Posted on 09/21/2018 5:51:02 AM PDT by marktwain
Bear spray does work, and it’s a good alternative if you’re being followed or stalked and recognize that. Once the bear has committed to an attack profile, though, it’s just a bad smell to it. And if the bear is close enough for a handgun to be an effective, you need a handgun in your hand, not in your pack. I did a lot of solo backpacking when I was younger, but no longer, not in Grizzly country.
AK Fish & Game travel in groups of 2 or more, with one of them carrying a 12 Ga., #1 buck.
A shotgun works very well for the quick aim needed and no need to shoulder the weapon. Pumps are also very weather tolerant.
Man, don’t go to sleep, you’ll miss out on all the hilarious jokes about bear hsit from 1998.
That is a grouchy bear. Three people attacked, one fatally. Probably a good thing that she was shot.
True, but of course, the original hunters were not hunting grizzly bear. They were hunting elk and unfortunately, ran into the wrong bear when improperly equipped.
Determining an appropriate gun for emergency bear situations and determining the appropriate gun for actively hunting grizzly bears are two different questions. If I'm preparing for an unlikely chance encounter in grizzly country, I'd might just go with a pistol, minimum of a .41 magnum. If I'm preparing for a situation where an encounter is more likely, like following a wounded animal or packing out meat, then I'd have a .45-70 carbine or a 12-gauge shotgun with slugs or buckshot. If I'm hunting grizzly bear which means I'm actively seeking out an encounter, then I'm carrying a large magnum rifle which could reach out a couple of hundred yards with lots of power left but could be used in a close-up emergency situation, as well.
I have a line on a Husqvarna 1600 factory chambered in a .358 Norma magnum which is a perfect round for hunting giant bears. I need a plausible-sounding reason to convince Mrs. CommerceComet that I should buy the gun. She just doesn't get the idea that while I don't really have a need for this gun, I want it.
The bottom line, and my point was, no matter what you are armed with—or not, but just pepper spray—you risk your life walking around in bear country. You need to keep your head on a swivel, be suspicious of thickets and willows, big rocks that you can’t see behind, tree trunks, etc.
Also, try to use your nose. I can smell pretty good (unless I got a cold) and animals close by have a smell or odor. Not necessarily unpleasant, but different. I have been by bears and smelled them first. A kind of wet dog smell. Not quite but you know what I mean?
Once I was by a couple of buffalo near Yellowstone that were just behind a thicket of aspen little ponderosa pines (I guess a fire had been through a few years before and everything was little and brushy). I should have seen them but I was over heated from a long hike. A stream was running through and I went to cool off. I smelled these guys. Thought the were cattle! When they came down to the bank, I went back up!
Bella is My Hero!
So is Aunt Jenny Brooks
With her Soap Dish.
Huh,,,What’s,,okay,
Read All the posts and I learned a
Little and Laughed some too.
What I know is Bears will kill you,
Then Eat You.
I don’t think I’ll give a Bear
an evan break.
Damn Bear chargers me,
I’m crappen my BVDs!
KILL Bears!
Note to self
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