Grizzly Country and electric fences.

[harge57]

I have backpack hunted in grizzly country for several years and have had no issues just hanging food and keeping a clean camp.

I am however going to be in an extra dense area this year and because we will have 3 people with us this year I was contemplating bringing in an electric fence, something like the UDAP model or diy one.

My question is when using an electric fence can you then store food in the tent with you or do you still hang it away from camp? If I still have to hang my food, not sure it would be worth it.

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[Legend]

Never sleep near your food in gbear country, enough said.

 

[MTSasquatch]

Food storage orders vary. Here’s one https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1016118.pdf

They have specific minimum and maximum standards for fences. Check the one that covers where you’ll be. It’ll let you know if it’s legal to stay where your food is if enclosed in a fence. I’d recommend against it though. Pretty easy to short out a fence, and I’d rather not have a bear come and see if it’s on looking for food while I’m in the fart sack at night. But that’s just me!

 

[AKDoc]

I anticipate that you will get some differing perspectives to your questions from the helpful members here at Rokslide....

I have an electric fence. I hunt, fish, and enjoy other remote outdoor activities in dense grizzly country all the time up here. Many times I have my fence with me, sometimes not. That said, I do not set-up my fence very often...even when it is with me, which might be an operator error on my part, but it's true. When I do choose to set-up my fence, I am glad to have it.

I personally choose not to have food in any tent where I am sleeping...fence or no fence. I know many experienced people who choose otherwise...it's just not my choice.

I always use my fence on Kodiak around my sleeping tent, and we use another fence around the tipi we pitch for getting out of the wx, where we also store our food. I just sleep better with my fence pitched around me on the Rock...perhaps a false sense of safety, but I believe it helps. On one Kodiak mountain goat hunt with my son, we set-up the fence around our base-camp tent putting our food inside (because there were no trees to hang food), and we left the camp clean, climbed to alpine, and spiked for two-nights hunting goats we spotted from below. I'm not specifically advising to do that, but I'm sharing because when we returned to base-camp, everything was fully intact...and we saw bears all around that area, so I'm concluding that the fence helped protect the camp while we were gone.

I do always have a pistol with me within quick reach through the night...with or without a fence!

Edit: I didn't initially catch the auto-correct spelling of "Rockslide" when I first posted...got to correct that LOL!!

 

[Mykolaivka887]

I've lived and worked in densely populated bear country, all my life. I don't use electric bear fences, at all. I store my food in my tent. However, I probably wouldn't do that in Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks, or in Banff, and probably not in Katmai or McKinley parks, either.

 

[z987k]

I anticipate that you will get some differing perspectives to your questions from the helpful members here at Rockslide....

I have an electric fence. I hunt, fish, and enjoy other remote outdoor activities in dense grizzly country all the time up here. Many times I have my fence with me, sometimes not. That said, I do not set-up my fence very often...even when it is with me, which might be an operator error on my part, but it's true. When I do choose to set-up my fence, I am glad to have it.

I personally choose not have food in any tent where I am sleeping...fence or no fence. I know many experienced people who choose otherwise...it's just not my choice.

I always use my fence on Kodiak around my sleeping tent, and we use another fence around the tipi we pitch for getting out of the wx, where we also store our food. I just sleep better with my fence pitched around me on the Rock...perhaps a false sense of safety, but I believe it helps. On one Kodiak mountain goat hunt with my son, we set-up the fence around our base-camp tent putting our food inside (because there were no trees to hang food), and we left the camp clean, climbed to alpine, and spiked for two-nights hunting goats we spotted from below. I'm not specifically advising to do that, but I'm sharing because when we returned to base-camp, everything was fully intact...and we saw bears all around that area, so I'm concluding that the fence helped protect the camp while we were gone.

I do always have a pistol with me within quick reach through the night...with or without a fence!

This is basically what I'd write.

I rarely set it up, but when I do, I'm glad I have it. If I'm leaving the aircraft alone for a long period of time, I'll set the fence up around it. Everyone's seen the torn fabric, but they really like to chew on $2000 tires as well.

 

[WyoKimber]

I know several outfitters in the yellowstone border region that run fences around their entire camps. You can hear the bears when they hit the fence. They work, but the sound of a bear squealing as it runs back into the woods will keep you up at night as much as anything else.

 

[Beendare]

Ive used mine a bunch on the Ak islands, MT, Wyo, ID…and one of the last times on an archery elk hunt within 30mi of YNP we had grizz tracks 4’ away from it in the snow.

I’m not convinced it works 100%…so we dont leave food laying around

 

[Team4LongGun]

Maybe a better question would be “has anyone had an electric fence failure?”


OP-I would and do still hang food away from tent even with fence.

 

[Jherek]

Growing up on a dairy farm having over 50 miles total of electric fence, and using electric fence for years keeping deer/ cattel out of food plots. There is NO WAY i would just them 100% to keep me safe In Grizz country. Definitely store your food far away.

 

[diamond10x]

I think a lot of it depends on whether the bears are hunted or not. YNP area, those bears smell anything odd with human scent, it means food. Most areas in AK, bears smell something odd with human scent, it very well could mean trouble for them.

I've used a bear fence probably 50% of my time up here in AK and haven't had a bear come through a fence with food bags next to the tent inside the fence. I have had numerous bears walk around within inches of the fence but not come through it. Is it because it zapped them or is it because everything was cross contaminated with human scent and they know that could mean trouble? I don't know but I would venture to say fences are at minimum a confidence thing for people as another form of protection.

 

[Chirogrow]

I anticipate that you will get some differing perspectives to your questions from the helpful members here at Rokslide....

I have an electric fence. I hunt, fish, and enjoy other remote outdoor activities in dense grizzly country all the time up here. Many times I have my fence with me, sometimes not. That said, I do not set-up my fence very often...even when it is with me, which might be an operator error on my part, but it's true. When I do choose to set-up my fence, I am glad to have it.

I personally choose not to have food in any tent where I am sleeping...fence or no fence. I know many experienced people who choose otherwise...it's just not my choice.

I always use my fence on Kodiak around my sleeping tent, and we use another fence around the tipi we pitch for getting out of the wx, where we also store our food. I just sleep better with my fence pitched around me on the Rock...perhaps a false sense of safety, but I believe it helps. On one Kodiak mountain goat hunt with my son, we set-up the fence around our base-camp tent putting our food inside (because there were no trees to hang food), and we left the camp clean, climbed to alpine, and spiked for two-nights hunting goats we spotted from below. I'm not specifically advising to do that, but I'm sharing because when we returned to base-camp, everything was fully intact...and we saw bears all around that area, so I'm concluding that the fence helped protect the camp while we were gone.

I do always have a pistol with me within quick reach through the night...with or without a fence!

Edit: I didn't initially catch the auto-correct spelling of "Rockslide" when I first posted...got to correct that LOL!!

What type of bear fence do you use?

 

[kwackkillncrew]

last year on kodiak we kept the food in our vestibule and had 4 deer broken down and in totes during the night right next to the tent inside the bear fence. When we were around camp we took the deer out and when we left we put the deer back in totes. We pissed all around the out side of the fence. Fairly sure we had bears walk through at night and only saw 1 during the day. We have a udap fence. people say its not really that strong of a zap but i havent had any issue with it being weak.

 

[AKDoc]

What type of bear fence do you use?

I have an EBGLITE fence. I've been accidentally zapped by it, and just about jumped out of my chest waders LOL. Been about eight years now, and no problems with it thus far...

ebglite.html

 

[Dos Perros]

Do any models tell you if they have administered a shock?

 

[z987k]

last year on kodiak we kept the food in our vestibule and had 4 deer broken down and in totes during the night right next to the tent inside the bear fence. When we were around camp we took the deer out and when we left we put the deer back in totes. We pissed all around the out side of the fence. Fairly sure we had bears walk through at night and only saw 1 during the day. We have a udap fence. people say its not really that strong of a zap but i havent had any issue with it being weak.

I have the Udap. Honestly, I reccomend touching it, or any fence if you're unsure. It'll reassure you.

 

[kwackkillncrew]

Agree, every time i turned it on i touched the back of my hand to it. got to make sure you put your other hand on the ground or on the neg wire as well.

 

[jgilber5]

Pee on it, your screams will keep the bears away all night long.