If a Grizzly/Kodiak decides you are food, you are going to get grabbed in most cases. If you are fortunate enough to see the bear before it sees you, and you have a good bit of distance between you, a 10mm semi loaded hot might be a comparable round, but in the vast majority of bear attacks, I have read that the survivors keep saying “it came out of nowhere”That is fast. No thank you.
If a Grizzly/Kodiak decides you are food, you are going to get grabbed in most cases. If you are fortunate enough to see the bear before it sees you, and you have a good bit of distance between you, a 10mm semi loaded hot might be a comparable round, but in the vast majority of bear attacks, I have read that the survivors keep saying “it came out of nowhere”
Hence my 454 Casull Alaskan ( which will be my carry gun whenever I am off pavement for the next two weeks)
Bear spray does exactly fuckall in the case of an attack.I brought a Ruger Redhawk 44 Magnum with 300 grain hard cast flat nose rounds with me, bought it just for the trip. I also brought a Marlin 336 in 35 Remington, or wait maybe it was the Remington 870 with slugs - damned if I can recall, that was about 4 years ago. My son had a 1911 clone - Remington R1 - since we only had one magnum handgun. Anyway, we did not see a bear but were there late May to early June.
The more important thing than having a firearm was that we each had a large can of bear repellent. Did a lot of research on that and it was reportedly more effective at stopping bears than trying to shoot them. Just to be safe we had both bear spray and guns.
If you rely on a semi auto for bear defense , leave a will. You are not fast enough. Accept that and get a big bore, short barreled revolver( think Ruger Alaskan in a caliber that’s begins with “4” and ends with magnum or Casull.
The semi is almost guaranteed to have a malfunction due to apex carnivore hair/fur fouling the action after it grabs you and starts to shake you. Short barreled super magnum will not. Place the bangy part of the gun against the bitey part of the brown bear and deliver hate until it stops biting.
Bear spray does exactly fuckall in the case of an attack.
The above is a black bear. It left her alone but her kayak was toast.
And the old joke ;
Hikers who visit this forest should be aware that both black bears and grizzly bears can be found here. We suggest the following precautions for your safety.
Please wear small bells on your clothing to alert wildlife of your presence so they stay away. Please have pepper spray with you at all times in case you should actually come in contact with a bear.
You can identify if there are bears in the area and what kind based on the feces you see on the ground. In black bear poop you can see traces of plants and berrier whereas grizzly bear poop contains small bells and smells of pepper.
But you just love the fact that the bear says” fuckyer spray, imma leave you stranded.Her voice and demeanor are really irritating.
The resident Alaskans just smile when you ask them about bear spray.I truly believe telling people to rely on pepper spray in grizzly country is akin to telling women to rely on rape whistles and shitting yourself to stop a rape.
Your opinion; but because I did not have the benefit of your wisdom on the subject when I went to Alaska with my son, I had to rely on what the experts in the field indicated (including Alaskan bear hunting guides, bear hunters, Alaskan fish & wildlife folks, biologists and so forth - I did quite the bit of research before our trip). What they said was that bear spray is the most effective in deterring bears from attacking. Does it work every time, no it does not. Does a 44 MAG or a 12 gauge slug or a 30-06 work every time - no they do not. Yet, as I said, we also carried a 44 MAG and a long gun when out and about where bears might have been encountered. We tried to cover all the bases.I truly believe telling people to rely on pepper spray in grizzly country is akin to telling women to rely on rape whistles and shitting yourself to stop a rape.