I'd prefer a good shotgun with 00 buckshot, a .30-06 rifle or a .44 magnum, thank you.
Or even a good Hawkin rifle of .54 caliber or so.
Bear pepper spray isn't perfect by any means but, based on the reading I've done, it can greatly reduce the risk of attack. Common sense in bear country, obviously, is your best defense.
"... FIGHTING BACK
The biologists darted the grizzly from the helicopter, then landed. Approaching the bear to take blood samples, they sensed something wasn’t right. The bear moved, and moved again. Suddenly, from just 19 feet away, the bear charged the two researchers.
One biologist pulled a .44 and fired four shots at the bear, which quickly beelined for the brush. The pair ran for the safety of the helicopter cab. From the air, they noticed the bear still wandering around, so they darted it again. Upon examining the bear, they found that even at close range not a single bullet had hit the bear.
Do Sprays and Guns Help?
When it comes to arguing about the effectiveness of bear sprays vs. firearms as deterrents in bear attacks, both sides have valid points to make. The truth is that people don’t shoot particularly well under stressful situations like a bear attack, as illustrated by the above example. Sprays can also fail spectacularly as deterrents, especially when the canister is stashed in a backpack (as often happens) or if the wind is blowing the wrong way. But Smith says one thing is certain. Having a deterrent handy is much better than facing a menacing bear with nothing but your fists. For one, the spray or firearm gives you something to do other than run, which is the wrong response to an encounter..."
An excerpt from "THE BIOLOGIST’S CORNER: Bears and Pepper Sprays"
I always get lots of questions about bear sprays. Do they really work? What is the best kind to have? How is it used? What’s the story about bear sprays attracting bears? Should I carry bear spray if I carry a firearm? And lots more. What I would like to pass on is some of what I have learned personally, as well as what other biologists have learned about bear sprays.
What is bear spray? The active ingredient in bear spray is Oleoresin Capsaicin; a naturally occurring compound derived from peppers. Peppers are rated as to how hot they are (measured in Scoville Heat Units or SHU’s). Bell peppers have 0 SHU’s while the red hot Habenero pepper has 300,000 SHU’s! There are red pepper sprays on the market sold for personal protection; they have a rating of 1,000,000 SHU’s. The bear repellents are rated at 2,000,000 SHU’s. It is reported that human skin will blister when exposed to Capsaicin rated at 3,000,000 SHU’s; pure Capsaicin is rated at 15,000,000 SHU’s!
Does bear spray really work? Dr. Stephen Herrero of the University of Calgary, Alberta has published the definitive work on this question. My good friend, Dr. Tom Smith, has summarized these findings.
What Dr. Herrero found was: of 36 encounters with grizzly bears, 20 were non-aggressive encounters and 16 were aggressive encounters; sprayed to the face of non-aggressive bears, pepper spray was 100% effective in changing the bear’s behavior; sprayed to the face of aggressive bears, pepper spray changed the behavior of 15 bears, but six continued their attack after recovering; repeated spraying caused five of these six bears to stop their attack.
Only four instances of pepper spray on black bears were described, in each case the aggressive behavior of the bear was stopped, but in no case did the bear leave the area after being sprayed; 26 garbage bears were sprayed with pepper spray; 20 stopped their aggressive behavior, 14 left the area, eight of the 26 bears did not leave the area, or left and later returned, after receiving a “substantial” dose of pepper spray to the face.
In a recent discussion with Tom, he related to me that he now has good records on 75 uses of pepper spray in Alaska on all three species. In a nutshell, the success rate is better than 90% at stopping or deterring an aggressive bear...
You can read the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s position about pepper spray its web page. For an “all you ever wanted to know about bear sprays but were afraid to ask”, see Dr. Smith’s excellent review. Additionally, the EPA maintains a listing of registered bear deterrents.
An excerpt from "Are Bear Deterrent Sprays For You?"
"... Spray Is Effective
Canadian researchers investigating incidents involving the use of pepper spray deterrents on bears in the field reported that 94 percent of bears that had been displaying aggressive behavior stopped the behavior after being sprayed and 88 percent left the area. Only three human / bear contacts resulted from the 66 incidents and only one resulted in injuries requiring more than an overnight stay in a hospital. Two of the people injured were hurt while using a spray to come to the aid of a companion already under attack. By comparison, another group of Canadian researchers found that firearms are effective in deterring grizzly bear attacks only about 50 percent of the time. There is also evidence that use of a pepper spray during a contact greatly reduces the length and severity of the mauling.
Claims that deterrent sprays attract bears have never been scientifically proven, although rumors continue to circulate. Allegations that a Japanese photographer killed by an Alaskan grizzly in an area where pepper spray had been used days earlier fail to point out that he was sleeping outdoors in an area frequented by over 60 human-acclimatized bears that had been repeatedly fed by other photographers seeking close-up shots. One Canadian hunter mauled by a grizzly after reportedly spraying it with pepper spray was found to have used a pocket-sized self-defense spray designed for use against humans while another missed his target completely with a similar pocket canister, which shot a stream instead of a cloud of spray..."