Who uses the UDAP Bear Fence?

[RockyMnt Hunter]

The grizz that hit my fence must have been checking it with his nose. I woke up to him snorting like he just got nailed. He paced my fence off and on for two nights, but never took a swipe at it. So, I'm usually banking on the fact they'll check it with their nose first.

There are a couple of older videos on YouTube that show bear fence testing at a bear sanctuary in Montana. If I remember correctly, they said that after the bears had been shocked the first time, they would use their nose a few inches away from the wire to see if it was energized or not.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Black wire good, orange wire bad. You can see the juice hit the bear.

 

[z987k]

 

[trapperJ]

I'm a believer in POWER. I'm switching to a Gallagher S12 solar charger with built-in li-ion batteries. 9200 volts and .08 joules impulse energy. It's relatively small and light (not ultralight) and WILL sting any critter very hard. A friend of mine has been using one on food plots in Oklahoma and he has nothing but praise for it.

Kevin what did you use for the ground rod with the S12? 3/8" copper or metal rod?

 

[Kevin Dill]

Kevin what did you use for the ground rod with the S12? 3/8" copper or metal rod?

I got on Ebay and bought a 36" piece of 1/2" T6 aluminum tubing. I cut it down to 30" so it fits in my arrow case. I've tested it and it makes a great ground rod / support stake for the S12.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Has anybody actually touched or grabbed and felt the shock of this?

I got it all set up and really wanted to test it so I barely grazed my hand on it and felt nothing then I ran my hand along the wires I could feel a little “tingles”. Then I just grabbed it and held on and once again just tingles..... not very SHOCKING.

I went over everything three times and everything is set up perfectly. Put new batteries in, made sure the alligator clips were on lengthwise, and touching plenty of wires etc.

I’m afraid most people buy this don’t even really test it out. I did read a couple reviews where a guy said that the shock was so light it wouldn’t be able to keep a squirrel out.

Does anybody have similar experiences? Different experiences? Let me know thanks


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Yeah, my experience with them is just like yours, they are a total POS in my opinion. The only commercial electric bear fence worth a damn is that one that AKDoc posted. You can be wearing thick rubber soled boots, and standing on dry ground when you grab that fence, and I guarantee you, you will not want to make that mistake again.....ask me how I know. After owning one for about 10 years, went ahead and bought a second one so I could have one around my base camp tent, and take one up the mountain for my spike camp. For backpacking in, they’re pretty hard to beat for the wt. as well.
This is with everything including two sets of AA batteries.

 

[WxMWLee]

Think of an electric fence as a circle with electrical energy occupying it. The energy stays there in harmless fashion. The ground rod is doing nothing. As soon as a well-grounded animal makes adequate wire contact, energy passes through the animal...into the ground...and over to the ground rod. It's that simple. What's not simple is assuring good grounding of the rod and the animal, or adequate wire contact. The less powerful your charger, the more important these things become.

The problem with most electric fences (no matter their intended target) is getting adequate energy to move from the hot wire...thru the animal...and into the ground. You can run a 2-wire setup with hot and ground wires in proximity circling the fence, but this requires the animal to contact both wires simultaneously. That's the equivalent of touching the hot and ground wires simultaneously. It's more effective but more work and a bit more weight. You still need a good ground rod into moist earth, but a 2-wire rig is less dependent on the animal itself making ground contact.

Most of us are using a conventional all-hot fence with the charger grounded to earth. This works great as long as the animal is also making good ground contact along with adequate wire contact. If the animal is standing on dry vegetation it will serve as an insulator from current passage. If only their thick hair makes contact they may never feel a thing unless they are well grounded. You'd ideally like the animal standing on bare ground (soil contact) and touching the wire with their nose or other short-hair part. A good electric fence has enough power to actually arc energy across space and to the skin. I've witnessed this myself as a visible spark jumps from the wire to a dog's or cow's nose or skin. Pain!

The lesson here is get a solid ground rod or spike established. Check it with a good test unit. Use enough energy to help overcome some expected resistance. Clear the ground outside the fence. I've taken strips of aluminum foil (think size of a hot dog) and wrapped them around the fence wire at spaced intervals. The idea is to catch a bruin's attention and have them nose or lick the foil when they approach the fence. Zing!

In the process of building my own right now. I've traced the progression of your DIY fence back through the forum, and I appreciate the in-depth info. I think i have my head around my system but I have a couple questions now that you have switched over to the S12, First have you had a chance to feild test & do you still recommend this unit? 2nd - without the way this unit is grounded, do you just jumper directy from your ground rod the unit is mounted on to your ground tape for the alternating hot/ground set up?

I'm a believer in POWER. I'm switching to a Gallagher S12 solar charger with built-in li-ion batteries. 9200 volts and .08 joules impulse energy. It's relatively small and light (not ultralight) and WILL sting any critter very hard. A friend of mine has been using one on food plots in Oklahoma and he has nothing but praise for it.

In the process of building my own right now. I've traced the progression of your DIY fence back through the forum, and I appreciate the in-depth info. I think I have my head around my system, but I have a couple questions now that you have switched over to the S12, First have you had a chance to field test & do you still recommend this unit? 2nd - with the way this unit is grounded, do you just jumper directly from your ground rod the unit is mounted on to your ground tape for the alternating hot/ground set up (since theres no port to connect a ground jumper to the unit)?

 

[SaltySailor]

I used mine the first few times with the supplied grounding rod. Up here in AK that 6 inch rod sometimes just barely got through the tundra layer to solid ground. If I set it up right and made sure no grass or bushes were touching the fence around the perimeter, I could get around 6K volts according to my tester. I now have a 16" copper grounding stake in the kit and chucked the supplied rod, weight usually isn't an issue if I am using one of these anyhow. Also have a good set of garden shears in the bag so I can trim the 'hedges' around my fence perimeter.

 

[WyoHuntr]

Has anyone put the S12 on an ounce scale??? I've got some long hunts coming up, and I'm considering switching over (for my horses at a minimum). I've seen 2.1 on the website and 2.4 on other sites.

 

[North61]

I have the UDAP. It's not super-powerful especially when relying on the actual ground to hot wire connection. As has been said lots of variables there that can lesson the "zap" However when touching a hot wire and a grounded wire at the same time the current gives an unpleasant jolt, through the two body parts that touched and everything in between. It worked well enough on my young son at the time that he still remembers it as a bad day 13 years later, at the age of 20.