I'll try to stay off the silly shotgun nonsense as well as the notion of hitting a charging bear in the nose. Hopefully anybody with any amount of common sense will realize how silly that is. I will also say that a heavy sixgun on the hip beats the hell out of a rifle 10ft away or a shotgun slung across your back.
Do you know what happens when you hit an adrenalized bear in the torso? Nothing much usually, though he may die later.
Do you know how a brown bear kills? His first instinct is to pop your head. If it's a smallish bear, you'll be scalped because lack of leverage will cause his teeth to slip, taking your scalp. That's the single most common injury among survivors of brown bear attacks. If it's a large bear, your head just pops and you of course die instantly. That's the single most common cause of death from brown bear injuries.
How long does it take a bear to knock you down and pop your head? A second perhaps.
How long does it take for an adrenalized brown bear to die from a torso hit? It varies, but the time might be measured in minutes rather than seconds - or he might not die at all.
There's nothing silly about shotguns or aiming for the nose. There's nothing silly about pepper spray. Handguns can kill a bear, but there are better tools.
How do I know all this? I've been scalped by a brown bear. One of his upper canines went into my right eye socket, the other through my lower cheek. His lower jaw clamped the back of my head, but when he bit his lower jaw slipped, ripping my scalp off from the rear and leaving it hanging over my face. He then bit out my right bicep, tore off (nearly) my left buttock, destroyed my left knee, my right hand and raked every place on my body not hidden under a steel framed Alice pack with his claws.
How long did it take him to do this? Less than a minute; possibly thirty seconds.
He was then shot through the torso with a .300 Mag, twice, before breaking off his attack. Two days later he attacked a party of hunters on a beach charging down a hill from 150 yards (or so), who managed to bail into a skiff and get offshore in time. A year later, what is believed to be the same bear killed and partially ate a hunter in the same locale. This man managed to get off at least one shot with a 30.06.
You're kidding yourself if you think handguns are good choices for brown bears, or even large grizzlies. They're incredibly tough and when they attack they are already charged with adrenaline - quite different than shooting a bear in a hunting situation.
A shot (even a miss) from any weapon, may turn a bear just from the noise alone. Pepper spray has excellent odds of stopping a bear. But the only sure stop is a hit in the center of the face. Period. If you're good enough to make that shot on a 40mph bear with a large handgun, then you're well armed. I don't know anybody that good - or, at least I don't know anyone who wouldn't have better odds with a shotgun. I don't know Jerry Miculek...
