Originally Posted by
Bernie P.
A handgun is better than no gun in bear country.Pepper spray seems to work well but I'd feel a lot better with a potent rifle along.
+1, and reasonably sized handgun is better than your fingernails but they are all far less than ideal and there will be an element of luck involved in actually stopping a bear. My elk hunting partner, who has hunted in thick grizzly country for years and had his share of encounters, told me to bring the largest handgun I owned but not bother buying anything new just to have "a bear gun". He said if a bear is committed to getting you, no handgun is going to stop it short of a lucky shot. All you can hope is to make yourself seem un-tasty enough to break it off and give you time to get a REAL gun turned on him.