Old Painless takes donations and then does shoots. If you want to see a BOT on your load ofr your purpose, just drop him a line and he may be interested.

Red XIII, my wife and I were volunteer campground hosts at Scenic State Park for two summers when I retired in 1990. We hiked everywhere in the woods up there and bears are something we never saw.

The most dangerous animals we saw were drunks on weekends and they were mostly just noisy. The Rangers kept them in line pretty well.

It's a great place and I'm sure you will enjoy your trip. We still go up there for at least a week or two every summer.

Thanks for the input! And while I agree chances are slim-to-none, I'd rather "have and not need than need and not have". My dad owns land near Aitkin, and me and cousin coming too, ran into a bear (thank God at a safe distance)...we didn't notice/realize til we heard it (we were young teens). It WAS more afraid of us than we were of it, until we realized what it was! plblark, thanks too, not enough time to do Box O' Truth for this one me thinks. The only 10mm ammo I currently have is Federal Hydra-shok, for humans .

As I said, I plan on setting it up for hunting in MN, but right now, I am looking for best "Woods defense" short-term ammo I can get. Any other thoughts/ideas?

Red

Heh heh, yep you're right. I was just thinking along those lines. However I think I may order up a few boxes and setup some tests for myself. Looks like fun and it would be a great learning experience.

I'll start a new thread for that so I do not hijack this one.

Red, you might want to try Georgia-Arms Shear Power loads too.

10mm GOLD DOT 50 100 1000 Ft. Lb. FPS
G10A 155gr Hollow Point +P $18.50 $36.50 $360.00 650 1375
G10B 180gr Hollow Point +P $18.50 $36.50 $360.00 528 1150

http://www.georgia-arms.com/shear.htm

IMHO much like for humans a pistol is not going to make it for a one shot stop unless a CNS shot is made. Unlike hunting where hopefully you have a little distance your talking defensive which means up close and a minute is a LONG time. I have seen 6 shots of .308 go 50yds, 5 rds 30.06 go 100yds, One in particular a neck shot with 444 Marlin and then 6rds 240gr Rem Corlokt and 6rds 300gr SRA JHP from 44mags go appx 40yds before being brain shot with another 44mag it wasnt moving very fast by this time but still on its feet still have video of that one. All other kills with a headshot dropped in there tracks and did nothing more then death kicks. This coming from 60+ kills over 10yrs of guideing Wi and Mi with hounds and all kills at 20yds or less. IMHO if your Federal Hydros will penetrate a cars windshield they will penetrate a bears skull if your counting on body hits your on your own.

Red,

A couple things to consider regarding the choice of .357 ammo:

1) What are you shooting it from? Does it have adjsutable sights? If not, what shoots most accurately from it?

2) Any bear you encounter in MN is going to be a black bear, not a grizzly or anything terribly large or vicious. Not that a black bear can't be dangerous, but it's not in the class of the larger species. A .357 should be fine with a head shot.

Not knowing what weapon you're using, I'd tend to recommend a full-house 158-grain soft point, or a combination of SP and FMJ rounds.

You have a much better chance of being struck by lightning than being attacked by a bear in MN

Perhaps I will wear a helmet witha lightning rod in it.

Absolutely right.

From MN DNR webpage.. Bear Facts Answers

Thanks all...the .357 is my cousins, I know it's a 6" barrel, but my weapon is the G20. I also know that animals are most likely to leave us be, but in a bad situation, I want that option.


Red

Yep, I don't think anyone (around here anyway) would tell you that it is a bad idea to carry a gun for defense (for 2 or 4 legged attackers). Preparing for the worst generally makes the small stuff easier too.

A healthy wild animal generally isn't a worry to me. However we have had on two occasions sick looking critters wander into our camp in broad daylight. One was a woodchuck, being unarmed in those days, we sat in our cars until it wandered off. We heard later that it (or another) was dispatched by a game warden in the parking lot near the swimming beach. Another time an animal, resembling a mostly hairless skunk, trotted into our camp squealing and snorting, but caused us no trouble. Being young at the time we had all sorts of wild theories about that!
Either animal would have been a difficult shot with a pistol if it was running towards you or another.
I wonder how they get their prey to stand broadside for their shots on TV?