Best bear spray?

[tipsntails7]

I've seen spray used a couple times. In my opinion it didn't do a damn thing except once. One of the times a guy sprayed it right into the wind, blew directly in his face an blinded him. Bear ran not 5 feet to the right of him. That was a long ass walk back to the truck for that guy.
I don't see the point in carrying both, as your never going to have a chance to deploy both during an encounter, you'll be lucky to deploy one.

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[Where's Bruce?]

If you hunt with a buddy and a pissed off momma bear protecting her cubs is on one of you, would you not want the other to be able to stop the attack or even prevent it (preferably w/o killing her)? I go thru one area (en route to base camp) that is known for bear activity by a stream with tall reeds all around. I actually carry the spray in my hand when passing thru. You can believe you won't have time to deploy spray to justify not carrying it but the one day it could help you and you don't have it could aslso be your last. Worth the weight penalty IMO. It may not save you from a mauling but if you don't have it, it definitely won't. And then there's the whole peace of mind thing too. But you do need to know how to handle the damn thing so you don't learn the hard way like in the story above.

 

[Mad Mountain Mike]

Bruce in the situation you describe bear spray will not save your buddy. Once the attack is initiated the only thing that will stop it is a bullet or the bear feels that the threat is gone. In the event of a momma bear protecting her cubs this usually means death or dam close to it for the victim. Bear spray may deter an attack but it won't stop one once it is in progress.

 

[tipsntails7]

If you hunt with a buddy and a pissed off momma bear protecting her cubs is on one of you, would you not want the other to be able to stop the attack or even prevent it (preferably w/o killing her)? I go thru one area (en route to base camp) that is known for bear activity by a stream with tall reeds all around. I actually carry the spray in my hand when passing thru. You can believe you won't have time to deploy spray to justify not carrying it but the one day it could help you and you don't have it could aslso be your last. Worth the weight penalty IMO. It may not save you from a mauling but if you don't have it, it definitely won't. And then there's the whole peace of mind thing too. But you do need to know how to handle the damn thing so you don't learn the hard way like in the story above.

Your free to do what you want, but your giving spray to much credit. I've seen bears run right through it and not bat an eye. If you've ever seen a bear completely committed to charging and tearing something up you'd understand it's a freight train that needs to be met with equal violence.

If I was being malled and you pulled out spray and doused us with it, if I survived I would kick your ass, because it's sure as shit not going to get the bear off me if it's at that point.

Sprays good for a bear that's unsure of what it's going to do, once it's made its mind up to kill you, a shot of pepper spray isn't going to stop it.

The guy who sprayed it into the wind was a guy who used to run dogs, he's been around more bears then most of us can dream of. He got caught way to close as it fell out of the tree, scared the shit out of him and he deployed the spray. Unfortunately he was down wind and it blinded him, luckily the bear was trying to run away not attack him.

This could happen to anyone who gets startled by a bear as you don't always get to choose where they come from, and you normally don't get time to work yourself upwind during a charge.

Your carrying a gun, so that should be piece of mind enough.




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[2ski]

I'll repeat practice, with a gun or spray. I was at a fuction this weekend and UDAP set up a simulator so you could see how fast a bear got on you. Most struggled to get it out before the bear was on them and get the safety off. And then maybe they missed with the spray. I had practiced with inert spray this spring so I was able to get it out and deployed, but this spring it was not the same.

BUY INERT SPRAY AND PRACTICE WITH IT. Luckily for me, Counter Assault was giving out inert spray for us to use for a teaching tool and I'll be using it after its out to let people use and practice with that I hike with. They won't get to spray, but they can practice the draw and pop off the safety motion.

 

[Beendare]

Good post 2ski...

i can tell you in my case it was much more instinctive a motion to draw and shoot a pistol.....the whole pull the pin and slide the actuator was just too slow for me.

I like the fact I can practice drawing, dryfiring any time I want...with a pistol. I suppose a guy could do something like that with the spray.

 

[Kevin Dill]

The one thing you cannot practice in any way is the total absolute shock you'll experience at seeing a bear (or any dangerous) animal suddenly charging down on you. I'm pretty slick doing anything with practice but put me under sudden, intense...EXTREME pressure to do it under the pretext of saving my life and I'll likely be adversely affected. Most forms of defense are predicated on the defender having some advance warning or time enough to bring a weapon into play. It's beyond ludicrous for most of us to think we could do anything logical and deliberate if a bear unexpectedly charges from cover at tight distance and is not bluffing.

To an extent, my defense strategies are oriented around both repelling (or killing) an attacking bear before it gets to me...and surviving if it does nail me. I figure I've got a much better defense in-hand with a tethered sidearm if a bear actually knocks me down and starts kicking my butt. Even if I drop the gun I can recover it via a tether, and I absolutely think that could make a difference in a deal where a bear is not going away and intends to press the attack beyond simply sending a message.