I was involved in a fight with a small bear a few years ago as mentioned earlier. The bear ended up at my ankles. My .44 loads acted like FMJ's and went quite unnoticed by the bear other than the bear swatting at one that ranged its entire length, that is, until it died, living as it did plenty long enough it could have done real damage had the dogs not confused the issue for it. All shots lethal, none hitting CNS. It was a mess. As said earlier and as others have mentioned, a handgun is better than nothing but it is no guarantor of safety. With truly big bear, any common service caliber up to the .44 Mag is not going to instill much confidence for me, the service caliber none at all and .44 not much at all.