Perhaps more surprising is that they now use a 9mm sidearm for that role, at least according to the article's speculation. Good luck doing anything other than making the bear mad with that.
When you're dealing with a bear that has never seen people before, it has no idea that loud noises like rifles are dangerous. I've seen a friend fire a .375 right past a brown's head from 50 yards and it didn't even blink. The bear just kept eating berries sitting on his butt.
You can lay on your horn in the car, fire bear bangers and smash pots and pans together - they don't care.
I've also seen someone unload into one with 5 shots from a .303 - all shots hit home in the heart/lung area (later we found both lungs torn apart, though not the heart) and it kept running full speed for over 100 yards. If we had been closer than 100 yards, it would have had us.
17 cases with 9x19 Parabelum ammo (that was before Russia adopted its own 9x19 so it's all imported guns), 10 at over 2m, out of these: 7 unharmed, 2 wounded, 1 dead, 7 bears killed. 7 cases at less than 2m: 3 unharmed, 2 wounded, 2 dead, 4 bears killed.
With these odds I'd rather shoot than let a bear maul me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sl%C3%A6depatruljen_Sirius#Equi...