Also study your bear behavior and psychology. Good woodscraft is your your best, first line of defense.
With all due respect to Skidder, on the subject of bear spray, here is some reading that might interest you. For the record, spray has a better track record across the Arctic Tier than firearms at keeping humans from serious injury. Firearms, not so much. Without a CNS hit, most bears, even fatally shot, have enough steam to eat your lunch pretty good before they expire.
And remember, (in Alaska, and, I suppose, where you are the laws are not much different) if you kill a bear in self-defense, you are obliged to skin it, preserve the cape and skull and turn everything over to the State of Alaska, leaving you with nothing but the story. That's a lot of trouble to go through for a trophy you can't keep. If you DON'T kill it, you have left a VERY dangerous animal in your wake.
These are anecdotal, but real.
Read this thread, especially post #18 The 44s and 45s used by Murphy on Black Bears in Maine and North Carolina all had considerably more energy, momentum and mass than any .357 Magnum.
http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php?t=54852
or if the link does not work, paste this into your web browser
forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php?t=54852
Then read this newspaper story from 4/18/08, Anchorage Daily News,
http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/147318.html
or if the link does not work, paste this into your web browser
adn.com/bearattacks/story/147318.html
"Bear spray stops charging sow .. SAVED: Couple hiking Peters Creek Trail used Counter Assault."
This was not an advertisement. Craig Medred is an outdoor writer on staff at the Anchorage Daily News.
A followup story ran on 4/20
http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/381252.html
or
adn.com/bearattacks/story/381252.html
http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=505401
Read the post on the fifth page of posts about 2/3 of the way down the screen. But don't overlook the picture of the bear skull. Then imagine what a narrow aperture that bullet has to go through so it doesn't just slide out around the skull under the scalp.
The most persuasive testimony I ever read was from this Montanan, dubbed Windwalker:
First a few pointer about bear spray. Make sure you use bear spray not mace or some other product, I like counter assault . I use the 8 oz cans, they are good for about 5 one second bursts. Maximum range is 30 feet, 20 feet is way better. Always carry it in a holster on your strong side. If it's in your pack, it might just as well be at home.
I have sprayed three grizz and one black bear over the course of 14 years. I also spend a lot of time in country with lots of bears. (just north of Glacier Park, Montana).
Grizzly number one stole a goat hide out of my tack room, I followed the salt trail into the woods about 40 yards and surprized a two or three year old bear at about 50 feet. He (bluff?) charged and I sprayed him in the face at about 25 feet, he turned 90 degrees and ran off. end of story.
Grizz number two chased me and the dog up on top of my trailer loaded with hay I sprayed him in the face about 6 feet below me. He ran head first into the trailer two or three times then ran off.
Grizz number three was in the garbage at camp at night. I thought it was a black bear saw i walked to within about 15 feet a yelled, not a good idea.He stood up took one step tward me a I sprayed him. He flipped over backward and rolled around on the ground for what seened like a lont time then left. This was a big bear, maybe 8 1/5 feet and 700 pounds.
The black bear sow with one cub stepped out in front of my horse and caused me to be bucked off. I landed on my bear spray and punched a small hole that started to hssssssss...which further annoyed my horse. I pulled the can out and threw it at the bear and hit baby bear, mama picked up the can and bit into it setting off the rest of the spray. They both ran off with mama almost running over the top of me. Now this is very important...never ever have a piss with bear spray on your fingers.
It has always worked for me but I still take the shotgun if I have to go after a wounded bear.
But here is more evidence:
In the study for the Wildlife Management journal, scientists examined 83 bear-spray incidents from 1985 to 2006 involving 61 grizzly bears, 20 black bears and two polar bears.
"Ninety-eight percent were uninjured by bears in close-range encounters," they concluded. The few that were injured suffered minor wounds.
Clearly, Smith said, the stuff works.
Now a professor of wildlife science at Brigham Young University, Smith spent years working in Alaska as a bear biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and still owns a cabin on the Kenai Peninsula's Skilak Lake, where he regularly retreats on vacation.
His co-authors are widely recognized authorities on bears.
Herrero, now at the University of Calgary in Alberta, authored "Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance," now considered the essential handbook for people wanting to learn about bears. DeBruyn heads up bear research for the National Park Service in Alaska. Wilder now works for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Collectively, they represent a storehouse of knowledge about bears, and they gave pepper spray a clear endorsement.
"Bear spray represents an effective alternative to lethal force," they wrote.
But it is not without drawbacks, and there are other things people can do to minimize dangerous wildlife encounters. Ramm believes if he and Alexander had made more noise hiking through thick brush along Peters Creek, they would have avoided the grizzly.
And Smith notes there have been problems with bear spray in the wind, although its biggest drawback may be the one-shot limit. Once used, Counter-Assault cannot be reloaded.
As for the wind, Smith reported that in "7 percent of bear spray incidents, wind was reported to have interfered with spray accuracy, although it reached bears in every case."
First developed in the 1960s as a means to ward off aggressive dogs, red-pepper spray is noxious stuff that leads to painfully swollen eyes and nasal passages. Ramm, who has experienced tear gas, called pepper spray far worse.
"Bear spray diffuses potentially dangerous situations in the short term by providing the user time to move out of harm's way and allowing the bear time to reassess the situation and move on," Smith wrote. "When food or garbage is involved, bear spray is effective initially, but one can expect bears to (return) until these attractants are removed."
But bear spray is not quite perfect. Smith notes some problems:
• Spray residue has been found to attract brown bears rather than repel them. Someone who sprays a bear in a camping area could inadvertently turn the campground into a bear-baiting station.
When I am in bear country, I carry both spray and gun, but if only one, the spray.
Lost Sheep
