Ever killed a bear with a pistol?

[WNC2500]

Based on my previous threads about pistols, it made me think to ask this question of all HuntTalkers? Have you ever had the need to kill a bear with a pistol and what did you shoot it with (caliber)? I know many people have killed bears with rifles, and larger calibers, but this is mainly a question from the pistol side only? When you answer, feel free to say what caliber, and did it do the job as you expected??

 

[Rack Daniels]

Tim wells took a bear with a blowdart and it worked better than you’d ever imagine. Lol I guess the big takeaway is placement over caliber. But I’d bet @HandgunHunter has some experience

 

[rjthehunter]

I have, it was 10 years ago. This was more of a self defence shooting than a purposeful bear hunt with a pistol. So not sure if it is relevant for your situation or not.

I was up fishing at a friends cabin and a mutual friend called right around dark letting us know he shot a bear. He was only about 45 mins from us and asked if we would help him get it out of the woods.

Long story short, we went over and started tracking his bear and we found it around 10pm and it was still alive and charged when it saw us. It took around 6 shots or so to stop it. There was 2 of us shooting at it as it charged. Both were 9mm pistols. Not ideal, but better than a sharp stick.

When I'm in the bear woods on purpose, I bring a 10mm. No experience shooting a bear with it, but it will certainly work better than a 9mm.