[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Bear Spray vs. Bullets (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 2/4/2012 2:27:49 PM EDT
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I thought the Hive would find this fact sheet from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service interdasting.
Bear Spray vs. Bullets |
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Because the grizzly bear is federally protected in the Lower 48 States as a threatened species, it is a violation of the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) to shoot one, except in self defense and defense of others during an imminent attack. Penalties under the ESA include up to 6 months in prison and a $100,000 fine. Additional penalties may also apply to violations of state law What is this nonsense? A bear's life is more valuable than a human's life? |
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Quoted: Because the grizzly bear is federally protected in the Lower 48 States as a threatened species, it is a violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to shoot one, except in self defense and defense of others during an imminent attack. Penalties under the ESA include up to 6 months in prison and a $100,000 fine. Additional penalties may also apply to violations of state law What is this nonsense? A bear's life is more valuable than a human's life? Um, read the red part again.  |
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Both is the best. Spray is better than a gun, but if it doesn't work and you get attacked and are being mauled a gun might be the only thing that saves you.
Grizzlies, coastal browns, and black bears have all been killed by regular non-magnum pistols. A magnum would be better though. You'd be lucky to stop a grizzly charge with one. ETA, by gun, I was writing in the context of pistols. |
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Quoted:
Because the grizzly bear is federally protected in the Lower 48 States as a threatened species, it is a violation of the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) to shoot one, except in self defense and defense of others during an imminent attack. Penalties under the ESA include up to 6 months in prison and a $100,000 fine. Additional penalties may also apply to violations of state law What is this nonsense? A bear's life is more valuable than a human's life? Um, no?  Isn't that exactly what that is saying?
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Quoted:
Because the grizzly bear is federally protected in the Lower 48 States as a threatened species, it is a violation of the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) to shoot one, except in self defense and defense of others during an imminent attack. Penalties under the ESA include up to 6 months in prison and a $100,000 fine. Additional penalties may also apply to violations of state law What is this nonsense? A bear's life is more valuable than a human's life? Reading is fundamental,....... |
| When I went backcountry hiking in AK my friend who lived there told me to bring a 12 ga with slugs. So I brought my slug barrel 870 loaded with 3" mag slugs and a pistol gripped Mossy 500 for my buddy, who didn't own a gun at the time. Fuck the spray. It never left my person the whole week. And I carried it at the ready all week because the woods were so thick. When I fished, it was slung. When I slept, it was beside me. We got away with only seeing 2 bears because we made LOTS of noise while in the woods. There had been 6 bear attacks in that area that summer (Lake Clark Natl Park). Best trip of my life. |
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The second sentence told me that it would be a slanted paper, written by pachouli oil soaked, dreadlock coifed, kashi crunching hippie.
How can you tell the difference between a person who defended themselves with bear spray as opposed to a handgun? The handgun guy is being interviewed by the press and the bear spray guy is still being looked for while the searchers scrape red pepper smelling bear shit off their boots. |
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[...]since 1992, persons encountering grizzlies and defending themselves with firearms suffer injury about 50% of the time. During the same period, persons defending themselves with pepper spray escaped injury most of the time, and those that were injured experienced shorter duration attacks and less severe injuries. So what the hell does "most of the time" mean? To me it could be anywhere from 60% of the time and 99% of the time. |
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Quoted: [...]since 1992, persons encountering grizzlies and defending themselves with firearms suffer injury about 50% of the time. During the same period, persons defending themselves with pepper spray escaped injury most of the time, and those that were injured experienced shorter duration attacks and less severe injuries. So what the hell does "most of the time" mean? To me it could be anywhere from 60% of the time and 99% of the time. If you search, you can find quite a bit of data. Bear spray is unquestionably better than handguns for brown bear. For black bear, I would choose the gun. |
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"Grizzly bear shit has bells in it and smells like pepper." 
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| I had done some research on this before. A bear has a jacobsons organ just like a snake to help it smell. A Brown or Grizzly bear has roughly 900 times the nose power of a human and 9 times that of a blood hound. A shot of pepper spray really messes with them bad. It is a better choice then a gun 99% of the time. |
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I highly doubt shots to the head would fair worse than pepper spray. Getting those shots to the head is the tricky part. Bears are fucking fast, and their head moves when they run. If you surprise one, it's going to be on top of you in a very short amount of time. Leaving long guns out of the picture, bear spray is the most effective thing you can hang on your belt to stop a charge by a grizzly bear. That part isn't hippie bullshit. As for me, if I were going into bear country, I'd have both. |
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So here's what we do: we'll market a bear spray canister that can mount to any QD sling swivel stud, and has such a stud on the bottom. That one can mount to rifles. And we'll make one that'll fit on a picatinny rail or some shit for handguns!
So you shoot the bear as it runs up, and when it's close, mace the shit out of it! |
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Quoted:
"Grizzly bear shit has bells in it and smells like pepper." LOL, you have to read that posting, 
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I'm moving out west next month. I bought a new Marlin 1895GBL just for when I am in bear country to accompany my DW .44 loaded with 300gr XTPs (over 1300fps). I just found a company called Beartooth bullets that sell a 525gr flat nosed hard cast bullet specifically for .45-70s.
I will not be trying to pepper spray an angry or aggressive animal. |
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Quoted: I'm moving out west next month. I bought a new Marlin 1895GBL just for when I am in bear country to accompany my DW .44 loaded with 300gr XTPs (over 1300fps). I just found a company called Beartooth bullets that sell a 525gr flat nosed hard cast bullet specifically for .45-70s. I will not be trying to pepper spray an angry or aggressive animal. Where "out west" are you moving? Brown bear range in the US is pretty limited. Yellowstone park and surrounding area. The northern edge of Montana, Idaho and the far northeast corner of Washington. Alaska. That's it. If your in those areas, and your faced with a brown bear, pepper spray is a better choice than any handgun. Period. End of conversation. Brown bears are VERY fast, and have small and well protected brains that are very hard to hit and even harder to destroy. Doubly so with a powerfully recoiling handgun. Bear spray, by contrast, totally fucks up a bear, does so quickly, and without the need for precision shot placement. |
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Quoted: I find it interesting the differences of opinion between those of us living and playing in Brown Bear country and those of us who do not. These types of threads with stark differences in geographical location always interest me. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile I have never seen a bear. I can add that to never having seen a snowmobile.  |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I find it interesting the differences of opinion between those of us living and playing in Brown Bear country and those of us who do not. These types of threads with stark differences in geographical location always interest me. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile I have never seen a bear. I can add that to never having seen a snowmobile.
You are missing out... Sleds are fun. You've never even seen a black bear? Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I find it interesting the differences of opinion between those of us living and playing in Brown Bear country and those of us who do not. These types of threads with stark differences in geographical location always interest me. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile I have never seen a bear. I can add that to never having seen a snowmobile. You are missing out... Sleds are fun. You've never even seen a black bear? Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Nope, they are around here on occasion when they wander too far away from the mountains, but I've never seen one. They tend to make the news when there's the occasional sighting. As far as snowmobiles are concerned, the main ingredient is lacking around here, especially this year. |
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Too add to the bullshit slant.
We KNOW how many bears were shot at, every hippy would be on iphones calling the rangers and popo. How many bears were actually effected by spray? Every hippy would say how "this one time a bear almost attacked me, so I sprayed him with bear spray, then we hugged a lil". |
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Bear spray is more effective probably because most people these days didn't grow up shooting animals under pressure like they did in the olden days. It would be like getting on a skateboard and trying to ride a half pipe your first time. What stings more: - Pepper - Buck shot, slug or even bird shot to the face? If a bear got on you so fast that you couldn't shoot it, then your getting a bear spray bath yourself. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Bear spray is more effective probably because most people these days didn't grow up shooting animals under pressure like they did in the olden days. It would be like getting on a skateboard and trying to ride a half pipe your first time. What stings more: - Pepper - Buck shot, slug or even bird shot to the face? If a bear got on you so fast that you couldn't shoot it, then your getting a bear spray bath yourself. As said before in the thread, bear sense of smell is vastly better than humans, or even bloodhounds. Pepper spray is VERY unpleasant for a griz. Worse than birdshot, for sure. But If your carrying a long gun with suitable ammo, I think your well protected from anything that may want to kill you in North America. Long guns > Handguns. |