The M-1 Garand In .458

I lost the email where someone inquired as to a recommendation for big bear rifles, but I believe that the pictured Garand might serve fairly well.

Fact: Guides in Africa as well as Alaska recommend at least a .375 H&H for larger critters. And regardless of what certain fools will tell you, a .500 S&W Magnum, even though it is only a puny handgun round, from a carbine-length barrel can kick out a 500 grain pill with 2000 fps of lickety-split. This will kill any creature capable of walking the planet. Recoil remains your biggest foe however, and one shot every 10 seconds as you recover from the kick may not be the best idea. I've seen an expert marksman with ice in his veins drop a charging hippo using an 8 bore, so I guess a big brownie would go down from one as well. 12 gauge slugs are what many park rangers use, but thats because the platform and the ammo are cheap.

Sure you can take a grizz down with an .06, or a screaming 7 mm, but one that is charging from 100 feet away?

I'd be more comfortable with something with a little more grunt. A 106 recoiless rifle, perhaps.

Having regurgitated all of the above, I've never shot a brown bear, so I don't really know, do I? All of the 3 blackies that had a hankerin' for Fits Under Glass were sent to bear heaven via handguns, and in my dreams I'm sometimes back in the PA woods clicking away with an empty Model 29, and a well-holed 500 pounder crumpled up about 6 feet in front of me just as his big brother comes bursting through the treeline.

But I will pass along one recommendation made by a crazy old hermit who lived in a brokendown cabin near a town called Shahola. Sprayed himself with skunk-juice whenever he'd go deep foraging and swore that there wasn't a bear alive that'd get within 50 feet of him. Said that the pepper spray routine had it all wrong. Can't rightly predict that a bear will run away if you make him sneeze, but one will skeedaddle if you don't smell good enough to be close to, let alone eat.

Did I mention he was a confirmed bachelor?