[ssgharkness020147]

If you want to be able to stop a bear the lowest cal you should be looking at is the 45. Period. .40's are great guns with good stopping power, but we are talking about bears not people a bear will require more. Honestly I dont think you need advise about A pistol, but rather (2) pistols. You want one gun to serve for personal protection and extreme circumstances and I dont really think you are going to find a single gun to suit both rolls. But if you only want to buy one gun for both purposes my vote is for a .45.