The uncoolest backpack gear.

[boom]

We all love to buy new gear. Found one I hated to buy, use, or carry.

The bear-proof container. It was $60! It's not light. It eats up pack space in a hurry. Chapped camping skin makes it difficult up grip/open and your finger tips get smashed and torn.

We will have a bear tag so we are essentially guaranteed never to even see one. (Bear)


Thanks rant over. Anyone else hunting a bear container required zone?

 

[RockBridge]

I'm not hunting a unit that requires one, but most of my backpacking trips have been in areas that require them. It sucks going with all this ultralight gear and having all that weight savings blown by having to carry the bear can.

 

[CentennialELK]

I guess I don't get what they are trying to accomplish by making You use a bear proof container. Fact is, you smell like food to the right bear... I hunt in a bear restricted area so I guess I had better check out the regulations on it. I do know my camp needs to be bear proof so I guess my bivy must need to also. I'm curious how many containers I will need to pack my elk out lol.

 

[RockBridge]

What they are trying to accomplish is to ensure that the bears do not actually get the human food they are smelling. What biologists have found is that once bears have human food, they are like heroin addicts and will do anything to get it again. And like drug addicts, if they have to get violent to get your stuff they will. You don't smell good to them, your food does.

 

[CentennialELK]

Rock, I get it for camping and general backpacking but for a back country hunter you introduce way too many variables for it to make a difference. They still allow you to bait in bear areas and I'm pretty certain that they are eating human food there. It is what it is I guess.

 

[littlebuf]

I wouldn't carry one regardless . Write me the ticket

 

[Hunt'nFish]

I wouldn't carry one regardless . Write me the ticket

I agree! I think I'd play stupid, tell them how stupid it is, then ask for forgiveness.
Never intending to comply anyway.

So what is wrong with suspending food between two trees?
Same result isn't it? Sounds like a stupid requirement to me.
Hunt'nFish

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

I wouldn't carry one regardless . Write me the ticket

Same here! Worthless IMO. The whole bear canister dumpsters and what not is for places like Yosemite and Lake Tahoe where bears KNOW there will be food. That's where are the hype is coming from IMO i backpack in areas with really high bear populations all the time and never had an issue yet.

 

[Beastmode]

I hunt an area that requires one and I refuse to use them. They are ridiculous.

 

[MattB]

Same here! Worthless IMO. The whole bear canister dumpsters and what not is for places like Yosemite and Lake Tahoe where bears KNOW there will be food. That's where are the hype is coming from IMO i backpack in areas with really high bear populations all the time and never had an issue yet.

Ditto

 

[JustOneMoreShot]

I would guess that the officer would have to really want to write you a ticket for something if he came up on your camp and you had done everything right (Hang all your food and garbage up high) but did not have a bearproof container.
I haven't ever hunted in an area that I am aware of that required it so I do not have any experience.

 

[69ChrisCraft]

I have backpacked in the Sierras for 20 years now.... All through the 90's it was a given that we'd have bears in camp. They've tore my friends soft top jeep apart, ripped the handles off our camper shell window, knocked our tent down with us in it, tore a backpack to shreds to get to coffee grounds.... You name it, they were a damn pest. Since they've began using non lethal scare tactics in mammoth and Yosemite, requiring bear canisters and putting down problem bears instead of relocating them our interactions in camp have been non existent all the while the population continues to rise.

I certainly think it works. That being said, I've still never used one.

 

[voidecho]

I'm just glad you carried it for us boom.

 

[RdHawg]

My B Zone Bear canister:

View attachment 17239

Fits most everything I need and doesn't weigh a lot. One size fits most.

 

[littlebuf]

So what is wrong with suspending food between two trees?

Hunt'nFish

not doing that either. foods in my tent. that bear wants it he better want it more than i do....

 

[TRIPLE]

I agree with not using some retarded canister. If the authorities with to solve problems with bears getting into camps and cars the need to quit mismanaging them. It only happens where some yuppys give bears more rights than people. If bears live in fear of humans then we don't have to worry about them getting addicted to our food and they can stay wild where they belong.

 

[boom]

I agree with not using some retarded canister. If the authorities with to solve problems with bears getting into camps and cars the need to quit mismanaging them. It only happens where some yuppys give bears more rights than people. If bears live in fear of humans then we don't have to worry about them getting addicted to our food and they can stay wild where they belong.

not this area..we see one, i imagine a arrow hole in it's side.

that's why i dont think it is an issue. they get chased by humans all the time. i bet they dont bother anyone, not where we were at.

 

[TRIPLE]

I agree, I spend a better part of my fall in north central washington hunting bears (super high bear densities that are hunted OTC) and they RARELY mess with camps in the mountain. I believe it's because they are scarred sh*tless of a sexy mother f*cker sleeping in a BA copper spur, carrying a 15lb rifle that smells like snickers and beef jerky.

 

[CentennialELK]

^^^That's awesome,HA!^^^