Say you run into a black bear while deer-hunting with slugs...

While it's true that bears can run faster than humans, they cannot maneuver as well as humans.

Ever seen a video of a cheetah chasing down it's prey? While cheetahs can run faster than any other land animal, they are not the most maneuverable. Many of animals have outrun cheetahs simply by out maneuvering them. They are often running so fast that sometimes they cannot maneuver at full speed such as a human can, the same goes for bears, especially with their large size. I don't advocate trying to outrun a bear, but if you ever find yourself doing so, zig and zag, preferably around trees if you can.
 
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I saw a video of a grizzly run down a young elk over rough ground .A person wouldn't have a chance .
Black bears are not much of a threat .Maybe because I'm big and mean looking !:)
 
Bears Agility

I am glad someone posted about the running downhill myth. That is totally not true. Bears are way more agile than humans, too. Running is a bad idea in general. Unless you are Adrian Peterson, I really doubt that you can juke and side step a swipe from one of those paws. Even a small black bear is strong enough to annihilate a human. There are lots of sites for bear encounters and tips and running is consistently a no-no. If you have seen one of those dudes skinned out, they look like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger with wolverine claws.

http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/kodiak/kodbears.htm This one mentions black bears, too.

The national parks rangers tend to teach that guns, in particular handguns, are not effective against charging bears. Prevention is the best medicine in this case like most other things. Like someone else said, unless there are powder burns, self defense is going to a tough sell. I am just saying that if you are going to use the shotgun for bear defense, make sure you have your ducks in a row. It should be the last line of defense, in my opinion anyway.
 
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