For black bear hunting I suggest that you nix the 9mm, and nix the hollow-points, unless you want to save one of them for the leg of the friend who is running away from the bear with you
The last black bear that I shot had 8 inches of fat on it, hollow points and fat does not equal deep penetration. For black bear Glock 20 10mm with 210gr Buffalo bore hard cast bullets or the like. I like the Glocks because I am familiar with them and I have had extensive training with them. There's a whole market of new pistols and new rounds for the 10mm. A rule of thumb for big bears is "4-3-1". Nothing less than 44 caliber, nothing less than 300gr, and nothing less than starting out with a muzzle velocity of 1000fps. And..............unless you are carrying a Desert Eagle at 4.5 pounds (70 ozs) you are not going to meet that criteria in an automatic. For a handgun hunting black bears I will opt for the 10mm, if I were in country where I could come up against a grizzly (and for whatever reason my rifle was not available) I would opt out for a larger wheel gun, or preferably a 375 H&H or 375 Ruger (or larger) above them all.
The last black bear that I shot had 8 inches of fat on it, hollow points and fat does not equal deep penetration. For black bear Glock 20 10mm with 210gr Buffalo bore hard cast bullets or the like. I like the Glocks because I am familiar with them and I have had extensive training with them. There's a whole market of new pistols and new rounds for the 10mm. A rule of thumb for big bears is "4-3-1". Nothing less than 44 caliber, nothing less than 300gr, and nothing less than starting out with a muzzle velocity of 1000fps. And..............unless you are carrying a Desert Eagle at 4.5 pounds (70 ozs) you are not going to meet that criteria in an automatic. For a handgun hunting black bears I will opt for the 10mm, if I were in country where I could come up against a grizzly (and for whatever reason my rifle was not available) I would opt out for a larger wheel gun, or preferably a 375 H&H or 375 Ruger (or larger) above them all.
