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It wasn't a grizzly it was a brown. Had it been a griz the outcome would have probably been very different.
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Brown bear and grizzly are the same species. But grizzly live inland and have to work much harder for their food. Brown bear are the same animal, but live along the coast where food supplies are much more plentiful. The bear he killed was larger than most inland grizzly.
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You wouldn't think an experienced Alaskan guide, which Shoemaker obviously is, would arm himself with a Semi-Auto 9mm in Grizzly country!
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Shoemaker has been guiding hunters and fishermen for 40 years. He knows what it takes to kill a big bear. He also writes articles that are published and contributes on another hunting forum. He answered questions over there and went into much more detail 2 years ago when this happened
He regularly tests different firearms and had been testing the Buffalo Bore load he used and had already determined that it would would work as well as the bigger guns he usually carried. That load has penetrated over 5' of gel which was as much or more than he could get from magnum revolvers.
Based on the location where they were fishing the bear were normally not aggressive. He did not expect any issues that day. His go-to rifle to back up hunters is a 458 WM. Stopping a big bear that has been wounded is a lot harder to do.