I think there is too much dogma and misinformation surrounding this topic, and the internet is full of both.
I see people advocating for pump shotguns or nothing, and never for semi auto shotguns. They say in freezing conditions the semi auto of any kind becomes unreliable, but plenty of duck hunters use semi auto shotguns in nasty conditions just fine because that was what they were designed for. An easy way to screw up a fixed mechanical system is to introduce a human element, so someone panicking and trying to pump a shotgun through cold and adrenaline seems like a good way to reach a failure point.
People talk big bore revolvers which are hard to shoot. They say the caliber has to start with a 4 or whatever yet the
empirical data shows that most handguns are effective. There is this warm fuzzy feeling people get when they talk about revolvers as though they were the pinnacle of simplicity and reliability when really it just seems that we as a community have forgotten all the problems like timing issues etc that revolvers had.
I did watch a youtube video where someone was advocating for a semi auto .308 as a dangerous game type gun for north America. I think the real advantage he spoke on was is simply capacity and how it pertains to overall firepower. You can fit a 25 round magazine of .308 into a Ruger SFAR for example which makes a pretty powerful yet lightweight packages which is probably a dream to shoot compared to a big bore lever gun.
All hypothetical though. I really think that this topic is beaten to death, and that if a big bear really wants to kill you, you aren't going to have time to react.
