CANOEDOGS already got an earful about his use of blanks in another thread (and I joined in! ). While I acknowledge his right to do as he likes (and many folks in MN don't carry at all, so he's already ahead of many) I still wouldn't do it myself. It does seem to me that a live round in the dirt or in the air isn't going to be all that dangerous to a person and will be at least as loud as a blank.

On this topic I must agree with the others. You may not have time to get follow up shots off if a bear jumps you at close range. A fellow in AK was charged by a grizzly and didn't even have time to aim as the bear bore down on him. Pretty lucky to kill a big bear with point shooting, and even then it died right at his feet. Granted, Grizzly bears are more aggressive than black bears so CANOEDOGS is probably justified in not being too worried.

On a related note, I have seen papers that purport that bear spray is more effective than handgun fire at stopping bear charges. I believe this is based on just one study and I do take it with a major grain of salt, yet it seems quite plausible. Even against human attackers handguns aren't reliable fight stoppers; we carry a pistol not because it's a death ray but because it's more portable and easier to conceal than a rifle. A bear may be the size of a human or it can be several times our size. Bears are 3x stronger per pound of muscle than a human and have denser skeletal systems. A charging bear can be stopped "psychologically" (ie convinced to break off the attack) or injured to the point where it can't continue the charge. Some noise or pain might accomplish the first kind of stop. If the second kind is required you may have only a few moments to deliver a shot to the CNS (an instant kill) or the heart; those are smallish targets moving very quickly. A shot to heart may kill the bear but you might have an interesting 20-30 seconds until the bear is convinced it's dead.

Pepper spray on the other hand fires a very large cloud that's much more likely to hit the target. Bear spray is much more powerful than the OC used on humans. It has a very good track record, although it too has limitations (chief of which is difficulty to deploy in high winds).

I'm very much a gun guy but if I were going somewhere I expected to see bears then bear-strength OC would be my primary weapon with a firearm as backup to that. It's probably going to work and will save the life of the bear, too. It also seems to me that if a bear gets OC'd by humans a few times it might begin to associate us with pain and danger, not an easy meal.