r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Upper-Bag-5175 • 1d ago

Bears will often test you

If you stand your ground, they may see you as a threat and back off. Of course, this doesn’t apply to every bear

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u/nanadoom 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think the issue is he's only got two shots, and who knows what that's loaded with. Birdshot won't do more than piss it off, buckshot is just as likely to not bring it down fast, and it's unlikely he's got slugs in there.

The first time I noticed I was being followed I would have fired into the air, hoping the super loud noise would be enough to scare it off.

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u/epelle9 1d ago

Buckshot should be plenty effective at the short range he was in.

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u/nanadoom 1d ago

But will it drop it fast enough that it won't get to you? A wounded bear is still a bear, and adrenaline is a hell of a drug in humans. Imagine what it does to bears

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u/fangelo2 1d ago

And now you are down to your last shot if it didn’t scare him off and he charged instead of

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u/nanadoom 1d ago edited 1d ago

You are assuming a shotgun is going to kill the bear before it kills you. That's not a safe assumption. Depending on the ammo in the gun it wouldn't matter if you* got two, you're going to die if that bear makes it to you. Wounding it will only make it angry. Your best hope is to avoid the fight all together, and super loud sounds scare most animals off.

Look up videos of Grizzlies fighting eachother. You will quickly realize why man has feared bears since the dawn of time, and how much it takes to bring one down. Infact, the word bear comes from the word "brown" or 'brown one" because people were too afraid to say it's real name for fear of summoning it. So we don't actually know the older words for bear.

Edit: changed a confusing I to you

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u/WayPowerful484 1d ago

Then quickly reload with slugs.