I’ve done a lot of thinking about this. Had a thread a while back about it, and I think about it every time I plan on going up to Colorado to fish. I fish on the back side of the Rockies near Walden/steamboat and up north towards Cheyenne. Seen plenty of bears while driving around, haven’t seen many in person while fishing or hiking, thankfully. Hopefully my considerations give you some good perspectives.
my thoughts about carrying a shotgun/slugs:
What if I short stroke?
Is 4 slugs enough?
Will I get proper penetration?
Can I access it quickly?
Can I operate it while in a tree/wrestling a bear/etc?
my biggest concern was that I didn’t like the answer to most of these questions. One big consideration as well: we all perform less than optimally when dealing with life and death and massive adrenaline dumps. I would rather have my 15x 190gr (10mm) chances to hit vitals on a bear as opposed to 4x 437.5gr (12ga) chances. Just from a math perspective it’s 2850 grains vs 1750gr, and 3.75 times the shots. So with all that said I picked up a 10mm pistol. I also really enjoy shooting it now, as long as I ignore how much it costs to feed.
my thoughts about carrying a shotgun/slugs:
What if I short stroke?
Is 4 slugs enough?
Will I get proper penetration?
Can I access it quickly?
Can I operate it while in a tree/wrestling a bear/etc?
my biggest concern was that I didn’t like the answer to most of these questions. One big consideration as well: we all perform less than optimally when dealing with life and death and massive adrenaline dumps. I would rather have my 15x 190gr (10mm) chances to hit vitals on a bear as opposed to 4x 437.5gr (12ga) chances. Just from a math perspective it’s 2850 grains vs 1750gr, and 3.75 times the shots. So with all that said I picked up a 10mm pistol. I also really enjoy shooting it now, as long as I ignore how much it costs to feed.
