I am curious to know what gun you were putting the180gr, BB, .357 mag loads through?? I have a pristine S&W model 19 that I would never consider destroying with those rounds. Model 27 or 28 sure, but what comes with either of these model handguns is the 44 or so ounces of weight. If I'm carrying that much weight one might as well carry a .44 magnum. Also I thank you for sharing your research. No offense to you being brought here. I enjoy charts such as this one in your reply, I just sent it to my sons. I believe that along with what cartridge one chooses to use as a backup handgun goes, weight is as an important factor as is recoil and control ability.
There are three of us who black bear hunt together, we all carry G20s, Lehigh 200gr, purple coated hard cast bullets. I think they are around 1000-1100 fps? Our primary bear defense is the rifle we are hunting with. I shot a bear last year at just about dark. We could not find any sign that I "even" hit the bear. Early the next morning the guide and my two sons a I went in looking for the bear. I do not walk well so I stayed where the bear was last seen going into the underbrush. All three were carrying G20s because the terrain is almost impossible to move through, a long gun makes moving even more challenging. I could hear there voices fading in the distance and then almost out of hearing distance. It was at this point that I realized the I was sitting in the woods, in the same exact spot where I had shot a bear less then 12 hours before, a fully filled bait barrel less then 20 yards away, and I did not have a rifle, but…I did have the G20 with an extra mag. I think that an additional advantage to having a handgun, at least for me, is to always have a gun on oneself at all times. I do not know what the statistics are for bear attacks in the area where we hunt, I am pretty certain they are quite low, however that is one statistic that I prefer not to be included in if I can prevent it.
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