestly, to kill a grizzly is one thing, but I bet to actually "stop" it would take a CNS hit - and in that case, it might as well just be a snub revolver or 9mm. Around 20 years ago I bought a Airlite 5 shot Smith .357. That's my tent and griz defense gun. Last time I had a griz close call, I had a .223. Boar was a carbon copy of that one in shrapnel's pick. Had it came at me (from 30 yards away), I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have made it half way. Definitely felt undergunned, but had the crosshairs right between his eyes and rested on a lodgepole.
