Some years ago, when bear hunting was legal with dogs in California, I took an informal poll of the handguns used by the bear guides I ran across during one particular year. Every one of them carried a .44 Magnum revolver, and they all used 240 gr. JHP bullets. They also all carried rifles. The interesting part was that all of the rifles used were lever actions with 20% being 30/30 Winchester Model 94s and the rest were Savage 99s in .300 Savage.