I don't have any experience with Grizzly bears - I have do have a bit with shotguns but not on large game animals. I do however have a love of hunting, and I know a little bit about a lot of things, and I am quite good at researching things as well.

This topic - of Blain killing a grizzly with buckshot - has gotten my attention. I did a few searches and here's some quotes I have found on Grizzly bears and buckshot ..

http://www.geocities.com/cosociety/tales.html

This article is about a couple of guys hunting down a man killer grizzly - one guy had a shotgun loaded with buckshot and slugs.

" The bear was on my side of the copter, and I quickly emptied both barrels of the Browning into him. When we autopsied him later we learned that although my buckshot had not hit a vital organ, some of them had penetrated the body cavity to the stomach and would have killed the bear eventually. Yet he didn't react in any way to those two shots.

The grizzly walked out of sight into thick spruce again, but Bergh was directly over him now, just above the trees, and in a minute the bear came into the open once more, on Harper's side 60 feet below us.

Fred's 300-grain soft-point from the .375 Magnum smashed into the grizzly's right shoulder and blew up in the lungs and heart. He fell, pushed himself ahead a few feet to the edge of a thicket, and was dead in seconds"

http://home.snafu.de/l.moeller/Wild/Bear.html

qusetion and answer from a guy going into grizzly country and wanting to know how to protect himself. He says ...

[i]" I go on a 2 week wilderness canoe trip in Alaska, and plan to carry a 12 ga. shotgun to protect me against bears. Hopefully, I won't have to use it. My question is: Should I use slug or shot? Is there any merit to increase the chance to hit a vital organ using shot versus the lack of penetration?

Also, is there much difference between standard 2.75" catridges and the 3"?

My shotgun is a 5 shot Mossberg 500 with the short 18.5" (smoothbore) barrel. I thought to use the pistol grip instead of the regular buttstock, to save weight and space. But I wonder, how accurately it may be aimed as such, although I figure it would probably be used in an emergency at close range. The weapon with the pistol grip is amazing light and compact, but I wonder, how effective it would be, if put to the test. Any thoughts or suggestions? [i]"

and is answered by ...

" Use definitely slugs. Don't consider shot. I have read too many reports of bear encounters where Buckshot was used and resulted in little or no penetration. Sure, it messed up the skin a bit, but didn't do anything more than piss off an already dangerous animal. Slugs. Slugs. And more Slugs. In a defensive situation, the bear will be running AT you head on. Shot would have to make it through all that bone and grissle and meat to hit the vitals. Will it be up to the job? Remember, the excercise here is to kill the bear, not wound him. There are a lot of different slugs out threre, and I suspect each will perform well. I myself stuff the (subcaliber) Remington copper sabot slugs down the pipe, when I can. The big lead ones would work just as well I suppose, but I feel better with the copper sabots.

2 3/4" slugs are the way to go. Dont mess with 3" magnums. Why? If you are using the shotgun in a defense mode, as you indicate, you are NOT going to open fire until that beast is at the 25 yard line. At that range, the difference between the 2 3/4" and 3" is not enough to make the bear feel any better. As well, The last thing you want to happen is have that muzzle lifting and jerking due to the recoil of the 3". With a little luck, you can place 3 solid shots into that charging bear, you dont want to loose sight picture for even an instant. As an added bonus, try stuffing as many 3" into the magazine as is viable. How many fit. Now do the same exercise using 2 3/4" shells. Notice the difference? "

another answers -

" Buckshot and birdshot will not likely, sufficiently penetrate a bear to do over the short run more, than to make him very angry. It's no use to you if he dies of infection several days later. I'd not use the pistol grip. You'll want accurate placement in the neck/shoulder area, to try, to stop a bear at close range. "

http://www.wildalaskatrophyoutfitter...laska_info.htm

" 8. DON'T use buckshot for bear protection. USE slugs in the shotgun. Buckshot won't penetrate, slugs will. "

http://www.albertareport.com/25arcop...y/2544ar01.htm

Here we have a guy who fires 2 rounds of slugs and 2 rounds of buckshot into a grizzly - and though it stopped it, it did not kill it.

"As the bear started its final charge, Mr. Deline unslung his 12-gauge Mossberg Slugster shotgun from his back and fired. Four rounds—two buckshot and two slugs—knocked the bear over twice and convinced it to flee into the woods. When the men flew back to the scene a few hours later, a co-worker photographed Mr. Deline with the bear, which they found lying flat on its back under a tree. "Personally, I wouldn't have had a chance without a gun," says Mr. Deline. "The way he was coming, he would have bowled us right over. He wasn't stopping for anything."

I suppose I could pull up a few more reports as well, but the point I am making is this - I have yet to find an internet search on a shotgun killed grizzly that used buckshot only. ( Blain - I'd like to see a link to that outfitter you are talking about.)
Could it be done ? I suppose it could, but then I could probably kill a grizzly wi a 22 mag if everything happened just right too. I don't think anyone, anywhere would reccommend using a shotgun loaded with buckshot to hunt grizzly with. I aint no expert, but I do know that when 100% of the searches I did come up with no one reccommending or using shotguns with buckshot as a hunting weapon OR sole defense for grizzly, i'd say thats proof enough.

JMHO