[BackCountry]

In grizzly country a 460 XVR or 500 mag will stop a bear - both rounds have more stopping power than most magnum rifle loads. In small bear country such as Desolation/Grays a .357, .41 mag or 10mm auto with the proper round will have no problem stopping a bear. I enjoy hunting with a hand gun as it provides more of a challenge. In my experience both the .357 and 10 mm with the right round have had no problem knocking down Colorado sized bear. You better be practiced and comfortable with a hand gun if you are going to carry one for self defense in bear country. The moment you need a gun is not the time to learn. At that moment the gun should be instinctively a part of your body.

Prevention is a much better option. Pack the gear up and keep the camp CLEAN. Wipe down the coolers and use good sealing coolers and ammo boxes to keep smells to a minimum. I leave the gear in the boat at night and so far have had no problems. I have heard that it takes a very hungry or garbage trained bear to approach a raft. I am a light sleeper and have scared bears out of camp quickly when I have heard them rummaging around. If there is a lot of bear sign at the camp you have chosen, move down stream. I have used a hand gun discharge to scare off bears effectively. I would rather scare the bear off and move on as soon as possible than shoot one. Having an effective handgun in the back country is an essential tool - I don't leave home with out one. I would be seriously letting down my family if I needed one and didn't have it. If you choose to carry a side arm for self defense make sure you and your family get the proper training, practice and are comfortable with your firearm before taking it along. Teach your kids about guns and get them shooting early in life so there is no mystery or curiosity about firearms.

First and foremost keep a clean camp and don't invite a bear problem. Avoiding a confrontation is always the best course of action.

 

[cupido76]

Lots of times camping I "establish my territory". Being an (the) apex predator, I am sure that many wild animals are human averse. At least give them something to think about. Just use a few dribbles and pinch it off and you can cover a pretty good perimeter, esp the main travel corridors.

I like this idea! And with the 9 of us consuming beverages throughout the day, supply shouldn't be an issue.

 

[ag3dw]

Several people studying wolves have used this technique effectively. Don't know about bears, but it may not hurt. Women during that time of the month would be excepted.

 

[El Flaco]

I'm definitely no bear expert, nor a gun expert, but I have a buddy that used to lead 1-2 week canoe trips for a camp in northern Ontario, near the arctic circle in polar bear country.

Aside from the standard bear avoidance tactics, his "Bear gun" was a .12 gauge with a mag-light built into the stock that came on when the trigger was depressed. The first shell was birdshot, then as many slugs as the gun would hold. The idea was that the pellets would hopefully blind the bear, and then pray that the slugs break bones and stop the charge. Apparently there's no false charge in polar bears. :shock:

 

[upshitscreek]

sorry if repeating anything but here's my input...

for the cooler, cam strap the hell out of it for the night. put pots and pans on top to serve as a "warning system" to wake you or someone up. start everyone up and get yelling and making a racket to scare it off. the cam straps aren't going to keep it out long term but they buy you time. it's much safer to chase off a bear BEFORE he's into your food,no doubt.

do some research on BRFC's too. i use them for trips to AK,ect. they work great. i've had the privilege to watch a brown try and bust ours open for nearly an hour at a safe distance on a ridge.

and the best prevention to bear problems is using just your brain. i'm not abit anti gun but remember statistically you stand a far,far better chance of injuring or killing yourself or someone in your party with the gun than being hurt/killed by a bear. paranoid gun nuts shitting their pants every time they see a bear in the wild scare me a whole lot more than the bears any day. and again, not anti gun one bit just anti stupid people with guns.

 

[SimpleMan]

Pepper spray? Please. Won't work if there's a breeze, and it wears off in 30 minutes and he'll be pissed. Get a gun. Aim for the shoulder and you'll stop him.

Also, I understand that a Yeti cooler with a padlock on it is considered 'bear proof' by the National Parks. Just don't leave it on your boat.

 

[montuckyhuck]

I vote prevention too, but when it come down to it I want a gun and not pepper spray. My buddy went to Baffin Island in the canadian arctic with a can of bear spray, his Inuit guide told him to get a can of salt spray too, so he would be "fully seasond" for the offending bear.

 

[montuckyhuck]

paranoid gun nuts shitting their pants every time they see a bear in the wild scare me a whole lot more than the bears any day. and again, not anti gun one bit just anti stupid people with guns.

indeed, but want gun if I am being charged. If i had pepper spray i would'nt just go spraying it at every bear, same with a gun.

 

[wildh2onriver]

So much conflicting opinions here, some have merit: clean camp, camp away from food/food preparation areas, secure food containers and non-burnable trash, avoid scented items in your tent (deodorants, toothpaste, candy, chapstick, etc) no man-strater type guys allowed....

According to one highly regarded bear biologists study: firearms are almost 10 times less effective in deterring aggressive bear charges--the majority of bear charges are bluffs which the people who had firearms and used them, ended up provoking the bear, resulting in injury or death. Whereas, those using bear spray/or not using (but having it on them), were much less likely to experience injury or death. Draw your own conclusions, but my experience in grizzly/coastal brown bear country is--pepper spray and the above camping guidelines seem to work--so far .

Remember; if you have bear spray in a hostile bear encounter, you don't even have to be the fastest runner to escape--it works on humans too...

 

[dograft83]

Pepper spray works I had to use it on a pissed grizzly. If I had a gun I would haved used five on it an last one for me. No way a gun would have stopped it. Also Simpleman in order to shoot it in the shoulder it has to be running across your path and not really possing a threat so why shoot it? Just sayin. But keep anyways keep a clean camp have cooking area away from sleeping area and storage area away from those two and you sohould be safe for the most part. But key to no bear problems are clean camp and bear spray. If those two dont work get a gun and save the last round for your self

 

[Ture]

...I recommend a 410 "Judge". It takes 410 shot gun rounds or 45 colt LR rounds...

Just make sure you put 45s in there. A 410 shotgun shell is for shooting mice.

 

[cupido76]

sorry if repeating anything but here's my input...

for the cooler, cam strap the hell out of it for the night. put pots and pans on top to serve as a "warning system" to wake you or someone up. start everyone up and get yelling and making a racket to scare it off. the cam straps aren't going to keep it out long term but they buy you time. it's much safer to chase off a bear BEFORE he's into your food,no doubt.

do some research on BRFC's too. i use them for trips to AK,ect. they work great. i've had the privilege to watch a brown try and bust ours open for nearly an hour at a safe distance on a ridge.

and the best prevention to bear problems is using just your brain. i'm not abit anti gun but remember statistically you stand a far,far better chance of injuring or killing yourself or someone in your party with the gun than being hurt/killed by a bear. paranoid gun nuts shitting their pants every time they see a bear in the wild scare me a whole lot more than the bears any day. and again, not anti gun one bit just anti stupid people with guns.

The pots and pans is a great idea... thanks!

Again, I'm really trying to avoid an encounter more than deal with one, and I WILL NOT be carrying a gun with me... nothing will change my mind on this.

While pots and pans will not avoid an encounter, it might allow me to deal with it without consequence.

Keeping a clean camp is of the utmost inportance, to be certain.

All of the sudden, rafting in Colorado makes me nervous.

 

[ag3dw]

The rafters who were eaten on the Hulahula (I think it was), did have a 12 ga with them. But that sounded like a real bad ass bear. Maybe like the one Doug Peacock did ring around the bonfire with while waving trash bags for half the night. So sleep with the bear spray handy. Oh, and since the autopsys conducted after the "Night of the Grizzly" showed that sexual activity may have been a contributary enticement, use abstinence.

Also, after a Selway kayak self support I wandered about the Pros and Cons of hanging food up a tree in the breeze as opposed to repacking it in my air tight sto float. Cheers, Leroy!

 

[ag3dw]

You are worred abt rafting in CO?!? When we were camping on the Kananaskis, on a hike we saw bear scat that was bigger than anything I have ever seen. Big around as a tin can and a pile as big as a big horse would do!

 

[John the welder]

The best combo is pepper spray and a 12 ga as back-up. Pepper spray works better than a gun but a 12 ga. gives one confidence. Also bears don't attack groups of people so stay to close and walk towards the bear as a group. Most bears don't want to fight and are not sure about a group of people moveing towards them. I have lots of bear storys from Alaska but flying is way more dangerous than bears. Bottom line don't spend a lot of time worring about bears.

 

[cupido76]

You are worred abt rafting in CO?!?

I actually meant that I'd be more worried about boating in CO due to all the people who are apparently carrying guns everywhere they go. I really do find it quite alarming that people keep mentioning a gun as the way to deal with a bear.

I personally feel it's questionable that a small gun (that could be packed into the backcountry) would provide any measure of safety if a bear really decided it was going to hurt you. And even if I am wrong about that, I am unnerved by how little discussion has taken place on avoidance measures, likely due to the confidence that seems to be inspired by carrying a gun into the backcountry with you.

There are some instances when I bear has stalked and killed humans, the VAST majority of incidents are easily avoidable with some simples measure and no weapons other than bear spray.

On the trip I am planning, there are enough people (9 of us), in an area that likely does not contain bears that are comfortable with human presence (like in an established campground), so I think the chances of an encounter are quite small in my case. I will use some of the avoidance suggestions mentioned here that I haven't thought of and hope for the best... and I will be carrying bear spray as a last resort.

 

[cupido76]

The rafters who were eaten on the Hulahula (I think it was), did have a 12 ga with them. But that sounded like a real bad ass bear. Maybe like the one Doug Peacock did ring around the bonfire with while waving trash bags for half the night. So sleep with the bear spray handy. Oh, and since the autopsys conducted after the "Night of the Grizzly" showed that sexual activity may have been a contributary enticement, use abstinence.

Also, after a Selway kayak self support I wandered about the Pros and Cons of hanging food up a tree in the breeze as opposed to repacking it in my air tight sto float. Cheers, Leroy!

Interesting... these rafters had a 12-guage and it didn't save them. Maybe if they didn't think they were safe because of the 12-guage, more time and consideration would be taken to try to avoid the encounter in the first place? I don't know the details of this encounter, so maybe I'm off base here.

If you are doing kayak self-support, hanging your food is easy (because it's light), and is definately recommended. Being up in the breeze is unlikely to make it any easier for the bear to smell your food (it will already be very easy for them), but it does mean that the bear won't start to associate kayakers with a source of easy food because he was able to eat yours. This is the biggest danger... not to you, necessarily in the instance the bear gets you food, but because the bear will now be more comfortable around people and will in fact seek out such encounters because the bear knows it can get food there. This is a future problem bear, and is a serious safety concern.

 

[dgosn]

Bear mitigation steps:

Safe clean camp:

Bear Spray:

870:

I have seen a bear in a tree shot with a .357, perfect line of sight, close up, and the thing would not die. It was scary to see how much lead a back bear could take. I advocate a firearm in bear country, but only as a last resort, spray seems to be more effective. I think just shooting a bear is a good way to piss off a large animal made of nothing more than muscle and teeth.

 

[RockRider]

Check out the video clip at the bottom of this webpage... Engel USA

You already have tons of great advice on here, no need for repeat input. My one camping encounter with a bear was on Flaming Gorge. I looked at my dog (one tough dog possibly pitbull in her mix) her ears were pulled back and eyes were huge as we listened to this huffing bear walk around the tent. Not a peep out of her and the bear moved on. Proper storage of food, and changing clothes after cooking dinner, saved us that evening IMO.

 

[cupido76]

Nice clip. I've seen something similar for a Yeti Cooler (the Tundra, I think). I have a Yeti, but it's an older model that fits in my boat perfectly, and doesn't have the looking top to make in bear-proof. I will likely purchase one of the bear-proof versions when I get a new boat.