Bear Spray

zimok

zimok

Click, Whirr.
Oct 27, 2008
2,392
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Canada... eh!
I've been carrying around bear spray for several years and never had to use it until last night. Me and a friend were walking back to my car after a hike, it was pitch black and we had our flash lights on. Suddenly a dog that's built like a tank comes barelling towards us, he's almost as tall as a german sheppherd and easily twice as big. No owner in sight and the dogs not wagging his tail and is in full growling/barking mode...

Dog's between us and my car on a single dirt road. Took the bear spray out of my pocket at 15 metres or so, pushed back the plastic safety mechanism and sprayed. It made a 2-3ft wide beam that was 10-15ft long. I sprayed soon enough that he walked into the periphery of the spray and it stopped him immediately.

Then the owner comes out yelling for his dog after all of this, and starts appologizing immediately. He parked right next to us, so he knew someone was there, and let his dog loose at night(not bright of him). He let us know he had his wife and 11 month old daughter in the camper, and he was busy making food. I would of prefered not to use the spray, and left a grace period in there for someone to call back the dog, but after the situation reached a point of no return, I was pretty happy to have it handy.

The big plus side about it is that it leaves everyone a winner, his dog is fine and I'm not typing this from the hospital with a mangled face.

tl;dr PSA for you guys to buy some bear spray.
 


brilliant story and glad you didnt get killed by the bear
 
Carries spray for years

tumblr_ln9lyhqvHh1qay81po1_r1_500.gif
 
These guys got torn to pieces. Definitively not that bright just staying there and watching.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91EOVIVjkyw"]This Is Why You Don’t Mess Around With Bear Cubs - YouTube[/ame]
 
GoldMarketing said:
These guys got torn to pieces. Definitively not that bright just staying there and watching.
This Is Why You Don’t Mess Around With Bear Cubs - YouTube
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I see Darwin's been at work again lately. Some bear cubs come wandering around, and you just stand around with your buddy chatting while thinking, "geez, that's cute". I'm certain that will work out splendidly.

And Zimok, that spray shit is known to be pretty ineffective against actual bears, eh? Bears will very rarely attack, but if a black bear or grizzly decides to come after you, it's usually because you've done something to piss them off. You know, such as hanging around their cubs like the two Darwin award candidates in the above video. In these instances, some spray generally won't phase them, and will only piss them off further.
 
GimpSpack said:
How do you know this?

The video commentary never specified what happened to them.
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This was posted on Reddit and there was one who found a news source. The dog and like 2 of them got killed and a few were mauled, hospitalized in critical condition.
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
And Zimok, that spray shit is known to be pretty ineffective against actual bears, eh? Bears will very rarely attack, but if a black bear or grizzly decides to come after you, it's usually because you've done something to piss them off. You know, such as hanging around their cubs like the two Darwin award candidates in the above video. In these instances, some spray generally won't phase them, and will only piss them off further.
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Source on it being ineffective?

I read several first hand accounts of bear attacks where the spray was involved and it always stopped them dead in their tracks. Some of those accounts I've read were against grizzly bears as well, not the smaller black bears we have in my area. Even if the bear is angry and wants to get you, it can't magically remove capsaicin from its eyes/nose/lungs, how will it attack if it can't see?

It's very true you're unlikely to get attacked, however if you do, you're actually more likely to get attacked by a starving male bear that sees you as food(and where you did nothing 'wrong'), than a mother and her cubs.

List of fatal bear attacks in North America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - type 'spray', the only instance of a fatal attack involving pepper spray was when it was used after the bear already killed a person to subdue the bear. People who have spray are notably absent from this list.
 
Wanted to edit the above to include the article but it's too late, here are the bits about the common myths.

A sweeping study chronicling more than a century's worth of deadly encounters with black bears in Canada and the United States is shedding new light on the nature of attacks and dispelling the widely held notion that a sow protecting her cubs is the prime danger.

...

Researchers also found that the vast majority of the confrontations weren't the result of chance meetings in the woods, but the outcome of predatory behaviour, nearly always by lone male black bears. Surprisingly, only 8 per cent of the deadly attacks were attributed to mother bears.
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source : A few surprises in decades-long black bear study - The Globe and Mail

Also,

Bear pepper spray is the most effective means of repelling an attacking grizzly or black bear in a non-toxic, non-lethal manner. Although common sense might suggest that guns would provide greater personal protection, research and experience indicates that human-bear encounters that do not involve firearms are less likely to result in injury to a human or bear.

According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report, law enforcement agents and experienced hunters who use firearms to defend themselves suffer injury about 50 per cent of the time, while people defending themselves with bear spray escape injury most of the time and injuries that did occur were less severe (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). University of Calgary's Dr. Stephen Herrero found similar results. This is why bear spray is often carried in the backcountry by biologists, professional guides and hikers/campers.
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source: http://www.bearsmart.com/becoming-bear-smart/home/bear-deterrents/bear-spray
 
zimok said:
Source on it being ineffective?
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I can't remember. Ranger Bob who lives in a remote cabin on lake Megog in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, and other people like him.

I don't know, and I could be wrong, but I've always been told to use the loud sound / horn ones instead of the spray. For example, what happens if you're out for a week long hike, and run into a bear during the middle of a windy rainstorm? Your spray becomes pretty useless.

The horn will phase them enough regardless of weather conditions to give you that few precious seconds to get away. Then I don't know... I guess just hope to hell there's a steep downhill slope close by you can run down. Bears are front heavy, so they can't do the downhill thing very quickly.
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
I can't remember. Ranger Bob who lives in a remote cabin on lake Megog in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, and other people like him.

I don't know, and I could be wrong, but I've always been told to use the loud sound / horn ones instead of the spray. For example, what happens if you're out for a week long hike, and run into a bear during the middle of a windy rainstorm? Your spray becomes pretty useless.

The horn will phase them enough regardless of weather conditions to give you that few precious seconds to get away. Then I don't know... I guess just hope to hell there's a steep downhill slope close by you can run down. Bears are front heavy, so they can't do the downhill thing very quickly.
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lol, an air horn? oooook.

I've spent a good amount of time hiking/camping in griz country, and generally zimkok is right. I love my guns and all, and I carry a .45 mag (anything smaller won't do shit anyhow) when I'm out, but I bring spray too. First, if a bear were to attack, the odds of you shooting a large bear in a place that will take it down, even with a decent caliber and you are a good shot, isn't great. A second or 3rd? Unlikely.

Bear spray is effective at a good distance, and isn't a one shot and it's done deal. In the event of an attack, even though I'm pretty good with the revolver, I'd still reach for the spray first.
 
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