Defence Against Brown Bears?

[Jonathan Randall]

If you were hiking in brown bear country, what would you carry? Bear spray? A firearm? Both?

If so, what type of firearm? Obviously a rifle would be best, but what if you can't deploy one in time? Would a .45 work? I do know that firing a .38 at a grizzly (or other brown bear) is pretty much considered suicidal.

Thoughts?

[TonyU]

My .44 magnum.

[sean_stonehart]

Somebody I don't particularly care for. That way I can inflict a wound real quick & have them take off, bloody & running in the other direction.

[jjaje]

There have been some tests showing that bear spray is one of the best deterrents for black and brown bears.

Better than spray is being in a group. I know that in parks like Yellowstone there have been no bear attacks of groups larger than three.

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[Erik]

Total thread-drift but it's a funny story.

So, there I was... hiking with my best friend on the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. We were about 3-4 days of fast hiking in either direction from a telephone.

We stop for a water break at this boulder and we're cracking up, telling stupid jokes, and right when we tell the joke "How fast do you need to be to outrun a bear? Faster than your buddy! Ha ha ha ha ha...!" a bear comes from around the corner. Talk about coincidence!

My buddy grabs the hatchet, I grab the k-bar we had been using to cut firewood and point it forward like a very short fencing sword. I figure that maybe I can get it in the bear's mouth as he tries to eat me... maybe. It's the best idea I could come up with.

The bear comes close enough that he's sniffing the the tip of the knife. I kept thinking that there's no way I'd leave my buddy there, not because I'm such a brave, loyal, decent guy but because I did not want to explain to his mom what happened to him. I was more afraid of her than the bear and I was plenty afraid of him.

Anyway, after a short eternity, the bear shuffles off, eating berries but keeping an eye on us.

For the next half-week I had to listen to all this crap about "you were scared?!?!? It was just a brown bear. That's nothing!" (or black, I forget).

I was becoming so annoyed at my buddy, who was also scared out of his gourd but wouldn't admit it, that when I went to take a crap, I took his camera when he wasn't looking and shot photos of the poop. I figured he'd discover the photos when he got the film developed.

When we got to the other end of the trail we looked at the local newspaper. "Two Hikers killed by Bear". Well, no s**t. I hoped my buddy enjoyed his nature photos.

[rainesr]

There have been some tests showing that bear spray is one of the best deterrents for black and brown bears.

Better than spray is being in a group. I know that in parks like Yellowstone there have been no bear attacks of groups larger than three.

During a visit to the Adirondacks we were told the same thing for black bears, alhtough we had to buy our bear spray out of state. I am not sure if NY doesn't allow it or it is just in such low demand.

The only confrontations with bears I have had were with black bears, they just ran away. I have heard brown bears are less likely to run.

~Rob

[Cliff Hargrave]

45e3cad52bf86420c28e575495dbd98e.jpg

s&w .500

[Jonathan Randall]

s&w .500

That's a great brown bear antidote.

I'm going with bear spray, though. Don't have the firearms proficiency - or permits - to carry. I want to go sketching in the Tahoe area - in the area where my niece actually took a photograph of a brown bear.