Very cool. Good luck in your flintlock pursuit of bear. I see no reason that .54 will not get the job done. Its what I hunted bear with. Although mine was a percussion lock. And I never saw a bear that was a shooter. Although I had a sow and two cub come in and they were WAY too close to my blind. I think if I would have had to run, my cheeks were squeezed so tight together at one point, I could have carried the chair cushion with me, and never used my hands to do so.