A middling load would probably have a 90-ish grain lead ball moving at 1,500-ish fps, so 4-500 ftlbs of muzzle energy? That's in a .40 S&W-ish range, though with a lighter bullet. We're only talking black bears here, not brownies, a decently hard cast ball would likely do fine placed correctly.
A middling load would probably have a 90-ish grain lead ball moving at 1,500-ish fps, so 4-500 ftlbs of muzzle energy? That's in a .40 S&W-ish range, though with a lighter bullet. We're only talking black bears here, not brownies, a decently hard cast ball would likely do fine placed correctly.