What’s the best bear defense ammo out there? This is a very common question we get after multiple backyard brown bear encounters. My wife and I with our six kids live in King Salmon, Alaska. We have one of the highest densities of brown bears in the world here in Western Alaska. Being wild animals, these bears will take the easy way out to find food if there is a chance.  

Seeing that they have to pack on a year's worth of calories in about seven months, they are always looking for food. Two-time frames stand out as problematic to me when it comes to bears. The first is usually around early August, right after our huge runs of sockeye salmon come in for the year. Undoubtedly, this is the primary food source for our bears. However, after those fish have come and gone our local bears are somewhat flabbergasted so it seems to be what they should eat. This can cause a problem with bears who have recently left their mother or aren’t the best fisherman.  

The second time frame where bears will come looking for food in residential areas is late fall. I’ve talked to quite a few biologists, and they have explained to me that a bear does not have an “I'm full” sensor in their body. This is especially true as winter creeps closer. They go into “empty the refrigerator” mode and just keep eating while trying to not expend calories.  

I had an issue with a bear last fall right before I left to accompany my brother-in-law on an Idaho bighorn sheep hunt. I woke up and left the house at 5:30 AM to hit the gym. I heard an animal running away in the gravel driveway. I was able to surmise that it was a brown bear by the steaming pile of bear scat just three feet from my front door.  

After I got home from the gym, my kids told me that a bear had broken into the chicken coop the night before. It ended up killing 3 of our chickens and 4 more ducks. In Alaska there is a clause where you can kill a bear that is destroying your property or farm animals. So, in this case, I could kill the bear on that pretense, while I also had an open bear tag for our area.  

I was almost positive this bear would come back to finish off the remaining birds that evening. However, to my surprise at just 9am I saw the bear returning to finish what she had started in the chicken coop. When there is easy food nearby, and winter is quickly approaching, bears by nature can’t help themselves.  

The weapon of choice here was my Model 70 .458 Winchester Magnum. I call this one “The Backyard Bear Gun” because it's short, dirty, beaten; but most important, reliable. I load it up with a 450 grain TSX. I figure if this is good enough for African dangerous game it will work on this seven-foot sow.  

This was my first experience with a TSX as I’ve only hunted brown bears with LRX bullets in the past. Though I have heard amazing things about this classic Barnes bullet and had the utmost confidence it would do the trick.  

I grabbed the rifle and headed out the front door and began stalking to the chicken coop. My wife was inside with our baby boy and got to see the entire thing play out. The bear was very brazen and walked right up to the chicken coop door and looked like she was about to enter. Then she saw me sneaking around the back side of the coop and turned to come towards me to investigate. I stood my ground and let her walk within 20 yards of me while I had the gun aimed at her.  

As she slowed down to see what exactly I was, I settled my iron sights right below her jaw and aimed for center mass. As the shot broke, I was pretty taken back as I have never seen an animal hit the ground as fast as this bear did. The first round took off her lower jaw and entered mid chest; dumping all of the energy into the bear. Her eyes were still moving and looking at me as I walked up to her, so I shot her again in the high part of the shoulder from just three feet away. I ended up finding the second shot in the opposite hide while skinning her out. 

When it comes to protecting my family and livestock, I know what I’ll have loaded up from now on. This is by far the best combo I’ve personally seen for close-up, dangerous game encounters. We have replaced the dead birds with new ones, while keeping the gun in my safe, ready to go at a moment's notice because this year we may just have a few more visitors.