Coldshooter
Member
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Woman two girls get bear scare on Granite Tors Trail actually there is a lot to be said for women protecting their young. Notice last statement, she bought a gun.
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Definitive Bear Protection, Insect SPRAY?
- Thread starter Coldshooter
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BearBio
Member
Year-it will work. Doesn't stop as well. May cause permanent blindness. People were carrying it in areas where pepper spray or mace need permits.
BoDog
Member
Mod 29-2 will solve this problem. I have seeh humans take a full shot of mace and just get pissed off.
BrainOnSigs
Member
At the risk of starting a pissing contest...
One should train with bear spray as one does with a firearm. I'm also not saying to leave your guns at home. Bring them along where allowed. I used the spray before bullets in an encounter last year in Yellowstone. A buddy and I were carrying a S&W 460 and a S&W 500. We both are excellent shots and shoot competitively. We had the spray in our hand while walking. We surprised a sow griz at the bend of a trail and she bolted at us. My buddy and I both let loose with spray and she stop as soon as she caught a snoot full.
Three things I can say with certainty...from my meager experience:
1) The spray worked as advertised.
2) Even if I had my S&W 460 in my hand no way would I have made a one shot kill.....she was at top speed instantly...and I might have got off one shot....at a massive skull...moving up/down/sideways. We all like to think we are gods with a gun....but few people on this planet would have got off a kill shot....no way...no how.
3) In my mind...from my own experience...bear spray then bullets....not the other way around.
One should train with bear spray as one does with a firearm. I'm also not saying to leave your guns at home. Bring them along where allowed. I used the spray before bullets in an encounter last year in Yellowstone. A buddy and I were carrying a S&W 460 and a S&W 500. We both are excellent shots and shoot competitively. We had the spray in our hand while walking. We surprised a sow griz at the bend of a trail and she bolted at us. My buddy and I both let loose with spray and she stop as soon as she caught a snoot full.
Three things I can say with certainty...from my meager experience:
1) The spray worked as advertised.
2) Even if I had my S&W 460 in my hand no way would I have made a one shot kill.....she was at top speed instantly...and I might have got off one shot....at a massive skull...moving up/down/sideways. We all like to think we are gods with a gun....but few people on this planet would have got off a kill shot....no way...no how.
3) In my mind...from my own experience...bear spray then bullets....not the other way around.
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That's one of 3 things that people don't realize about bears.
They are not only at top speed instantly -
They can (and do) move faster than a real, honest to God, race horse!
Also, as you pointed out, they don't go straight - There's a LOT of muscle in motion there.
Oh - And #4 --- They're WAY bigger than they look on TV
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That's one of 3 things that people don't realize about bears.
They are not only at top speed instantly -
They can (and do) move faster than a real, honest to God, race horse!
Also, as you pointed out, they don't go straight - There's a LOT of muscle in motion there.
Oh - And #4 --- They're WAY bigger than they look on TV
Having been chased by them, and having seen them take down a full grown moose, I can agree.
All that baloney about running up hill or down turn, inability to turn quickly etc...... Is BS.
They are awesome animals and I would NEVER trust any kind of spray to keep one away.
You should see how a bear acts after he's eaten fermented berries all day long!
BrainOnSigs
Member
Having been chased by them, and having seen them take down a full grown moose, I can agree.
All that baloney about running up hill or down turn, inability to turn quickly etc...... Is BS.
They are awesome animals and I would NEVER trust any kind of spray to keep one away.
You should see how a bear acts after he's eaten fermented berries all day long!
So can I assume from your statement that you are confident that you could have unholstered your handgun and made a one shot stop on a charging grizzly with a few seconds of reaction time?
Frank237
Absent Comrade
This should be the automatic reply whenever one of these "What should I use" , bear threads get posted.
Unless you have seen what a big bear is capable of first hand the majority of replies are wishful thinking or downright ignorant.
FN in MT
That reminds me of a story that a park ranger told us years ago when my wife and I were camping on the North Fork of the Shoshone river outside of Yellowstone. We were there in the fall and the bears were in the low areas because of a drought. The ranger recommended we get some bear spray and went on to tell us about a local couple who left a large can of it out for their young sons when they left them alone and went into town. A grizzly came into their yard and the youngest boy decided to apply some bear spray while in the kitchen, thinking it worked like mosquito repellent! I'll bet he never did that again.
OP
Coldshooter
Member
The news article has two important facts. 1. this was a juvenile bear possibly curious more so than a sow protecting cubs. 2. She had sprayed it once with bear spray and it seemed to be cautious of ANY spray at that point. OP was somewhat light hearted after many of the recent threads.
BearBio
Member
"That's one of 3 things that people don't realize about bears.
They are not only at top speed instantly -
They can (and do) move faster than a real, honest to God, race horse!
Also, as you pointed out, they don't go straight - There's a LOT of muscle in motion there.
Oh - And #4 --- They're WAY bigger than they look on TV "
From my single bluff charge experience while researching black bears:
5. They go through things you have to go around!
6. They go through things you have to go over!
We saw a grizzly hunting elk in Yellowstone. I first noticed him and said "that looks like a bison running but it's too fast!==gotta be a bear!"
They are not only at top speed instantly -
They can (and do) move faster than a real, honest to God, race horse!
Also, as you pointed out, they don't go straight - There's a LOT of muscle in motion there.
Oh - And #4 --- They're WAY bigger than they look on TV "
From my single bluff charge experience while researching black bears:
5. They go through things you have to go around!
6. They go through things you have to go over!
We saw a grizzly hunting elk in Yellowstone. I first noticed him and said "that looks like a bison running but it's too fast!==gotta be a bear!"
That's what a 12ga with slugs is for. And yes, I've done it.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
The only foolproof way to stop a charging bear is to take away his credit card.
BrainOnSigs
Member
Distance? Reaction time? Surprised by bear in full charge?
1) Didn't have a 12 ga with slugs. Already was pushing my max weight with all the camera/camping gear. Ideally I would have liked my Cooper Rifle chambered in .338-06 and about 100 yards between us.
2) Slugs? There was only time for one slug (shot).
3) Again...used bear spray...went home safe. (Plus a bonus.....while not 1st on my list...the bear went home safe also.)
Thuer
Member
400short
Member
definitive? there ain't no definitive. you make your choice and hope for the best. the official gubment line is bear spray, and it does work, but so does the heavy caliber handgun. there are alot of wyo game and fish wardens and forest service rangers paacking guide guns.
David LaPell
Member
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What alot of people don't know about Mace, pepper spray, etc. is that if the wind is blowing say in the direction you are standing then you are going to be wearing some of that spray. I have been there myself and having sprayed people in the midst of a fight only to watch them keep right on fighting after a full shot to the face, I'll stick to my 27-2 with a good stout SWC and some 2400 powder.
sipowicz
Member
Bears are not a problem if you plan well. All you need to do is make sure you go camping with someone who runs slower than you do.
BrainOnSigs
Member
Attempting to stop a charging, full-grown, grizzly with .357 mag...and time for one shot at best....WOW......most of you have some serious brass ones that are bigger than mine....
BTW: Bear spray and mace for humans ain't anywhere near in the same league for potency and chemical compsition. You also need to take into account the differences in our olfactory systems. A good hound dog is thought to have a sense of smell between 100-300 times better than a human being. A bear’s nose is approximately seven times better than a hound dog’s. When a bear gets a blast of spray, it's nose, throat and eyes are super sensitive to it's effects.
Again....I am not telling you crack-shot, wood ninja types to leave your guns at home....bring them.....along with spray. I'm not going to stop arming myself with the biggest gun that the law (and the situation) will allow me to carry....but I truly believe this option saved myself and my friend from serious injury or death.
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BearBio
Member
Very good post. I agree completely! When I took Animal Behavior in grad school, we were told a dog's sense of smell was closer to 100,000 times as strong as a human's (from actual tests with butearic acid). If you look at the bones inside of a dog/wolf/bear/pig skull, there are all kinds of paper thin bones rolled up like a scroll. Those are the turbinate bones. They are covered with a membrane one cell thick that is almost all composed of "smelling cells". Unrolled, they cover many square feet of nasal membrane.
Human mace and pepper spray are, I believe, about 1/10th as strong as bear pepper spray. Like most vets, I was maced (CS) while in training. I was "mis-sprayed" with dog pepper spray (separating my GSP and a Doberman) and sprayed bear spray on my dogs to separate them in a fight (two GSPs). They were on our bed. I do know I couldn't sleep in that bed for a week. Also, bear spray is at a higher pressure.
