Re: Bears, Bears, Bears

I would like to offer a comment. First, I have never camped in Grizzly territory. However, I spent a lot of time over the years in deep woods of Eastern Canada, camping for months at a time, so I have some exposure to Black bears. Pretty sorry credentials, I suppose, but what I wanted to tender was not statistics or experience, but logic.

Regarding bear spray. The conditions under which you are most likely to startle a bear are, logically, the following:
1/ Strong breeze blowing from the bear toward you, so that he cannot smell you.
2/ Heavy rain or thick mist which softens your footsteps and the sound of your approach.
3/ Thick brush which shields you from the sight of each other.
4/ A combination of any/all of the above.

In all of the above scenarios, bear spray will, logically, be markedly ineffective; perhaps even dangerous. The spray will blow back upon you if you are "spitting into the wind". The spray will not penetrate rain or thick brush well. And the smell of the residue spray, even if it thwarts the immediate attack, will lure black bears to the site (which is often a hiking trail) for days, perhaps provoking attacks on other hikers. You are, in effect, setting a trap for hikers. So, even ignoring tests which show that black bears seem relatively resistant to spray, what good does the spray do?

The spray is helpful as:
1/ Placebo effect - it, possibly, provides the hiker with less tendency to emit the smell of total fear when confronting a bear. This, logically, helps reduce the inclination of the bear to attack.
2/ The sound of the spray is often enough to scare away the bear (from studies, but not illogical) even when the discharge never reaches him.

Generally, I would conclude from the above that bear spray is a waste of money so far as ultimate effectiveness, but might be nice to have along if someone forgot the other seasonings :)

I will not remark upon the logical superiority of a high-caliber firearm under the conditions outlined above, other than to state that its profitable use is entirely user-dependent.

Warm regards,

Reed
www.overmywaders.com