The key for bear defense in a handgun is to maximize straight line penetration. This means either hard cast lead or flat nose mono metal. Unfortunately, your judge won’t handle +p loads, and to my knowledge there are no commercially loaded “bear defense” loads for standard pressure 45 colt. A 250 grain bullet at 850-ish fps doesn’t really inspire a lot of confidence for me as a bear defense load. I don’t know what handguns you have available, but if you’ve got a modern autoloader in 9mm, 40 or 45 that can handle +p or +p+ loads, you would be better served using that and some of the great loads from choice ammunition or buffalo bore. The general rule has always been 44 mag and up is ideal for bear defense, if you can shoot it effectively, but anything is better than throwing rocks. If you’ve had to buy something new you’d probably have a hard time beating the value/utility of a Glock 20. When I went to Alaska, I took a 6” 629 shooting 300 grain WFN hard cast at 1300 fps, and it definitely helped me sleep better at night, I absolutely would not have wanted anything less. When you’re in a tent in bear county, 400 miles from anything in the pitch black and you hear noises in the night, spending a few bucks on a gun that inspires confidence seemed like the smartest choice I ever made. Whatever you decide on, buy extra ammo and practice with your gun, it’ll be a whole different animal with bear loads.