Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Portable Electric Fence?

Is there a brand or type of electric fence system that seems particularly well suited for hunters & campers in bear country?

I know it's not 100% effective for keeping out bears and such, but am looking at ways of making my backcountry hunting & fishing camps a bit more secure.

Already keep clean camp, use bear boxes, etc..



I often camp alone or with one or two other folks, hunting or fishing. This is a typical camp photo. My small trailer does have a deep-cycle aux battery that is pretty under-utilized most of the time.

Thanks! Guy

Yep they are out there and some just use D batteries for several days of charge. You could also buy a solar fence charger and some poly tape or braid and build your own system.
Just Google back country or bear electric fencing.

Zareba. Is the brand of solar fencer I use to protect my honey bees, I have a deer camera set to video , those bears don't like honey bad enough to risk getting shocked twice.

I use a solar unit here for the pig pen. Packs a pretty good jingle.

I have use the 12V Gallagher B60 Charger, worked fine.

Dave

Commercial bear fences are usually only long enough to encircle a tent. If you need a longer one, go to a farm store and get step-in posts and a roll of tape or wire. Tape is more visible for both you and the bears. I set up a 50x50 3-strand fence for my llamas during hunting season. For a charger, I use this one from Kencove STRIP GRAZER. It can run well over a week on 4 D cells or months on a small 12v battery. They pull very little juice until something touches the fence.

The most important part of it is the ground. Without that, the best charger you can buy is useless. If the ground is dry, dig a hole, put the ground rod in it and fill it with water. Better yet, do 2 or 3 of those and connect them with wires and clamps. If there's water handy, run a wire from the charger's ground post to the water and just drop it in. There's no such thing as too much ground.

Some guys will smear peanut butter on the wire or tape to lure the bear to lick it. Once he gets a tingly tongue, he won't mess with it again.

If you want to get fancy with electric netting, check out this site. They have all kinds of good quality stuff and good customer service to help you do it right. PREMIER1SUPPLY

If you just want one for car camping you should have many choices. I carry a UDAP system for backpacking. It uses D batteries and is heavy and is a pos. My dog walks through it like it isn't there and you can comfortably hold it in your hand and not be bothered by the tingle it gives every few seconds. The reason I carry it is because I get better sleep when it is up. The wife and kids wake me up from noises in the night far less. I'll be carrying it again in the morning...

Either the charger isn't properly grounded or YOU aren't grounded. To get shocked, you have to be grounded yourself. If the soil's dry, you likely aren't. A dog standing on dry dirt or grass isn't hardly grounded at all. I suspect a bear's wide feet will spread his weight so he's not well grounded either. A hoofed animal's feet will cut in and the ground will be much better. Long haired animals, like sheep or llamas, have to hit the wire with their ears or noses to get shocked. I've watched my llamas lean over the wires and not get hit at all. It's the same with bears. That's why they smear peanut butter on the wires. They need to get the bear to lick it or he'll go right through. Even then he won't get shocked if he's not grounded.

Unfortunately, about the only solution to grounding is to throw a lot of water on the ground around the fence. Usually, that's not practical at all.

You set up to have a ground wire and two live wires when you touch a live wire and the ground wire when walking through the fence you get a big shock no matter what the ground conditions. When the shock passes through your heart it is very unpleasant. I use a small UDAP unit based on a New Zealand charger designed for portable sheep penning. 2 D batteries last 3-4 weeks and I like the unit. It encloses 9x9x9x9 yard space or equivalent.

There are electric net fences made so that alternating wires are hot or ground. The only problem with this setup is getting a bear to touch 2 wires at the same time. I mentioned putting peanut butter on the hot tape to get a bear to lick it. If he isn't touching the grounded tape at the same time, it's no better than the poor ground he gets through his feet.

We saw maybe a dozen or so in use on Kodiak while on a float fishing trip. Most were not much more than 10-12 ft on a side, but every one that we saw was intact. There were no signs of bears having messed with them--and there were a hell of a lot of bears everywhere!

Thanks! Good to know.

Guy

The D-cell ones are pretty popular here, as mentioned above. I can't comment on their effectiveness, but I can say that a regular electric fence has reduced our chicken losses to zero at the house. We have had plenty of problems with bears, but they learn pretty quick not to touch the wires.

We might have more moisture in the ground than where RC is.

I've used it in multiple conditions, including wet. It doesn't give a significant shock at any point, just a light static-like pop every couple of seconds. I've experienced real electric fences and this thing is just weak. On my dog collar it would be a 2 of 10 setting. I'll test by holding the ground wire directly while touching the hot hook.

If it has an effect my guess is that it would be a result of the high-pitch sound emitted--I'm sure animals can detect it. I have bells I put on the posts so it will at least act as an alarm in the case of a breach. I've been meaning to rig isolators for hiking poles so that I don't have to pack the junky fiberglass posts it came with.

My first line of defense is camping smart. We go through lengths to ensure a clean camp and especially a clean sleeping area. The only things allowed in the tent are sleeping clothes/bedding. If you think I am going to smear peanut butter around my tent to try to tempt a bear to sniff this feckless wire you guessed wrong. I hope you don't practice that and I think you should stop promoting the idea. Can you imagine suggesting the spreading of food around a tent in the hope that this pos fence actually was effective? Imagine all of the ways it could fail, and now you have lured in a bear.

My portable charger uses either 4 D cells or it can be hooked to a 12v battery. It'll make you tingle.

My buddy and I used the UDAP system (I think) that takes D batteries. It was big enough to give us enough camp space and encircle the Shangrila 5 teepee. We never had problems with bears (that we know of) but the feds at the refuge flew in at least once a day for 3 days straight to check our licenses and on at least one occasion to enter our perimeter and leave their business card. By the third time I’d had enough of their harassment. We had all the necessary permits and licenses and if they wanted to visit us a fourth time I was going to go ballistic. The third time they stopped by we were out hunting otherwise I wouldn’t have been nearly as cooperative and pleasant as I was the first 2 times.....2 consecutive days. Doing a fly out hunt to get away from the crowds is great as long as you’re not being buzzed multiple times by the federal fish pigs. They were polite enough but after checking that everything is in order I expect to be left alone unless and until there’s an animal down, at which time checking that it’s legal, tagged, etc is well within their purview and they’d receive my full cooperation. I fish and hunt by the book and I don’t like being harassed by anyone, including the fish pigs.

I don’t know if it kept critters away but i do know that it didn’t keep the federal fish pigs away. 😁

Ace
They’re smarter than the average bear.

Gallagher are great units - s10 is solar and battery and will last days - use them on the farm all the time

We've used the Gallagher B11 for 3 years or so. It has worked great as both a bear tent and temp backcountry horse pasture fence on our horse trips. We get over a month out of 6- D cells, as long as the fence is kept clear of any grass or brush. 5/8" copper rods seem to work well for grounds. Haven't seen anyone yet hold onto it for more than one snap...

The animal gets shocked when he complete the circuit between the wire and the earth.
If the fence is 2 miles long, the charger will need to have a low enough output impedance to still work when blades of grass are shorting it out from wire to earth. That charger uses extra energy, costs more, and is heavy.
For a little fence around a tent, one can inspect that not a single blade of grass is shorting it out. The charger can then be energy efficient, cheap, and lightweight.

I test a fence with a blade of grass in my hand and wearing leather shoes. If I can feel the shock with 6" of grass between me and the wire, it is doing well.
If I can only feel the shock when the grass connection is shortened to 1/2" inch, the fence is barely working.

Coyotes, horses, and pigs are very sensitive to electric fences. Sheep are not, and should be fenced with wires a few inches apart, alternating ground wires with hot wires. This will shock the sheep on the head, and not the wool.

Your dog will learn not to pee on the fence. The stream of urine is good conductor for high Voltage low current.