The standard issue round for rangers in grizz country is a Brenneke slug in a 12 ga.
You need mass to counter mass, and Brenneke offers a slug with as much as 600gr of mass in a slug.
Until you get into the punishing African rifles, you’re hard pressed to find a 600gr pill in a rifle, and such things simply don’t exist in handgun rounds.
Shotguns are wonderful tools in these situations. So versatile, so affordable, and so much firepower in such a cheap package it is hard to dispute. You can be hunting deer, elk, moose or upland game here in Wyoming with a shotgun and be fully ready for bear by just racking in a slug round. Hard to do with just about any other hunting weapon other than a drilling, which are ferociously expensive.
Yeah, I’d have a hand cannon, but it would be a last ditch emergency weapon. I’d be carrying a shotgun.