Really? How much effect do you think the location of the problem bear has on firearm selection? Though the guy that caught the PoPo-sent ricochet slug in the chest after it went through a black bear down in Seward a year or three ago might not agree.
All those guides are really advocating using a slug/buckshot alternating magazine load for bear hunting? You sure about that?
Many of the ADF&G bios are pretty solid... some, not so much... But the techs with how much firearms training? And from whom?
Have you ever shot a big animal with a dose of 00 buckshot?
Been there, done that. When right ON TOP of a bear and in unyielding alder. the 870 has definitely proven itself in this state's (Alaska's) history. I know when I was working streams on the Kenai and Kodiak and the Peninsula, it was THE GUN of choice. As a guide who's also worked with all who've been mentioned, it's been their choice when in close quarters and when brush was unyielding, such as alders where big browns often hide and where confrontations are measured in feet, rather than yards.
