Brenten said:
He's got a friend guide, who knows the back country but apparently never goes armed. He told my buddy that a gun is not necessary, and that he has never had a run in in all the years he's been hitting the back country, I question how often he's been in the wild areas but I don't know anything about Alaska so can't say.
Your pal's guide friend is right, pretty much.
hogdogs said:
Even if it isn't going to penetrate 2 feet... you have to admit that the energy dump of a slug that expands that much in short distance is tremendous! It would make me want to sit on my rump and lick my wounds at least
Me too, but not a charging bear, necessarily.
There's a fair amount of evidence that pepper spray is actually more effective than firearms at deterring brown/grizzly bears. For instance, according to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
The question is not one of marksmanship or clear thinking in the face of a growling bear, for even a skilled marksman with steady nerves may have a slim chance of deterring a bear attack with a gun. Law enforcement agents for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have experience that supports this reality -- based on their investigations of human-bear encounters since 1992, persons encountering grizzlies and defending themselves with firearms suffer injury about 50% of the time. During the same period, persons defending themselves with pepper spray escaped injury most of the time, and those that were injured experienced shorter duration attacks and less severe injuries. Canadian bear biologist Dr. Stephen Herrero reached similar conclusions based on his own research -- a person’s chance of incurring serious injury from a charging grizzly doubles when bullets are fired versus when bear spray is used.
Deterrence is what you're after here.. in a bear encounter, the goal should be for
you and the bear both to walk away uninjured. (But if you're going to rely on a firearm, yes, you do want a 12 gauge pump and slugs... don't mess around with buckshot.)
The books below should be required reading for anyone traveling in bear country; learning what to do around bears is a lot more useful than worrying about which firearm to carry...
Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance
by Stephen Herrero.
Bear Attacks: The Deadly Truth by James Gary Shelton
Shelton's other books are also worthwhile:
Bear Attack 2 Myth & Reality, and
Bear Encounter Survival Guide.
