HuntnShoot - nor to be argumentative but..
By making himfelf "larger" he scares the bear.. and previously stated when hunters raises their rifle to aim, they make themselves smaller, making the bear attack.
IMHO - that at least borders on the ridiculous and could encourage the 'uninformed' to act foolishly.
I don't think I would do anything to make any bear feel I was challenging it.
I disagree completely. After many, many hundreds of up-close brown bear encounters I can say the likelihood of a problem from a mature bear is remote. Problem bears are trying to figure out what their space is in the species dynamic of their ranges. Few feel the urge to press anything they are not sure of.
Having pushed more than a bunch of bears back when they got too close by looking big I can assure you it makes a difference.
Despite the clowns insisting charging bears should be shot under the chin... we stand much taller than bears normally. Spreading your jacket to look wider with the taller will get a young bear's attention right now!
A poster from here was fishing the Buskin River right next to the Kodiak airport with me several years ago. A medium-sized boar came into our hole unannounced at very close range. I pushed him back and he did not just run away like they usually do... I was unarmed but knew the bear and was not too concerned.
Then the bear blew a cloud of bad guts that was unreal! Painting brush and sending us gagging at considerable distance. Then I realized this was a bear I should not have been pushing simply because he was not happy already!
