Testing Of Bear Spray

[Mato Kuwapi]

Spinner,
I usually leave the bear spray home except for bear country. We don't have to many cougars in this neck of the woods and coyotes, wolves and other such critters...I can't be bothered with. I usually just see there back ends leaving. The other issue is the legality of carrying it around up here. I tend to avoid aggressive fishing situations...at least ones I can't talk my way out of or walk away from. The can for that sort of thing is much smaller anyway. LOL

As far as your mis fire with that particular product...it happens! (A good reason to test them) .... but I still trust their product. Did you contact UDAP directly? UDAP would have been smart to offer you a replacement to keep you loyal and a thank you for letting them know. If they didn't then I guess I would walk too.

[JohnScott]

It's worth pointing out that the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the responsible state agencies in all the Western states advocate for use of bear spray as preferable to use of firearms, for the reasons Deb gave in her post above.

Pepper spray has several more things going for it - it emits significant noise when discharged and a large cloud of orange mist, two more things which can serve to stop a charge. Also, the spray is discharged at pretty high velocity ( something like 70 mph sticks in mind, but I won't swear to that ) so it does have some "upwind" range. That doesn't prevent blowback, but is probably one of the reasons so few people report that as a problem using bear spray.

Bear bells may be the subject of jokes, but one personal experience suggests they are worth carrying. Coming back from Grinnel Glacier in Glacier National Park several years ago, some folks who had the opportunity to watch a large grizzly ( they're all large, right ?? ) coming down a slope on a path that would intersect the trail we were on, at about the time we would reach the point of intersection, told us that about the time they heard our bear bells, the grizzly adjusted his direction and headed up the slope away from the trail. They loaned us their binoculars so we could get a better look at the bear - better seeing it that way than when meeting it at a point of intersection.

While in a local fly shop this morning, I listened in while a couple related their experience a few days ago on the Iceberg Lake trail. The woman, in the lead, rounded a turn and was face to face with a momma griz and two cubs. She alerted her husband and then took off running. The bear did not give chase. After she ran by her husband, he more or less stood his ground, sidling away slowly from the bear. She kept on walking down the trail toward them, but eventually lost ground to them and contact with them. They didn't have bear bells nor bear spray. Their experience was probably more typical than the ones you read about that end badly.

Deb made the point about grizzlies being unpredictable. That is the one thing to keep in mind. And the best reason to use bear bells and carry bear spray, and know how to use it and keep it handy.

John

[Tyro]

Shoot, all this talk about bear spray and guns is crazy talk. Apparently all that is needed is an effective right jab.


http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/443492...s_and_animals/

Note, I am not a bear expert nor expert in self-defense in case of bear attack and any action taken based on this post does not assume any liability for the poster for any ensuing legal liability!

[John Rhoades]

I'm not an expert on bear spray, but I summer a few miles north of Yellowstone Nat'l Park and spend plenty of time in bear country. So, I carry bear spray when needed, and want to at least know the best precautions/procedures.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is in a bear encounter you should only use a short bursts of bear spray rather than completely discharging your container all at once. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, you may miss your target. And second, the container only has a few seconds of spray in it until it empties.

[Mato Kuwapi]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is in a bear encounter you should only use a short bursts of bear spray rather than completely discharging your container all at once. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, you may miss your target. And second, the container only has a few seconds of spray in it until it empties.

Correct. Short bursts. ...and get the big can.

This article by Casey Anderson just popped up in the Huffington Post today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/casey-...comm_ref=false

...and this is why you need to have it... Just more proof that bear spray works.
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com...WFhA4.facebook

[EdD]

Just read through this thread for the first time. After Deb was attacked, I lost all sense of fun with jokes centered around the contents of bear scat. That's just my opinion and I (pardon the pun) bear no animosity over them, either.

As for dogs, I had problems with trained guard dogs allowed to run my neighborhood when I was young. I found that a wide-mouth jar half-filled with grocery store ammonia worked wonders in stopping those attacks dead in their tracks. I was not kind, I hit the dogs right in the face. Any dog that was hit never attacked me again and kept a wide distance if it saw the jar. I would NOT want to trust that to work on a cougar, bear, mugger, cottonmouth, etc...

warm regards,
Ed

[Marco]

EdD,
You introduce a very interesting point. I do wonder if ammonia was ever tested as a predator deterrent. Maybe in a tent camping situation, to pour a perimeter of the stuff would discourage predators , and neighbors.

Mark

[Uncle Jesse]

The talk of ammonia brought back several unrelated memories; my Dad was a route salesman for a short period of time. One day when a large (I don't think there are any small ones)German shepherd was in way of him making a delivery he used household ammonia and a water gun. The dog was never a threat again. Today would have been my Dad's 90th birthday.

Your idea of pouring a perimeter of ammonia around a campsite, reminded me of bivouac in BCT at lovely Ft. Polk. I had the first hour's guard duty after we returned to the bivouac area and over heard a conservation between the Sr. Drill Sargeant and the young training officers, LT's. They were wanting to pop some tear gas on us during the night. The Sr. DI told them "Sir, we're in a valley, that stuff will hang in here. I can't tell you what to do, but if that stuff gets in my tent, I'll get you Sir." There was very little tear gas deployed that night.

When I was a kid, summer between 9th and 10th grade, I was working in a small grocery. Two of the the other kids working there were horsing around and broke a bottle of ammonia. No one entered the store for at least an hour. They were pitiful when the manager made them clean it up. I would not want ammonia around my tent. Deb's electric fence is the way to go if you insist on sleeping in a fabric structure. My idea of roughing it is staying at a old Holiday Inn.