phat i do realize that a pistol is ilegal for us and do not advocate carring one ,besides there are not many that are useful against a bear they do not have the stoping power for large boar grizzly. if you are hiking in a group and everyone is carrieng spray you have good odds. however you only have about 6 seconds of spray time with the large can and in the case of predacious black bears they are wel documented as repeatidly trying to attack after being sprayed repeatidly.so if by chance you get caught alone then1 can may not be enough. the times i am out with a group we all carry spray , but out by yourself there is the time to think about a rifle as well as spray, the proper firearm to carry in this situation is a 12ga pump with 1.25oz slugs. nothing else . this is about how it breaks down for a solo hiker. a proper gun with acompetent shooter sucess is about95%, bear spray about 70% and no defenceabout45%. the odds are not good that you will ever need your defence system but every year there are attacks and deaths. the trend is also on the rise as we are over protecting our bears and they are loosing there fear of man. this along with a steadily rising population of bears and less hunters with less open seasons is changing the bear man dynamics in a way that most people are not aware of