Bear sightings are on the rise in Aspen, Colorado.

If you see a bear, what advice do authorities give on dealing with them?

They are now actively telling residents to be, literally, mean to the bears. Yell at them, throw rocks and if they charge you, stand up to them.

Be a big meanie.

Well, I would agree you shouldn’t invite them in for tea, but that advice doesn’t seem to sit with me. I mean, are they expecting people to keep a pile of rocks in their home and throw them when the bear attempts to invade? Or how about if they’re walking down the street, hauling a sack full of rocks? Kinda cumbersome, and you can’t throw them that well anyway.

I know something that’s easier to carry, to keep handy, and can throw things a lot faster and more effectively at a bear. But let Greg Hamilton of InSights Training Center sum it up better.

The US forest service has done extensive study on bear behavior, OC for bears, and guns against bears. I have been involved in all aspects of that from the beginning.

Almost everything you hear or read is personal opinion based on either no or very limited data points.

Looking at all the data for 100 years presents a very different story.

For bear defense it cannot be shown that the type or caliber matters, people that shoot back with anything win, people that don’t shoot back many times lose. All calibers and action types have been used. Handguns are almost always used at mauling distance. Longarms at 25 yards to dead at your feet.

There is no evidence to support 44 over 357, revolvers are more reliable at contact distance but people have won with semi-autos (but the data pool is very small, as it grows we would at some point start to see malfunctions)

A good revolver in 357 or 44 with powerful solids made to go deep and not deflect is probably the best answer for carry. The pump shotgun still has more kills of grizzly than anything in defense, believe it or not with OO buck, though common wisdom nowadays is use brenneke slugs. Pre WWII 90%+ of the kills were OO.