Apparently not.

A hiker on Mount Wilson in California came face to face with a black bear in the middle of a trail, but his method of trying to scare away the huge animal was less than successful.

In fact, the man was fortunate to escape injury, or even death.

Cellphone video by another hiker in the Angeles National Forest shows the man trying to frighten the black bear (who was actually brown) by jumping up and down and making noise with bells attached to his hiking gear, KTLA reported.

The video, which was posted on Instagram on Monday by Eric Chiu, shows the bear’s reaction, which was not what the hiker had hoped for, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Instead of retreating, the bear charges at the hiker before the video stops, the newspaper reported. The hiker and the person recording were not injured, but Chiu, whose stepmother filmed the video, was incredulous.

Folks in the Smokey Mountains weren’t so fortunate.

Parts of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are closed to the public after visitors encountered aggressive bears in two areas over the weekend, the National Park Service said. In some cases, bears chased and bit people.

Rangers responded to three incidents involving bears along Ramsey Cascades Trail, a popular hike to a waterfall, and three more on Abrams Falls Trail, which is another waterfall hike, according to the park service.

In the encounters near Ramsey Cascades, two bears “approached visitors and took two backpacks,” while a third “displayed aggressive behavior and briefly chased a group,” the park service said. Ramsey Cascades Trail and Ramsey Prong Road, which leads to the trailhead, remained closed Monday as rangers continued to monitor the area for bear activity.

The other trio of incidents near Abrams Falls involved “an aggressive black bear,” which in one instance bit a visitor who had entered a closed area, the park service said. Both the trail and road leading to it had been closed, but they were reopened by Monday after several days without bear activity.

About 1,900 black bears live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a massive wildlife area that covers sections of North Carolina and Tennessee. It’s also the most-visited national park in the U.S., according to the park service, which notes that the “combination of high visitation and a thriving bear population increases the likelihood of human-bear encounters.”

Thanks, but I’ll carry a large bore firearm rather than jingles and jangles and human seasoning packaged as bear repellent.

Source.

During a training exercise in Alaska, two U.S. Army soldiers were attacked by a brown bear, officials said.

The two troops were participating in a “land navigation training event” at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s Arctic Valley training area in Anchorage, Lt. Col. Jo Nederhoed, a spokesperson for the 11th Airborne Division, told the Anchorage Daily News.

Wildlife officials from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game told the Anchorage Daily News the incident appeared to have been a defensive attack after the bear recently emerged from its den, and both soldiers were carrying bear spray and used it.

“We hope both individuals have a full and quick recovery, and our thoughts are with them during this time,” Fish and Game Regional Supervisor Cyndi Wardlow told the newspaper.

After the incident, the soldiers were “receiving appropriate medical care” Friday morning. The extent of their injuries is unknown.

“The safety and well-being of our personnel is our highest priority,” Nederhoed said. “The incident is under investigation, and we are coordinating with local wildlife authorities to ensure the safety of all personnel in the area.”

So, the deployment of bear spray wasn’t a successful tactic. Color me shocked.

I guess the safety and well-being of their personnel isn’t really their highest priority since they weren’t carrying large bore sidearms for bear defense.

Source.

While carrying a firearm is one option, bear spray is widely considered the most effective and humane way to deter an aggressive bear. But using bear spray incorrectly – or failing to carry it at all – can put you in a life-threatening situation

[ … ]

Bear spray is essentially a highly concentrated pepper spray designed to stop a bear in its tracks by overwhelming its senses. When deployed, it creates a cloud of intense capsaicinoids (the chemical in chili peppers that causes burning), which temporarily incapacitates the bear’s eyes, nose, and throat.

Unlike firearms, which require a direct and accurate shot to stop a bear, bear spray creates a barrier between you and the animal—which is why it’s recommended by wildlife experts and national park rangers as the first line of defense against bear attacks.

Okay. Whatever. Now watch this.

Which is why a 10mm is far superior than a can of seasoning. pic.twitter.com/GS9rGBsFoF

— Steve 🇺🇸 (@SteveLovesAmmo) February 8, 2026

Eh, 10mm Whatever. I shoot Double Tap 450 SMC 230-gr fat boys at 1320 FPS.

— CaptainsJournal (@BrutusMaximus50) February 9, 2026

It may very well be that if you can’t deploy OC spray quickly enough, you can’t do it with a gun either. But carrying the gun at the ready it seems to me that a large bore firearm is still the best solution to predator animals.

And an SBR at that! Here is the scoop.

1. Did you get to keep the bear? No. He contacted both the sheriff and Parks and Wildlife. In self-defense bear shootings, the animal is collected by authorities.
2. How did the bear get in? It climbed a second-story deck, opened a cracked window by pushing in the screen. Due to mountain weather and a lack of AC, the window had been left ajar.
3. Is your hearing okay? Yes. The firearm was equipped with a suppressor, and the shooter routinely suppresses all his guns.
4. Did you know it was a bear? No. He only confirmed it upon visually identifying the animal inside the home.
5. What gun did you use? A Geissele Super Duty 11.5-inch AR-15 in 5.56, which he described as a personal favorite.
6. Any damage to the house? Minimal. All seven rounds hit the bear. One fragment nicked the floor, but no other property damage was reported.
7. What ammo did you use? Hornady Critical Defense 55 grain. Despite common skepticism about the 5.56 round on large animals, the ammunition performed effectively.

The comments are interesting.

This is my neighbor. No one is mentioning the bear went into his camper and pulled him out!

FYI, the Florida state record bear is 760 lbs, shot in 2015.

That’s my backyard. Shout out from Collier county Naples Florida. Living off Everglades boulevard touching on alligator Alley. The bears are everywhere and they have always been a big problem really tough to keep farm animals and chickens out in the glades.

Dean Weingarten.

Vitaly Aleksandrovich Nikolayenko was a prominent Russian brown bear researcher (Asian version of the American brown or grizzly bear) who routinely and closely approached bears without a firearm. He did this for 33 years, from 1970 to December 2003. In December 2003, he followed a bear that had come out of hibernation in the winter until the bear attacked him, killed him, and ate him. His use of bear spray had failed to stop the bear.  His was the first recorded fatal failure of bear spray. The killing was the culmination of several lucky escapes over the years of his association with brown bears.

It won’t be the last either. Dean also recounts the life and philosophy of Timothy Treadwell, a sorry excuse of an adventurer because he went into the bush with naivety.

Judge: "Constitutionally protected resource like bears."

Me: Where in the constitution does it mention bears?

Alaska Judge Halts Bear Cull Program, Calls It Unconstitutional https://t.co/Mal83wDTDR

— CaptainsJournal (@BrutusMaximus50) April 3, 2025

Cowboy News Daily.

A North Carolina man took a creative and goofy approach to bear deterrence —stepping out of his house in a bear suit to spook away a black bear that had plunked down on his lawn.

It worked for Rodney Clark of Asheville, North Carolina, as evidenced by media interviews and a video making the rounds on news outlets and social media.

However, some Wyomingites said trying that tactic on a grizzly bear would probably get a person mauled, possibly killed — or perhaps even worse — molested by the bear.

[ … ]

In an interview with “Inside Edition,” he said that the bear costume has proven effective in pushing bears off his property.

He told “Inside Edition” that bears sometimes “stop and pause and look back. They’re not really sure what that is.”

What happened to a Marlin 45-70 lever action rifle? What was this man thinking?

This is an ill-advised strategy, regardless of what kind of bear.

At Ammoland.

Ignore all other “authorities” on handguns and bear defense (at least regarding statistics and history). Dean rules.

With that said, I think I’d rather have a larger bore handgun for bear defense. If 9mm works, I presume it’s because of shot placement or number of rounds.