Not every outing is a hunting excursion; however, in an instant, it can quickly become one. A casual hike, a quick trip to grab firewood or a morning spent chasing trout all carry the potential of encountering a furry threat that might want to remind you that you are no longer at the top of the hierarchy. For this reason, I treat my wilderness adventures the same as exploring a city that I’m not familiar with—meaning I carry a gun. Just like on the streets, having ineffective ammunition in my handgun makes it practically useless, and in the case of dealing with a 700-pound predator, the stakes are even higher. Products like Hornady’s Backcountry Defense were created just for these instances, and as our woods are fraught with black bears, testing its claims rose to the top of my list.
For reasons not yet known, bears seem to be getting more aggressive, and thanks to the ease of mapping to remote areas, humans are encountering them at a higher rate. This combination has catastrophic tendencies, particularly since these areas typically provide everything needed for these predators to grow to enormous sizes. When fight is chosen over flight, you might have to deal with a head-on charge, presenting only the smallest, hardest target. Penetrating the skull of a grizzly bear takes a very specific type of ammunition, typically one made with a hard-cast bullet. The trouble with these is that they generate excessively thick clouds of smoke, making follow-up shots difficult and obscuring your sight of an escape path. Exposed lead also runs the risk of deformation when feeding, potentially causing a jam at the worst possible time. Hornady’s Dangerous Game Handgun projectile is designed to address these shortcomings, making it exceptionally deadly when it arguably counts the most.
Created by Myles Neville, the company’s project engineer, the primary goal was to make a bullet that carried the benefits of a copper-jacketed pill while ensuring that it retains its form when it meets a liquid medium. This was accomplished by using a thickened jacket that rolls into the nose of the bullet, locking it to the lead core. The result is what Hornady calls a “Protected Point,” which mimics a conventional hollow point, but solely in appearance. Ironically, instead of mushrooming, this design has the exact opposite effect, allowing it to penetrate deeper as opposed to stopping short. The jacket also incorporates the company’s signature interlock for added assurance, as it has proven effective in this role for decades. Lastly, the base of each bullet is encapsulated as well, to keep lead from spurting out the back upon impact and also shield the lead from the flame, staving off any potential smoke. The production process is nearly identical to that of their match-grade rifle bullets, yielding a product that is accurate by design, and in this case virtually by accident. At the time of this writing, Backcountry Defense is available in seven loadings, which accommodate both pistols and revolvers. Each has features to help it excel in its intended platform, such as crimping cannelures to keep revolver loads in place under their heavy recoil and easy-to-feed profiles for semi-autos.
For my testing, I was interested in the 9mm Luger, 10mm Auto and .357 Magnum, as I carry one of these three loads whenever I’m out and about. The 9mm is built to +P pressure, which is mandatory for self-defense in my book. It features a 138-grain bullet with a truncated cone profile, which isn’t the heaviest out there, but was chosen as it balances case space between lead and powder. As velocity has more influence than weight in the energy equation, leaving extra space for propellant was an intelligent move. The 10mm Auto load has a more rounded shape and is 200 grains in weight, which is relatively standard for this cartridge. As for the .357, its 165-grain payload is only a step or two below the heaviest bullet we typically ever see this round loaded with, but being that there is plenty of brass to work with I was sure the boys in red had no trouble driving it to the maximum.
I chose guns that are realistic to the application. In the case of the 10mm, it doesn’t get any more real than the gun I keep in the side-by-side, which is a Smith & Wesson M&P with a 4.6-inch barrel. For the .357 Mag., I didn’t want to go with a snubby, but at the same time I didn’t want to test it out of a gun built for target shooting. Landing nearly smack in the middle was a Taurus 608 with a 4-inch barrel, so it was a perfect compromise. Lastly, a Stoeger STR-9 Thinline represented the backpacker who has a carry pistol but “isn’t a gun person.” Compact by design, it only houses a paltry 3.3-inch launch tube, making it easy to conceal, even in something as small as a hip belt pocket on a pack.
Shooting from a rest from 25 yards, all of my groups were well within a bear’s head, even with the compact 9mm, which was impressive. Having a red dot on that gun certainly played a role, but again, it’s realistic. As advertised, there wasn’t any smoke to speak of during the range session. This was despite the swampy, stagnant conditions that best describe a spring morning in the mountains. Recoil was about what you’d expect from super-charged loads, but they were wholly manageable and, more importantly, reliable.
For my final test, I checked the penetration of each round using Clear Ballistic 10 percent FBI gel from a practical defensive distance, which I determined to be 15 yards. This test was interesting, as I was measuring opposite properties from your typical gel test, and had to alter it accordingly. With expanding projectiles, you typically add a barrier or layers of cloth and leather in front of the gel. When dealing with non-expanding hollow-points, these materials can actually aid its performance as they may clog the nose and retard the hydraulic effect, thus diverting would-be expansion. Also, whereas the goal is to stop a bullet within a block, here I’m testing with the assumption that it’ll pass through at least one 16-inch block, so multiple blocks were used to try to catch the projectiles.
Firing all three handguns from this distance, the 9mm penetrated 28 inches, while the 10mm surpassed it with a total of 31.75 inches. Most impressive was the .357 Magnum, which blew through both blocks, never to be seen again. Considering that this load had the highest velocity and sectional density, that wasn’t much of a surprise.
Pulling from the gel the bullets that I was able to stop, I was amazed at how well they held their form. Both looked as if I could reload them into a case and send them downrange again. Putting each on a scale, the 9mm weighed in at 137.8 grains, and the 10mm measured 200 grains on the nose. Considering that there wasn’t so much as a speck of lead or copper in the gel, and projectiles that aren’t built for precision use do vary a few tenths, I feel comfortable saying they each achieved 100 percent weight retention. However, if you’re the cynical type, 99.86 percent is pretty good, too.
Although nearly always synonymous with relaxation, the great outdoors can be a dangerous place for the ill-prepared. This load is going to be handy for anybody who ventures out without a rifle in their hands, which should speak loudly to campers in the spring and bow hunters in the fall. Products like Hornady’s Backcountry Defense go a long way in ensuring that, should you have a close encounter with something higher up on the food chain, you come out of the situation undigested.
Hornady Backcountry Defense
- Calibers and Bullet Weights Available: 9mm Luger +P, 138-gr. (tested); .357 Mag., 165-gr. (tested); 10mm Auto, 200-gr. (tested); .44 Rem. Mag., 240-gr.; .454 Casull, 300-gr.; .460 S&W Mag., 300-gr.; .500 S&W Mag., 500-gr.
- Bullet Type(s)/Style(s): Dangerous Game Handgun, jacketed
- Ballistic Coefficient (BC) (G1): .195 (9mm, 138-gr.); .199 (10mm, 200-gr.); .210 (.357, 165-gr.)
- Muzzle Velocity (fps): 1150 (9mm, 138-gr.); 1160 (10mm, 200-gr.); 1510 (.357, 165-gr.)
- Muzzle Energy (ft.-lbs.): 405 (9mm, 138-gr.); 597 (10mm, 200-gr.); 835 (.357, 165-gr.)
- Uses: dangerous game
- MSRP per box: $34.99-$92.99
- hornady.com
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