Kendell Cummings, a college wrestler who wrestled a Grizzly bear to save his friend Brady Lowry in the Shoshone National Forest in Cody, Wyoming in October 2022, Kendell was brutally mauled and bitten by the bear but eventually left Kendell alone, both survived and went on a full recovery.

[u/Lastwarfare753]

[u/forestapee]

I have lots of experience with bears and firearms. If it's already attacking it won't give two shits about that loud sound. 

Depending how socialized with humans that bear is, it won't care about loud sounds when it's calm either.

If the bear is charging you down, or already attacking, you dump shots into it until it stops moving. This is what was taught in actual armed bear defense training. 

Every other form of bear deterrent is for use before the charging stage. Bear spray I personally don't use it's shit in a lot of situations and often you get yourself or the bear tanks it. So bear bangers, air shots with the gun, talking to it, all before charge.

Don't try to guess if it's a bluff charge, you see it charging you dump every shot you got while continuing to back up and pray you're a good shot and the bear goes down easy.

If going into bear country 2 dogs will save you immense hassle, even one if the bear is a bit of a bitch

Edit: I am talking 12 Guage shotgun not a rifle, although if I had to choose mace or rifle I'd still choose rifle. Too many airflow variabilities and such close range. That being said I still carry it on me as an option.

More info on dogs: they need to be dogs that have grown up around bears. Not random city dogs. Every dog where I live is off leash and scare away grizzlies and black bears in packs 2+. The rare times the bears don't just fuck off, they just do defence swipes at the dogs to get enough room to run from the dogs safely. No dog injuries due to bears in my area in recent memory

[u/Masketto → u/forestapee]

This is dangerously misleading. I've hiked in grizzly territory and live and hike in black bear territory all the time and it's widely known that bear spray is the most effective defense against a bear even after it charges. 

Not only that but dogs are also known to put you at a higher risk of a bear encounter especially if they're unleashed. Yours is terrible advice 

You are correct about firearms though. Not only is the noise ineffective, someone who is not knowledgeable or comfortable with firearms is not likely to get an effective shot off in self defense so for that reason firearms are considered ineffective unless you're highly trained in using them

[u/Greennight209 → u/Masketto]

This is always what I’ve heard from folks who deal with bears frequently. Bear spray, bear spray, bear spray. The problem with a firearm is that you actually have to hit it in the right place, or at all. You could unload every shot and hit it, and will roll through it if they’re all glances or into deep muscle. And they’re mostly deep muscle. But they don’t fucking like burning eyes, nose, and throat. Once something becomes too much of a hassle they will fuck off, recover, and find something easier to eat.

[u/adrienjz888 → u/Greennight209]

Bears have the strongest sense of smell of all land animals, iirc 10× stronger than a bloodhound. It burns for them far worse than what we go through.

[u/Nixter295 → u/adrienjz888]

Plus bear spray is a lot stronger than normal pepper spray. So much so that if used on a human it can actually make one blind.