Need advice for defense against bears

[mljdeckard]

Come again monwa? Killed a lot of bears with a lot of smaller guns, have you?

The thing about ALL bears is, they have a very slow heart rate. Anything other than a central nervous system hit leaves them with a good two minutes of oxygen to decide how they are going to ruin your day.

When I'm shooting something that fights back, I want overwhelming force. "Good enough" is not a viable option.

 

[goon]

Buckshot for a bear?
Really?
I'm not questioning that in smartass way. It's just that I've never considered buck up to that task.
I mean the bears here usually don't get that big, but some do get "big" by our standards. My dad surprised one taking his little dog out to pee one night a couple years ago - came up about face to face with it behind his old red oak and swears it was near 700 pounds. Even though he was likely startled and overestimated in the light of his maglite, it still probably was a solid 450-500. Scared maybe, but the man don't lie.
Point is, even my much beloved .357 loaded with solid would be a tad light for a black bear that big. I'd think a load of buck would be suicidal.
Now a 12 or 20 gauge slug or a 170 grain RNSP from a 30-30... that ought to do.

Anyone actually killed enough bears with buckshot that they wouldn't consider it dumb luck?

 

[Mainsail]

I mean the bears here usually don't get that big, but some do get "big" by our standards. My dad surprised one taking his little dog out to pee one night a couple years ago...

Wait, the bear was taking his little dog out to pee?

 

[AStone]

I know this thread is mainly about black bears and griz, but just in case anyone needs advice about polar bear defense, I've got you covered.

To protect yourself from PB's, just cut a hole in the ice and put peas around the hole.
The peas can be any kind: sugar peas, snow peas, black eyes, even wasabi.

Then, sit near the hole.

<read this part with a slight southern accent>
When the bear comes up to take a pea,
just kick him in the ice hole.

 

[Jonah71]

In the west now it is more common to Fear the Marijuana Growers than either the meth cookers or the bears.

They are common now in many remote area's and they carry AK style rifles. So be armed with something other than Bear Spray be cause they can reach out an touch someone.

Bill

According to statistics, I live in one of the worst areas for meth production in the country. But I seldom see evidence of it, except for the rarely seen toothless tweeker smelling of chemicals. I think what little food they do eat is delivered and they seldom come to town. Of course we have a huge number of CCW with a lot of open carry people in town. The meth people stay pretty much to themselves and as far as arrests for possession/manufacture of meth, you don't see much of that until just prior to elections. Same with the pot growers. Every time a local law enforcement officer is up for re election you will see pictures in the town paper with bonfires of ditchweed that grows wild all over this area along with headlines like "Huge Marijuana Bust" by local law enforcement after months of investigations etc. I understand and agree that meth is a big problem and should be dealt with accordingly with serious jail time. But I sometimes have my doubts as to the so called official statistics, especially for this area. I would think if they were accurate we would have a much larger crime problem and this wouldn't be such a sleepy little wonderfully boring (though fully armed) community.

 

[Jonah71]

And we don't have many bears either. I tend to avoid them as much as possible as well.

 

[mljdeckard]

The pot farmer problem has exploded here in the last couple of years (or at least our cops' awareness of it) and I am always armed with a rifle while I am out and about in the desert or hills.

 

[R.Ph. 380]

run fast

 

[KevininPa]

"All those years of watching Yogi and Bubba and you didn't pick up on the right vernacular?...... GEEZ!"

All those years of watching said cartoon and you forgot the name is Boo Boo?...DOUBLE GEEZ!! Sorry. Couldn't resist.