Portable electric fence in bear country?

jaeger63

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Colorado Springs, CO
I'd be interested to hear from guys who have deployed lightweight electric fencing while backpack hunting in bear country. I'm on the cusp of drawing a great elk tag in Wy. Hopefully it will be this year but I'm 2 under max in points so it will depend on point creep. Ive decided on one of the NW units that are grizz infested. I plan to backpack hunt to try and get away from others as best as I can. I'm considering the one from UDAP that only weighs 3.7 pounds. I'm not overly afraid of bears but I certainly respect them and want to be able to sleep soundly at night without worrying about one sniffing around in my camp. Id appreciate any info or experience that anyone has on the subject. Thanks much
 
Take a few minutes of your time and search that topic on this site

There are many posts on the topic and also how to build them cheaply.
 
I have that fence. To my knowledge only one thing has ever hit it in the night and ran off promptly. Never had my camp messed with. That could also be due to not having any food/attractants in the tent. Probably more that then the fence.


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I have spent a lot of time researching and building my own bear fences. Couple things you should consider:

1) The rocky mountains are way to dry to consider the earth an adequate ground. (You still need a ground stake, but that is somewhat of a seperate issue.) Or you could camp in a swamp.

Soulution: run a ground wire or 2 around the perimeter with the hot wire. When the bear, or sleepy hunter, touches both the ground and hot wires he gets a full dose. I usually run 3 hot and 2 grounds.

2) The pre packaged bear fences are not the highest performance D cell battery operated transformers.

Solution: Do a little research and buy the highest jule rating you can find.

3) The pre packed ones are silly heavy.

Solution : Go to the local ranch hand store and buy the string, string tensioner, and wood post screw in insulators. I cut my string in 50yd lengths which is way bigger perimeter than you need.

4) You must have a meter with you. It is no fun to test on your own and if using for food storage the USFS requires one to be at the site.

I don't always use on but when I do I sleep like a baby.

PM me if you have questions.
 

 
They let you sleep peacefully, but it's not going to stop anything if if wants something.
As grounding your ground rod in dry country. Drive your hole pull rod out, pour water down hole, redrive ground rod
 
I always take one, or two, to Kodiak, and I’ve been doing that almost yearly since 2006. I don’t know if you can still get the ones I use, but if so, I highly recommend it over the UDAP. It delivers a much stronger pulse/charge, and is a fair amount lighter in wt. Almost exactly 2 lbs. with everything, including 6AA batteries (it only uses two).
f4946e0318c85fef8e09576b8992997a.jpg


As far as the usefulness of electric bear fences, all I can say is, I truly believe they work. I’ve had bears in camp on multiple nights in a row, and they destroyed everything outside of the fence, but never touched anything (my buddy, me, tent, and all our food), inside the fence.
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Will you be in a wilderness area? I believe Wy still has that stupid law that you have to hunt with an outfitter if you are not a resident and hunting in a wilderness area.
 
Thanks JP7. Ever had in issues with that little ground stake not working properly in dryer soil?

I’m not sure I’ve never used a meter so I always give it a light touch to see if juice is following. It gives a zap but I’m sure I should be doing better at grounding.


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Post I wrote about building your own bear fence: BUILD YOUR OWN BEAR FENCE

BTW- someone mentioned the soil in the Rocky Mtns can be too dry for a fence to ground well and work well. It can be true depending on your location and rainfall that year. Good idea to run alternating hot/ground wires around your fence to ensure any bear gets a full power shock.

Gravel sand bars in AK are also notoriously bad for grounding and require an electric fence with alternating hot + ground wires.

JL
 
I've got a UDAP set up and we used it in WY this last fall. Had one bear run into it at night and it took off. Worked pretty well.
 
I always take one, or two, to Kodiak, and I’ve been doing that almost yearly since 2006. I don’t know if you can still get the ones I use, but if so, I highly recommend it over the UDAP. It delivers a much stronger pulse/charge, and is a fair amount lighter in wt. Almost exactly 2 lbs. with everything, including 6AA batteries (it only uses two).
f4946e0318c85fef8e09576b8992997a.jpg


As far as the usefulness of electric bear fences, all I can say is, I truly believe they work. I’ve had bears in camp on multiple nights in a row, and they destroyed everything outside of the fence, but never touched anything (my buddy, me, tent, and all our food), inside the fence.
8642f340732ab352412bcba91c7c8113.jpg



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Troutbum,
It looks like the company Sureguard is still around but it does not appear they still make the bear fence
Thanks much
 
Thanks JP7. Ever had in issues with that little ground stake not working properly in dryer soil?
Yes. It is almost garuranteed the earth will be to dry to make a good connection and shock the bear with full power. I always have a meter and that is why I add the ground wires. When you touch the ground and hot it pegs my meter at 8,000 volts.
 
Legend I sent you a PM. Could you better explain what you mean by running another ground wire. Do you just lay it on top of the ground around the perimeter? Do you connect it to the ground wire on your poles? My knowledge of electric fences is limited
 
wertys trick above works....but the fence I built with a longer copper ground rod.

The one thing you learn with the meter....a really good ground pumps up the snap on these.

The gratuitous Montana backpack camp a handful of miles from Yellowstone.
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If it doesn't shock em make sure you set it so it will tangle em haha. That's what happened to my buddy in AK when the shock wasn't strong enough.
 
Yes. It is almost garuranteed the earth will be to dry to make a good connection and shock the bear with full power. I always have a meter and that is why I add the ground wires. When you touch the ground and hot it pegs my meter at 8,000 volts.
Good thought on taking the volt meter with you! I'm gonna do that going forward.
 
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