He's my limited experience with Brown bear hunting and even less experience with handguns suitable for brown bear.

I've hunted brown bears on 3 occasions.

The first trip was in the Alaska ranges hunting for a Grizz/inland brown bear.......never saw a bear. Not a single bear in over 16 days hunting. The country was open and I was mainly after a Dall, moose and BG caribou. I carried my R8 in 30/06....Federal premium ammunition loaded with the Nosler 180 partition. I didn't feel underpinned for anything.

My guide carried either a Remington 700 in either 30/06 or 308. He told me that he had shot scores of bears with both the 30/06 and 308 over the last 40 odd years. He only ever hunted in the middle of the state. He had a Ruger Blackhawk which lived in camp. He told me that was what he carried when packing out large loads of meat.

My next trip , also in the Alaska Ranges. Saw outfitter, same location, different guide(Geoff). Saw 2 x bears. One was a sow with cubs the other a mature male....about 6'6". Got to about 120 yards from him. Could have shot him...but he was not what I wanted. That was the first bear that I saw up reasonably close. I was impressed and even more impressed when I saw how fast he could run over tundra and through the bush. Bloody awesome. My guide carried a Colt 1911 in 10mm. Not sure what load. I got the impression that the sidearm was more for use against unruly clients than bears. ha ha....I think.

Next year. different area. Alaska Peninsular...costal brown bear....could see Kodiak Island from the cliffs. Bush was as thick as hell in places...introduced to devil club and alders by the ton. Saw a lot of big bears. Guided by Geoff. This time he carried a CZ 550 in 416 Rigby. Iron sights. No handgun. I carried my R8 but with the 9.3 x 62 barrel. Norma PH 286 grain factory ammo.

Shot my bear on the side of a mountain at about 60 yards...give or take 10. First shot dropped him and then emptied the mag into him. Stood and watched him for about 10 minutes after the last shot to make sure he was dead. Then we, had to crawl under and through about 50 yards of alders, on the side of a mountain to reach the bear. I could smell him from about 12 feet out. Could smell him before I saw him. When I first saw him I was on my knees.

It was an adventure.

From my limited experience....Grizzly inland brown bears are very impressive and where I hunted the country was more open and shots would have been longer. A 30/06 would be fine. For Costal Brown bears....they are HUGE and very, very impressive. For where I hunted the scrub was like NZ monkey scrub, terrain was steep, shots would generally be closer...under 100 yards. I found the 9.3 x 62 just about perfect.

Also, R8 nah sayers please note, that the magazine did not fall out, the rifle did not jam, there were 4 rounds in the magazine and that the magazine did not need to be removed to replenish.

back on track: both guides said that they had never had to use a handgun on a bear. Saw other guides and US clients packing S&W 500, 454 and .44 magnum....but only when hauling meat and or sitting in camp.