Who wants to deter a bear? With the right weapon, you can eliminate the problem and cook dinner at the same time.
Posted on 03/25/2012 5:11:10 PM PDT by SJackson
LANDER — As bears begin to emerge from dens in the greater Yellowstone National Park ecosystem, a new study says carrying a gun into bear country doesn’t make you any safer.
Tom Smith, a professor of wildlife conservation at Brigham Young University, and fellow scientists studied 269 bear-human conflicts in Alaska for a paper appearing in the Journal of Wildlife Management. Those incidents involved 444 people and 357 bears, 300 of which were brown bears.
The team found firing a gun is no more effective in keeping people from injury or death during bear attacks than not using a firearm. Research didn’t find a statistical difference in outcome — injury, fatality or noninjury — when they compared those who used their gun in an aggressive encounter (229 instances) to those who had guns but did not use them (40 instances).
Smith found many people didn’t want to shoot a bear and often went through a decision-making process that took too long when a bear charged, Smith said.
“That reluctance is a built-in problem for this deterrent,” he said.
In his study, 24 percent of people who used guns were injured and of that group, 17 people were killed.
In a paper he wrote in 2007, after analyzing the use of bear spray as a deterrent, Smith found only three of 156 people involved in bear encounters who used spray were injured (less than 2 percent). And all of the injuries were minor, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at trib.com ...
Who wants to deter a bear? With the right weapon, you can eliminate the problem and cook dinner at the same time.
One simply cannot derive the conslusion they presented, based upon the facts in evidence!
Someone pointed out that all you need is a .22 pistol. Shoot your partner in the leg so that you can out-run him.
Those are FUN to shoot. And yeah, it would hurt a bear in a serious way. The ammo resembles rifle rounds, LOL!
Another government/environmentalist study that only lacks the stamp of approval by Mann, Hansen, Jones or other self acclaimed and infallible expert!
Spray and pray?
Google “Dragon’s Breath” ammo.
Burnt Bruin!
Of course with sea bears, you need an anti-sea bear circle.
Considering you are dealing with an animal with teeth and claws measured in inches, vital organs either feet of soft tissue or inches of bone away and the ability to run you to the ground even after being shot, avoiding pissing it off is probably wise.
In Alaska, hunters are on the menu.
Is this a joke?
Except in Canada, where pepper spray is considered a weapon and deemed illegal.....unless it is labeled 'bear spray'."
Bought a pack of spray from Cabelas that had three different sizes of sprays in one package. Was asked about them at Canadian customs in Hyder, AK, they inspected them and confiscated two...all three had drawings of bears on them, but only one said 'bear spray' making it legal.
And trust me, Hyder IS bear country, a fatality having occured there recently.
Hahaha...no, I am a lousy shot. Partly because my vision sucks, but mostly because I haven’t had enough instruction or practice.
I’ll tell you, I could just as likely be one of those people who wouldn’t even get off a shot.
If I want the gun, it is mostly because psychologically it makes me FEEL safer!
That would be my first choice.
That's precisely the problem this was created to solve:
Smith & Wesson’s 329PD .44 Magnum Lightweight Revolver
Ummm... so a .44 Magnum revolver isn’t any more effective in deterring or ending a bear attack than pepper spray? I just don’t buy that. A couple of .44 slugs to center-body mass or head won’t slow down or stop a bear attack?
Please...
Really? And bears are all cuddly.
I’ll take a galling gun loaded with .338 over pepper spray.
Or a friend with a broken leg.
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