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Posted by Bill S on January 13, 2008 at 12:46:14 pm EST
In reply to Bears, Bears, Bears posted by Timeportalmatrix on August 5, 2007 at 12:57:20 pm EDT

Mr Haze asked

Quote:

If worse came to worse, could a person rely on dropping a black bear with a .357 revolver?

Short answer is "no". Even someone with training and continual practice is going to be excited in a situation where you might want to shoot the bear. The best "approach" by far is to be aware of your surroundings and the "psychology" of bears (bad choice of words, since avoidance and not approach is part of the solution). Black bears are generally pretty shy of people, the exception being mother and cubs when you get between them, or habituated bears. Even then, a bit of alertness on your part will prevent any problems.

In my almost 7 decades of being in the outdoors, I have never had a bad encounter with a black bear (or grizzly, for that matter) and never lost any food to them. That includes most bear habitat in the US (including Alaska) and Canada. I was taught properly from a very early age about their habits and how to take precautions with food and other smellables. I am not as familiar with grizzlies, but have spent time photographing them (Alaskan brown bears) from within 50-60 meters.

I have seen people camped within 50 feet of me lose all their food (I used to say "within 100 feet", but last fall in a car campground near Tioga Pass, the people in the next campsite over left freshly cleaned fish sitting on the table and left their ice chest open - bear came into camp, raided both, then tried to flee through the tent when they came back to camp and started yelling). There were 2 bears roaming that campground. Between them, they raided a half dozen campsites (all having left food out or leaving ice chests sitting on the table, or surprisingly, a couple of SunShowers).

Let's not start the "guns in the woods" thread all over again. It has been beaten to death, especially by people who have no personal extended experience with bears. However, a comment from kutenay, based on his decades in BC and the Canadian Rockies, would be welcomed.

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• Re: Bears - calamity 16:03:39 01/13/2008

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