Colin W Kingsbury wrote:

wrote in message
ups.com...

Alaska regs no longer require you to carry a firearm, but they highly
recommend it (as do I). I took a 12-gauge with slugs.


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.

An 00 pellet would just make a brown bear really mad. I'd definitely
stick with the slugs. Personally, I'd prefer a .338 Win Mag or larger,
but a slug at close range would like be effective.


If you're talking real survival you might want to carry a box of birdshot
too to use for hunting. Hit anything smaller than a deer with a 12ga slug
and there isn't going to be much meat left.

Yes, that is one advantage of a scattergun ... you can carry a variety
of ammo. Personally, I'd probably be just as happy with my Super
Blackhawk. It is much more compact than a shotgun and you can get shot
loads for the .44 Mag as well that are adequate for small game.

The .44 is marginal for bear, but better than a stick!

Matt