Also note, I cant get my local gun shop to order in much of anything. so the best slugs I could find are Remington standard fosters. but they pack quite a punch at 1760fps. I also got some Winchester 2-3/4's incase my sister in law cant handle that kind of recoil. Do you think this combo is enough for a polar bear. Or should I stay with the plan of more fire power.
Recoil can very significantly between slug loads from various manufacturers. For years I carried Federal 3" magnums, and those were my go to choice because they were locally available, then Challengers showed up and I switched to them, until I was able to find a source of Brennekes. The Brennekes recoil much less than the Federal slugs, the Challengers are loaded on the fast side, so the kick too. As to the question of whether a foster slug of any manufacturer is good enough to stop a polar bear, I suspect that 90% of 12 ga bear guns are loaded with fosters. Gary Shelton's #1 choice is the Federal (or was at the time he wrote his books). So yes, the foster will work, like a pal of mine used to say, "It won't do em any good!" But if you can get something that works just a little better it can't hurt.
The question of fire-power is not relevant to the discussion. One does not need to establish fire superiority over a bear. The speed by which you can get off your rounds isn't exactly irrelevant, but each shot must be aimed. This reduces the speed advantage of the auto over a firearm with a manual action. The shooter with a manual action properly cycles the action with the gun at the shoulder during recoil, then he must reacquire his target, aim, and make the subsequent shot. The auto shooter doesn't need to change his grip on the firearm, but he must still recover from recoil, re-establish his target, aim, and fire his subsequent round. When I was in Africa, I could fire 2 aimed round from a .375 M-70 faster than I could 2 aimed round from the John Wilkes .500 Nitro Express, yet if I harped the triggers on the double, both round fired in such rapid succession that it sounded like a single shot. So the ability of the firearm to fire rapidly has little to do with the ability of the shooter to shoot quickly.
In the defense from wildlife scenario, an auto rifle does have some very real advantages over a manual action firearm, but if not rapidity of fire what are they? Military autos in particular strip easily for maintenance in the field, something that is not all that common to other types of firearms. But the most important advantage of the auto is reliable functioning of the action when the shooter is under stress. The action of the auto rifle is not subject to short stroking, and that can be a life saver. But it won't save anyones life if the gun is left in the tent because its too heavy to pack around, and that is the complaint often heard against the M-14 and it's clones. Weight of course is a subjective matter, and the weight of a rifle means less to a 230 pound 6 footer out for a day's plinking than it does to a five and a half foot girl who weighs 120, is already loaded down with a bunch of gear, has been living for weeks in a tent in mosquito and fly infested tundra, living on marginal food. When the bugs aren't so thick that breathing is difficult, its because the wind is driving horizontal rain sometimes mixed with sleet, and she is wet, cold, hungry, and tired, and would rather the bear kill her than to add another ounce to her pack. In her case a 6 pound rifle might seem like too much to bother with.
I dislike putting budgetary limits on life saving equipment, yet I live in the real world, and know that sometimes one must get by with what he has or with what he can afford. But then what he has should reflect what he needs, even if what he needs isn't exactly what he wants. When cash was particularly tight for me, I carried a single shot 12 ga Cooey for bear work. The stock was carved down to a shape that was more pleasing and the fore-end was narrowed which shaved off some unnecessary weight and improved handling. The iron sights from a M-700 were soldered onto the barrel that was cut to 20", a recoil pad was installed with the LOP cut to suit me, and a barrel band swivel was soldered to the barrel. This was a neat little 5 pound rig and I began to think it was all I needed for bear work. Shooting prone I could keep 5 Winchester slugs in a 100 yard group the size of my hand, and if I put a couple of shells between the fingers of my support hand, I could fire 3 rounds fairly quickly. The Federal 3" slugs kicked like being hit by a truck. The belt on the shoulder wasn't intolerable, but the little gun would buck and bruise my cheek despite the tight cheek weld, snap my head back and leave me with a killer headache after just a few rounds. But this was a "carry a lot - shoot a little" gun, so I tolerated it, and didn't shoot it to the point where I would develop a flinch.
The real problem came from reliability. The firing pin on these guns, both the Winchester and Cooey versions was so short that the deep seated primers of the Federal shells wouldn't fire reliably, which I fortunately discovered without incident. I was hired for a bear protection gig for a May long weekend south of Cape Churchill, and took that little shotgun, which fed us spring geese, and was supposed to deal with any bear issues that might occur. There were lots of caribou about, but we didn't see any bears or bear sign, and I left a little disappointed. Upon returning home I noticed the shells on the butt cuff were beginning to tarnish slightly, so I thought it would be prudent to shoot them off and replace them with fresh. Not one of those Federal slugs fired! These were the shells that were supposed to protect us in one of the most densely populated polar bear areas on the planet! Thinking about how close I work, I felt sick.
That was the last time the little gun was carried for serious work, and I began experimenting with a number of powerful rifles, including the .30/06 M-17 Enfield that I owned at that time, a Lee Enfield #4 and a #5 Jungle Carbine, a .45/70 Marlin, a .458 Whitworth, a .338 M-70, a Ruger #1 .416 Rigby, a Brno 602 .375 H&H, and I finally settled on my custom Brno 602 in .375 Ultra and a 590 Mossberg, in addition to my ATC guns. I had a custom rifle made up for my wife as well, based on the Huqvarna 1600 carbine in .30/06.
