Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire BEAR SPRAY DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK.

Anytime!

Concur, but that and the bear spray is enough of an issue (I hate to tell you where she carries the pistol) so, I will probably just have to either run with her or trail her on a mountain bike...or better yet our Polaris, that way I can bring a cigar, my 657 S&W and a beverage smile

Great idea!

I live in Bettles, AK and bears are an every day thing. The park service here claims that bear spray is 100% effective and that guns are a poor substitute. They carry the stuff walking from home to work (100 yards). Most everyone that flies in here has bear spray so the propaganda is working. Most of the cans we have show no expiration date. If it really goes bad, there should be a BIG sticker with a date on it. Also, a lot of it never leaves the holster so you wouldn't know unless you looked at it.
We have had to shoot two bears here in town so far this summer. Both trying to get in peoples homes. Nobody bit yet.

One of the PS employees was telling me yesterday that the ONLY effective gun on bears is a 12 ga shooting slugs! Amazing how little people really know yet they spew it as gospel.

Unfortunately the Park Service places more value on the bears than on the people, hence the directions to use the bear spray. Also Bear Spray is less effective on black bears than griz. The lady that was recently killed up by Fairbanks had bear spray and also her partner did. The partner sprayed the bear several times and the black bear kept coming back. I understand the 2nd lady was also injured, the one she was trying to help was killed. This was a predatory attack.

This, there is only one way to stop a grizzly that's decided to go into attack mode. Spray may stop a curious bear or a bluff charge, but it's not going to stop the real thing. I carry my spray in the cylinder of a my .44 . Carrying bear spray just makes you feel better, it's not going to save you.

If you guys want to try to not kill a problem bear by using bear spray, I wish you luck. I've seen and experienced some really bad outcomes of fights with people who were sprayed with far more powerful sprays than pepper spray.
The problem is that if your opening moves in any fight aren't good enough, you may not have the time to change tactics. I agree completely with Stormin Norman. Nuisance bears are one thing. I suspect that people with lots of bear experience can tell the difference between a serious one and one that is being a pest. What I know is I can't. So, he gets a warning, and, if that doesn't work, he gets shot. BTW, I've been surprised and confronted with several bears over the years. Haven't shot one yet. E

I do not know much about bear spray but a 357 or larger is good insurance if you know have to use it.

Pretty graphic article and the spray vs. firearm debate continues. We have plenty of Black Bears where I hunt (and have killed more than a couple) and I make it a point to read articles like this to gain as much knowledge as I can. I used to not think much about Blackies, then I started to get more and more aware of all the possibilities. I now have a healthy respect for them.

https://craigmedred.news/2017/06/21/dangerous-bear/

How about a bear taser? I can't be the first to have thought of it.

What sprays are more powerful than bear spray?

I though the bear spray was the most powerful. I still carry a 454 and no spray.

No, you're not. it's been investigated on moose and used to haze bears away from places they are unwanted.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=450

As a defense method in a charge? Not me!

The Nazi Park Circus is one of those propaganda-spewing govt agencies I was referencing. None of us care or pay attention to much they have to say.

It's not that they know little (they don't) but they also have an agenda they're pushing. Most of them are carpet-bagging DSMFs up here on a tour of duty in their feral govt career.

F&ck the Forest Circus

when we were younger, wife and i did a lot of long distance trail hiking. up and down, extreme heat, etc. we pretty much daily went up one road to a radio tower for training purposes. Mind you sometime 110degrees. My wife would do this as you would expect t shirt and shorts. All fine until some of the problems in the area, decapitated woman found etc. So I brought her what we called the "bra gun." A little beretta .22lr in think the model 21 or 22, which conveniently had a holster in that space in the center of the bra. No body would expect a gun there. I told her if needed empty the gun into the problem, throw it at them, and run like hell. I don't think it would be a thing for them to catch her leaking blood all over the place.

Wowza. Alot more composed than I would have been. I think the smell of feces would have deterred the bear for the second go round.

Exactly! It is all about a non-lethal method of turning bears with some EXPECTED loss of human life as a result.

How do you get through all the hair?

She can probably tote the 454 in there then