Lots of good suggestions here. All are valid, but there is an elephant in the room stomping his feet and demanding to be heard, so I am going to address it. Why a 10MM? I carry a 6"one constantly in the woods. It is a good gun. I know what it will do, and its limitations. I carry it along with a rifle. It's very handy, and not much trouble to carry. Whenever I hunt with a pistol as a primary weapon it stays at home. My favorite hunting handgun is a .44 magnum with Keith's old load of a 250gr SWC @1500fps. Still low enough recoil to shoot well and blast isn't crippling to the shooter. It has twice the power of a 10MM but still is no rifle. You might ask "What difference does it make?" Dead is dead. This is true. Double lung him and the 10 will kill him. The difference is unless you have a CNS hit, there is something like a 90% chance he is going to run off. Bears have a habit of leaving really sorry blood trails. That trail most likely will be both better and shorter with the .44. Something to think long and hard about. I want a short blood trail if I have to follow one, and I want to find him dead at the end of it. I'm getting too old to be chasing animals in thick brush, especially if they bite.
