Ever Used Your Sidearm While Hunting?

[BigNate]

If you're bow hunting the Northern Rockies a pistol is a good idea.
I'm in the North panhandle of Idaho, have not personally had an issue thankfully, but a couple years ago two guys hunting black bear in the next canyon south of us were mauled by a griz.
There's been a few incidents documented around here, and east into Montana.
I carry a .45 Super with 250gr hard cast. Pretty close to 45 LC performance in a semiautomatic.

 

[Bobrobheimer]

TWS Journals

wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

(PDF) Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska

PDF | We compiled, summarized, and reviewed 269 incidents of bear-human conflict involving firearms that occurred in Alaska during 1883-2009. Encounters... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

I dug into this question a few years back and found that these two studies used all over the place to “prove” that bear spray is more effective don’t prove that. They were done separately looking at the effectiveness of each in isolation and the author stated they weren’t meant to be compared like that as the encounters had selection bias - making for more serious encounters involving fire arms (hunters surprising bears) v say a ranger intentionally hazing a bear with spray.