Wow is right....
No, I'm not implying that anyone rely on bear spray. In no way am I recommending bear spray. I don't care if people use it, but I personally don't. Aside from the lack of effectiveness, there are other concerns with bear spray. As I recall from previous posts, Phil does carry and use bear spray, but is a long ways from "relying" upon it. My use of the example of spray was in relation to the 9mm comment and meant as sarcasm and a bit of hyperbole. Wolverine, I thought about using "22", but fell back to bear spray as the minimum that might work
Moving back from that tangent... In re-reading JWPs comments, it was more around "why spend more money on bullets besides hard cast" and less about the particular chambering. As I recall the little 9mm isn't even Phil's normal sidearm in bear country, but he certainly made it work. I think there are certainly arguments for folks using a firearm they are comfortable with, and many are either not comfortable or competent with a .44. I'm not sure I'd want to recommend the 9mm universally as a brown bear defensive gun, but if that's what someone had and was comfortable with, I'd certainly go that way over sticks, spray or rocks.
