Either way, someone will survive to tell the tale. I'll bet bear behavior is relatively unpredictable. Perhaps field trials are in order.

I have some candidates for that experiment!

Wow! Two bear encounters at bad breath distance? He's either the luckiest or unluckiest guy around.

Not who you want as your hiking partner!

The bear spray seems to be the overall best tool. The reason would be that the stinging of the mucous areas - eyes, nose, and throat - can be rather intense resulting in a change of focus. This is only my unqualified opinion.

Yet another example of "its better to be lucky than good". Considering the haphazard shot placement resulted in two out of five rounds being lethal hits at melee range, and one of those two being a "sweet spot" hit resulting in significant trauma to the CNS, the two most significant points of interest are that he was only able to get off the same number of rounds as he would've with a revolver, and one of the five rounds resulted in a self inflicted wound. You can harvest a polar bear with a 22 rimfire if you can reliably place your shot and you know where to put the round.

Spray and pray is never a good tactic against any opponent.

I know a few bear guides in Alaska, and none of them consider any handgun round an effective defense against brown, griz, or polar bears. 12 gauge pump with slugs seems to be the most popular firearm choice for defense against bears. Appropriate bear spray would be preferable.

This here is wisdom.

And as always, take steps to avoid confrontations when in bear country.

A pistol, in my opinion, is a close up, secondary defensive weapon.

With no bear experience, I think a shotgun slug with the correct disabling placement (ie: a shoulder) first, would be the most effective. A head shot to a bear seems to usually only ticks him off unless it enters through an opening (ie: ears, nose, mouth, or eye).

It's a shame Stu has crossed the bar. He had the most 10mm experience of anyone I knew or know.

Consider giving this a read: http://www.marksmanshipmatters.com/dangerous-predators-stopped-with-handguns/

Edit: I originally found the above linked article here: http://backwoodshome.com/blogs/MassadAyo...gerous-animals/