A friend with an inquiring mind sent this link over regarding the effectiveness of handguns or pistols in defense against an aggressive bear.
Why post here? Like many of you, we (my adult offspring in Montana do multiple days every damn week of the year) spend a fair amount of time in country frequented by bears of various species.
Like many of you, we’ve read with interest the campaigns and data published over the years regarding the best way to deal with an aggressive bear in an encounter. One of the common themes of the discussions over the past couple of decades has been the push to rely solely on bear sprays when in the backcountry; opinions have historically been expressed with passion and vigor regarding the superiority of bear spray in preserving the bear’s health, along with (typically) some expression of the allegedly high failure rates of handguns and pistols in defending against an aggressive bear.
It appears current data collection of actual encounters suggests that when necessary handguns can be damned effective in stopping an aggressive or attacking bear; peruse the data set yourself at the link above. As with all issues reported as being absolutely settled by “the science available” today, true science is always observing, collecting and collating data, and testing hypotheses and theories.
One of the great things about living in a country with relatively intact personal freedoms is that you can damned well decide how you wish to protect yourself and your family in the backcountry; we’ll still carry both, and train on using handguns in this setting every season.
