Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Even Big Bears are scared of tourists

Agreed. Completely.

But in mod7rem's video above, it would be really satisfying to see that bear get a good spray in the face. Supposedly, spray is perfect for a curious, testy bear, and at that range, you can't possibly miss. There are clearly two guys there, so one spraying with the other ready to shoot would be ideal. Best of all, you don't have a carcass to dress, hide and meat to haul out, and gutpile left next to a trail drawing in more potential problem bears for others to have to deal with. And maybe that bear would learn to leave people alone.

Admittedly, though, he might also develop a bad attitude toward people, like some dogs develop toward porcupines after getting quilled.

I tend to hunt alone, and finally started to bring a can of spray to hang in the cook tent. I hope never to need it, and if alone, would probably just shoot a troublesome bear, especially if I don't have to put him on my back. Maybe I'm just an a$$hole, but spraying a testy one down just seems satisfying.

LOL. You use what you want to.
The day I wanted spray to work the wind would be wrong. The range wrong. The can wouldn't work . ETc....

IIRC Phil carries Spray. Its just one extra thing I don't want.

Just 2 cents from someone who has been sprayed more times than wanted. There is a reason LE transitioned to the Taser. It's a better tool in the legal use of force continuum. I've seen people cough, gag and puke and I've seen people smile, unaffected after being doused with pepper. Even those who cough and gag can fight through it with appropriate adrenaline. I have zero confidence in pepper spray against any bear. It's a roll of the dice. Once pepper spray becomes airborne, it's also non-discriminatory.

very true , i would put it one step more any place including a town or city the 2 legged ones can be bad too.

Hmmm..........could be fun........

Tasers have been effective in SE to tase bears away from hatchery areas to avoid confrontation with fish techs doing their work. F&G has used tasers to immobilize moose to free them when tangled in things like swingsets and wire fences.

Yup! Pretty doggone easy to carry (and conceal if necessary) a compact handgun with bear-thumping ammo. A lot of folks don't train to react quickly and shoot accurately though.



Regards, Guy

Guy. Couple things. You may or may not agree.

Bear ammo. Generally speaking it doesn't take what folks think it takes. IE they use powerful ammo they cannot control

Read the Kenai bear attack in the NRA mag. Guy went from not ever carrying a gun to a PD 329 caring 300 grain bear ammo. IMHO he is in the same boat almost as he was. He can't use that gun. Can't control it.. Will be scared of it. Won't shoot it. Will have to wait for bear to have contact with him and then pull and use it... and hope the first shot works because he may loose that gun in recoil easily.

Also training. One needs to shoot a lot. Practice a lot. BUT the part of practice is ignored is the mental part.

While I rarely shoot as much as I used to, I continually practice accessing the gun and running controls on guns. Rather than just shoot.

I think if you produce muscle memory to get the gun working, the rest will come when the adrenalin is up. Assuming again you are a gun person. We know you are a gun person. I know I"m a wanna be gun person.

9mm 147 killed the last handgun bear I had to shoot.... I was kind of wishing I had my 10 or the 329 with reduced Keith loads... but it was what was handy.

Tasing bears seems risky to me unless some type of longer "Bear probes" are used. I'll bet there is a 12 ga. aimed in by a backup officer when the Taser is employed just in case. Tasers only work when both probes bury into flesh to make good contact. Leather jackets, fur coats and loose clothing can prevent good contact. Taser probes spread out fast beyond 15'. If one probe misses the jig is up. Not much time to transition within 15' from iron jaws.

Standard handgun course of fire at the range includes a double tap center mass or double center then one to the head to stop a threat. It takes many trips to the range and many rounds down range to develop good muscle memory. Accurately shooting a 50 round course with double and triple taps using a large hand cannon should qualify as extreme sport event. Shooting multiple hand cannon courses within a couple hours at the range would be superhuman. However, the same course or multiple courses using a 10mm or 45acp is very doable and actually enjoyable. Better training, better response under stress.

When I was in Alaska I asked several locals what they carried for bear protection and they all said, "a 12 gauge with slugs".......I then asked if they ever actually shot one and the reply was all "no". I told them that based on my experience tracking whitetails that were shot with slugs they might be betting on the wrong team.
Somebody will be along any minute to bawl and argue about this........

Rost:
This article?

https://www.americanhunter.org/content/lessons-learned-from-a-grizzly-bear-attack-on-the-kenai/

Yes. Did I mis state something?

Re the Tasered hatchery bears.

If I remember the article I read correctly, The Tasers were used to condition bears to avoidance of a certain light, which was used henceforth to prevent close contact/conflict between bears and personal. Especially at night. It only took once or twice for the Tasered bears to give way to someone with the light. These are "resident" bears of course. Newcomers have to be "trained".

Bears are smart, and quickly adapt to "rules", as evidenced by the many "bear viewing" sites around Alaska, where they adapt their behaviour to the presence of many humans and other bears, mostly without conflict. I can't recall any maulings at such sites. Wife and I visited Brooks River Falls last summer, unfortunately before the late-arriving run got there. I was amazed at those bears' patience and persistence.

Well, almost always. This chaser bear was an jerk. If it saw another bear chase or catch a fish, it (probably he) immediately went over and ran the other one off, and took over that spot. Until the next bear had "fish on". Much like certain humans dipnetting salmon......

You should contact the Alaska State Troopers, the major Municiple Departments and Federal Game LEO's in Alaska to notify them that you have visited Alaska and spoke with several locals. Tell them your expert opinion from anecdotal conversations and your whitetail wounding experience with 12 gauge slugs render them unwise for bear protection. These departments have been doing it all wrong.

Carrying .357, .22 Mag , .44 Mag handguns have always worked for me, as have 20 nd 12 shotguns and rifles of various calibers.

Of course, I've never had to actually use any of them in my 55 years in Alaska, but I've time yet....

Archie Bunker beat me by 10 minutes......... Alaska and Canadian LEO and ADFG agencies certainly have the aggregate amount of experience in this arena, and they almost universally use shotguns with the heaviest slugs. I just bought up another 75 rounds of Black Magic slugs the other day just because I think another ammo crisis will be here within a year.

Black Magic Magnum- 600 grains of hardened rifled slug leaving the barrel at 1500 fps. I like those odds.

I cringe when the boyfriend brings his girlfriend to the counter to look at 454 Casulls and 460 S&W for bear protection. They can barely fit their hands around the grip and shake while trying to sight down the barrel. Trying to guide them to something more manageable without offending the BF is challenging. Sometimes I just hand them something manageable so they can just compare. That usually works because they say "Oh, that feels better". They're better off with a 9mm they can handle than a huge cannon they don't even want to pick up again after shooting it the first time.

when guys brag about large hand cannon handguns i did a handgun qualifier target that we were trained by a BATF tester type team ,guy next to me had a 50 desert eagle ,i used a 9mm Berretta he brag plenty how accurate that dang big handgun was , but when we got finished with those targets i had the much higher score of the day . bigger is not always better .

Nope. Just looked for the article and found that one. Didn’t remember that incident from 2012.

Only thing for sure about encounter's with wild animals is that nothing is for sure!