Bear spray?

[rainbowchaser]

I firmly believe that the best bear defence is my off key baritone. Fly me to Bozeman and I'll be happy to sing and fish with you. For a slight additional fee I'll shut up and just fish. Being mauled by a bear can't be that bad.

[bdesavage]

Marco having Jim sing to keep the bears away I think might fall under "Cruel and Unusual" maybe

[RatherBFishin]

There's good reason Lastchance is a bit scared. You see, he will be fishing YNP with me this August. I have had numerous close encounters with griz on Pebble, Soda Butte, Slough and Fan Creeks. Last year I had an encounter with the bear that was later shot in Silver Gate. It must be that I smell like fresh elk meat.

[lastchance]

RatherBFishin': You kow what you smell like and it ain't elk meat. It's what happens a day or so after you eat elk meat.

[Steve Molcsan]

Kind of funny on the way into Yellowstone on the Idaho side there for many years has been a vendor that sells elk jerky along side the highway.

I was just mentioning how I want to get some this year, think I will get some for the bear also that way I can get a running start ..

[modocdan]

I've been seein' this thread for awhile now, and haven't chimed in, but here's a bear story from Glide, Oregon...on the North Umpqua river.... I'll keep it short. It seems there were, a few summers back, a pair of bear cubs hanging out in the yards outside of town eating apples in the early mornings, in people's yards. somehow or other the mother had been killed, and they were orphaned a bit early for bears. Well somebody got scared, and shot one cub, killing it and scaring the other off. Well, the remaining cub didn't get far, and some of the locals, feeling sorry for it, started feeding it, and kept it up til the bear was grown. Well, he grew larger than most blacks in the area, as he was well fed all the time. He wasn't much afraid of folks, and inevitably he got where he scared somebody and got hisself shot. Shot, but not killed. He ran off up in the hills nearby, and next day a bear posse was hot on his trail. A bunch of local "hunters". Well two of the hunters out together tracked the bear til one of 'em found him. The wounded bear and the hunter came face to face at about ten feet, and the bear immediately charged, grabbed the fella and commenced to havin his way with the hunter. The hunter was armed with a 1911 type .45. Well, he managed to jam the muzzle into the bear's ear while he was bein chewed on, and hadn't chambered a round. Somehow only he will ever understand, he then ejected the magazine. The bear nearly killed him, somehow his buddy heard the commotion, and managed to arrive in time to put two 30-06 rounds in the bears skull. The handgunner survived, but he'll never walk right, I hear, and he's short an ear and part of his scalp, as well as various real nice scars and reminders.

.........I've had a face to face with half a dozen bears, (blacks) and never shot any of them. ( I did go on a bear hunt 35 years ago and kill & tag one.) I had them all turn around and walk off after they figured out I was a human. One stared me down longer than the rest and started waggin his head from side to side. He was about twenty feet away, and I pulled down on that ol' boy with my .357, fixin' to put 5 or 6 in his face when he too turned around and wandered off.
My .357 will not jam. I will never eject the magazine in a bear encounter. I will never find there is no round in the chamber of my .357 wheelgun. And, the .357 I have now carries 7 rounds. I'm in favor of revolvers. Carry only a weapon you are familiar with and comfortable with. I don't know how effective pepper spray is with bears, but I've had personal experience with it, and spent a couple hours in misery. However, I am not a bear. Like has been said a .22 in experienced hands is better than a cannon in other hands. Best advice.... Be aware, Be Smart, Pay Attention. Go armed if you're competant and comfortable with your weapon. Yeah, there are bears, but also cougars, skunks, stinging nettles, (try a dose of those) muskrat holes to break yer leg in, bald faced hornets, etc. all of those can hurt ya or even kill ya.
Well.......I tried to keep it short..........................ModocDan

[hap]

Long as we are telling bear stories...

Some many years back a cook in one of the roadhouses near McCarthy decided he was going to kill a brown bear with a stick and string and got a local to go along as "backup". Bear was found in good time and a sliver driven home. Bear seemed to object to the sliver and charged the cook. He must have smelled like cookie dough because the bear did some chewing and lip-smacking.

The local backup took his job description literally and did just that, backed-up. Way back to town without saying word one to anyone.

Cookie was in a real bad way but managed to crawl to the road where he flagged a passing motorist and through the miracle of modern medicine survived the ordeal. A search party found the scene of the mauling and a short distance away they found the bear's body.

Just a note on the importance of a good partner...
art

[hap]

Long as we are there... Ken Howell, a friend and long time editor of many different magazines and an outdoorsman for many decades tells the story of the black bear bothering the road construction camp. Late '50s Montana IIRC. They rigged a series of garbage can lids to sound when the bear next got into the garbage and everyone in camp came out hollering at the bear.

The bear wondered what all the commotion was about and climbed a good big tree to get away from the lights and screaming yahoos. Someone climbed part way up the tree to get the bear higher and attached a stout line while the other end was attached to a bulldozer.

When the dozer got the tree leaning heavily the bear climbed to the upside of the bent bole. Shortly after the line was cut a loud splash could be heard well out in the lake next to camp. The bear never returned...