Jerry, with due respect, it is not that some bears are less hostile. It is that circumstances make the bear hostile or not. Get between any bear, black, grizzly or Kodiak brown bear and it will become hostile. Surprise it when it is feeding on a deer or elk carcass and it will become hostile. The bears in your area are not truly brown bears but black bears that have a brown coloration. Some are black, some brown, blonde or a reddish tint.

You can tell us that your bears do not attack people but when I lived in Colorado, a woodsman shot and wounded a black bear, same bears you have. It attacked and killed him, eating some of the body before it left. Grizzly bears will definitely attack you but after cuffing you around a bit and taking numerous bites from you the grizzly will generally speaking walk off and leave you alone. Black bears traditionally will not walk off and leave you. Once you are on the ground they will continue to kill and eat you. That is why if you are charged and attacked by a grizzly bear it is recommended you lie on the ground in a, Dead, position. Once it has taken its anger out on you it will normally leave. Black bear are the complete opposite. If attacked by a black bear it is recommended you kick, bite, scratch, anything you can do to fight it off.

This information is widely published. I also get my information from my ex brother in law who is one of the top bear specialists in America.

Dennis

Great choices, all. My choice has always been a 375 H&H or a 416 Rigby. I used both in Africa, the 375 as my small rifle and the 416 for buffalo. Both rifles would group 3 shots in under an inch at 100 yards and all kills were one shot with the exception of an eland which took two. Both were in the lungs but I learned to keep shooting as long as the animal was up. Nothing like seeing a huge eland do a triple somersault while running after being hit with a 375. Two of the very best calibers ever made and both early 1900's calibers. My next biggest gun was a 470 double but I did not get to take it to Africa. A shame.

For handguns my choice would be a 44 Magnum as a small choice and a heavy loaded 45 Colt or a 454 Casull.

Dennis

Great Choices....I have always wanted a Double Rifle...I have a Friend who retired from a Career for Alaska Fish and Game,,,,then He worked for an Outfitter as a Brown Bear Guide on Admiralty Island....One of his Friends an Outfitter had a Client who Wounded a Bear and the Guide went into the Brush to finish it off...The Bear Charged and the Guide made a killing shot but the Bear kept coming and the Guide had his Rifle jam for the second shot and was badly mauled before the Bear died...After Months in the Hospital he went back to Guiding for Brown Bear at first he almost bought a rifle with a Mauser Action with controlled Round Feed those Rifles almost never jam, but he thought better of it, and although a Double Rifle has only two rounds, a Double Rifle is almost jam proof and fool proof and that is what he bought to go back to Guiding for Brown Bears...Healthy Population of Brown Bears in Alaska and killing Old Male Bears saves some Cubs....