Colin W Kingsbury wrote:

Hmm, never hunted brown bear, but my gut instinct is that I'd go with
buckshot in that use case. I'd much rather hit Yogi with one pellet of 00
than whizz a slug right past him. Maybe load a slug or two first and then
2-3 rounds of 00 and hope you never need them.

I did a photo trip with L.L. Rue once, and he described going after bears in
Alaska. He said the outfit that flew them in provided them with short shotguns
for defense. IIRC, he said the first two shells were buckshot and the last was a
slug.

He and his son were trying to get in a good position, and one of the bears
started heading for his son. He said that after the bear moved off, he didn't
know until the film was processed whether he had reached for the camera or the
shotgun (turned out it was the camera). His son didn't seem to be real pleased
with that story.

George Patterson
I prefer Heaven for climate but Hell for company.