Bear protection advice needed

[5of7]

The best protection against bears is situational awareness and a well trained dog.

With these two things going for you, you will have a lot more than 2-3 seconds to respond and a .44 Mg. or better will do the trick.

Actually, on smaller bears of 2-3 hundred pounds, even a .357 will do.
8)

 

[Festus]

I've been peppered. Had to be certified in pepper spray and I can tell you this. The last thing I want in the way in a confrontation with something that can eat me is a 6 or 8 ft cloud of pepper. A cloud of 12ga slugs maybe. I love my single actions,but if you never had your fine motor skills diminished, you can't appreciate how hard the simplist things can be to accomplish. 7 shot 870 full of your favorite slug and a DA 44 mag backup. Don't forget to have your will in order too :shock: :wink: .

 

[dlhredfoxx]

The last thing I want in the way in a confrontation with something that can eat me is a 6 or 8 ft cloud of pepper .

Bear spray, is not the same as the pepper spray intended for protection against human assailants. I'm speaking from personal first hand experience with a very large mature Colorado black bear... and it worked very effectively (stopped it in it's tracks immediately like a brick wall, turned and ran like hell). Oh, and I was wearing a .44mag Ruger SBH on my belt at the time. Ask ANY professional who has first hand knowledge or experience in a life and death bear encounter and they will say the EXACT same thing. It is a FACT that bear spray (not the pepper spray used for humans) is by far and away more effective than ANY firearm in the same situation, as a plan A.

 

[BearBio]

The last thing I want in the way in a confrontation with something that can eat me is a 6 or 8 ft cloud of pepper .

Bear spray, is not the same as the pepper spray intended for protection against human assailants. I'm speaking from personal first hand experience with a very large mature Colorado black bear... and it worked very effectively (stopped it in it's tracks immediately like a brick wall, turned and ran like hell). Oh, and I was wearing a .44mag Ruger SBH on my belt at the time. Ask ANY professional who has first hand knowledge or experience in a life and death bear encounter and they will say the EXACT same thing. It is a FACT that bear spray (not the pepper spray used for humans) is by far and away more effective than ANY firearm in the same situation, as a plan A.

+1

 

[jpickar]

Lots of good info here. The first page down to bearbio is all good. Contender gave some good common sense advice too. Even if he is from back east.


The chances of ever having to use your spray and gun are low. But don't you carry a spare tire just in case you get a flat! I also have a 870 loaded with slugs for "probable" encounters while packing out meat from the woods. For "possible" encounters I carry my Smith 629 44mag DA with bear spray.

I have been out hunting javelina for the last few weeks and now have just had some computer time to see what has been happening here and low and behold----another bear thread!!!! :lol: :lol:

You will do well with the advice given here.

John :wink:

 

[Calthrop]

Javelina live and travel in groups. They have relatively poor eye sight and rely on vocal communication within the group to maintain order. If a hunter was able to infiltrate the group and place himself in the count [given that he smelled and otherwise behaved like a peccary] he could hunt at very close range. Perhaps by putting salt on their tails. I's the way I've heard it's done in Graham County AZ.

We have bears and it is always good to be prepared. When I go to Utah and Montana Bear Spray is always in the kit. Lethal force is the back up however its use entails massive amounts of paperwork. Time thats best spent getting my feet wet.

 

[annasophia]

Well since it's been almost 2 years since this post started Anna. How was the trip and I bet you didn't have to shoot a single bear did you.

Wow, I can hardly believe this post thread has been resurrected from the dead! If you must ask, the trip was tons of fun. Also, believe it or not, we did come literally face-to-face with a bear on the trail (only about 15 feet away and it spooked the bejeebers out of us). It was only a mid sized black bear, but didn't seem to be scared of people at all since it had been snooping around that area for several days, so a range told us later on. It was basically hanging out around a trail head near a camp ground and was probably attracted by the smell of people cooking. The bear basically stepped off the side of the trail and let us go by (only after startling us pretty good)! We also saw a mother grizzly with 3 cubs, but they were a good ways off (probably 80 yards or so). Our total bear count on the trip was 8 (including other black bears we spotted far off up the side of a mountain with binos). Of course I didn't have to shoot any bears on the trip. But we also wore our seat belts when driving there and back, even though we didn't get into any car accidents. I'd be lying if I told you that packing heat didn't offer us any piece of mind. That's pretty much why anyone carries a hand gun for "self defense" after all, isn't it? You hope you never have to use it for that, but it sure makes you feel more at ease when you're out and about in potentially dangerous areas. Aside from that, nobody is forcing anyone here to read threads like this. It's our own pure interest and intrigue of the unknown scenario that haunts the back of our minds of what "could" happen some day that makes us read them and want to be prepared.

 

[Tellico]

Well said Ma'm And if you ever see what a Griz can do to a man, a p/up Camper, A log he thinks has grubs in it, or seen one kill a full grown steer with one blow you will carry the biggest caliber you can shoot well. Be advised also a grizzly can outrun a horse for a short distance and a human all day. You can try bear spray but maybe only once! Before someone says, Are there griz in TN, no but I lived in MT 35 years and worked in the woods 20 of it.

 

[5of7]

Lots of good info here. The first page down to bearbio is all good. Contender gave some good common sense advice too. Even if he is from back east.

What would being from "back East" have to do with one's thoughts on bears and what it might take to kill one?

 

[CraigC]

What would being from "back East" have to do with one's thoughts on bears and what it might take to kill one?

Nothing, unless you do not consider Frederick Courteney Selous to be an authority on Africa because he was 'from' England or John Taylor because he was 'from' Ireland. It's a deflection, nothing more.

 

[dlhredfoxx]

What would being from "back East" have to do with one's thoughts on bears and what it might take to kill one?[/quote]

I think it was a playful jab based on the debate that occurred earlier in the thread, at least that's how I took it. I can say one thing, in the lower 48 you're a heck of a lot more likely to have a run in with a black bear (the west included) than a griz... and even a "little" 175 lb black bear can mess up your day if you don't have the respect for them that they deserve. They are fast, strong and ferocious if they feel threatened and I think the number of human black bear encounters is actually greater in the East these days due to the growing number of bear and the continued encroachment of development into traditional bear country.

I've never run across a griz of brownie in the back country (seen plenty from a car window in Yellowstone, Glacier and Denali), but the only bears I've been face to face with one on one were blackies, and they were all tense and scary encounters that I was lucky to walk away from uninjured. I respect the black bear tremendously, and I think a lot of people "back East" so to speak, have a wealth of experience and knowledge to share that we can all learn from, regardless of which part of the country we roam in.

IMHO...

 

[CraigC]

There was nothing playful about it. Jpickar has a reputation for arbitrarily dismissing any and all opinions of folks who do not live in grizzly country. Assuming several things, that one must live with grizzlies to be an expert, that merely living around grizzlies makes one an expert on killing them and that the little section under our username that states our current location is the only place we have ever been in our sheltered lives.

Would you rather take advice on killing and stopping elephants from someone who hails from London but has actually killed hundreds of them or just some random African simply because he lives there???

 

[dlhredfoxx]

Appears that I stepped on a land mine of sorts here... I'll sound retreat and take my dog out of this fight. Hope the lady got the advice she was looking for in the original post.

 

[tek4260]

Not a bear, but it didn't seem too hard to stop

http://blog.lynncthompson.com/2011/11/buffalo-charge.html

 

[ShortBBL]

Not a bear, but it didn't seem too hard to stop

http://blog.lynncthompson.com/2011/11/buffalo-charge.html

Not bad!!

 

[Cholo]

What in the hell was the fat guy thinking lobbing that spear into that Bull Buffalo at close range? It would have been funnier if he got it up the yazoo and had to wear an adult diaper for life :lol:

 

[BearBio]

Belay my last...I live in Pa and clearly am not qualified to answer. Could someone show me where all the ignorant yankees are supposed to post their thoughts. :lol:

Every time one of this threads comes up, people start talking about feral dogs, mountain lions, alligators, and their local brand of vicious wombat=mostly by people who've never seen a grizzly or a brownie. The good lady asked about bears in the west and northwest. I only expressed my OPINION based on a limited amount of actual real-life experience=feel free to express yours.

Again, apologies if I offended.

Guys: I already apologized for what appears to be, to some, a tasteless joke. I was taught to accept an apology and move on. That is what well-mannered (and polite people do) people do. My point was that grizzly bears are a different animal from black bears. I never said people east of the Mississippi are "dumb" or "stupid". I joshingly said that they were ignorant of some facts. It also appears they are quite rude.

Again, I apologize. Be men and accept the apology, so we can all move on!

 

[jpickar]

CraigC and 5of7

You guys need to get outside more often! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

John

 

[WASATCH CHARLIE]

BEARBIO, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR. UNTIL ONE IS CHARGED BY A COASTAL BROWN OR GRIZZLY, THEY HAVE NOOOOOOO IDEA OF THE SPEED THAT ANIMAL CAN MOVE. IN COVER, IF OLD TOCLAT JOE SETS HIS SIGHTS ON YOU(not a bluff charge)you are done for. was brought up in the bush, in northern quebec, never had a problem with blackies, even shared berry patches with them.was charged on vancouver island by a small 200+ nasty old female black.300 win mag,1 shot 180 partition at30 yards and it was all over. then while commercial fishing in butte inlet off vancouver island while doing a beach set(tying the end of the net from our seine boat to a tree on shore)mr.bearwas at our landing sight. no noise just covered the 60 or so yards from the forest to our little boat in a flash. popped his teeth and left. if i had any type of firearm,or bear spray, i would not have had time to use it. we both sat in the boat after he left. realizing what had just happened i could hardley move. no, when that BIG BEAR comes for you, don,t worry about what you have as defence. unless its a heavy rifle and you are expecting it to charge,your s#&tout of luck.

 

[COR]

My post (that apparently was removed??) was meant more as a jab at some of the generalities and assumptions based on geographic location listed on a forum profile ...no need to apologize to me. I was prodding you all a little...These bear threads are usually more entertainment than actual factual content... I have seen some of the pics that Jpickar has posted, he's got my attention as he lives among them...the rest is just 10 pages of keystrokes, but that is not to take away from many of you that have experience, it's the internet afterall and I could be a ninja if I wanted to be ...Sounds like annasophia had a great time anyway AND DIDN'T GET EATEN BY A BEAR!

I hope to be so lucky to see a such an incredible animal in the wild... if he charges I'll draw my Bearcat and place a single shot in that bears eye. Don't worry gents, I have one chamber in that gun reamed to take a 22Mag for added penetration. It's all about placement anyway :lol: