I’ve read numerous studies and detailed accounts of the effective use of bear spray in stopping a charging grizzly.
Where do you get your info?
“I’ve read numerous studies and detailed accounts “
Typical yuppie: No experience but they read a book on the subject so they think they know what they are talking about. Kind of like a man knowing what childbirth is like because he read books about it.
Pepper spray has been know to stop a few attacks but pepper spray is not a physical end to an attack. Bullets can be. I carry a 44 magnum in the woods, and even then a bear can attack so quickly that not a shot could be fired before he took my head off. Caution is warranted as a best prevention but so is a physical defense, not a pepper spray “deterrent”.
See post #58
Also, you do know that bears eat skunks, don’t you? A hungry bear is not deterred; a curious bear - maybe. But, experienced hunters and guides will NEVER depend upon an aerosol can of anything.
I have no experience with bears. However, I do know that bear spray is ineffective at stopping a simple dog fight. When two dogs (bred for guard duty) just up and decide to go at it, you realize that many animals (even domestics) have a mode switch in their head. Once they enter that “attack” mode, they feel no pain, and are relatively oblivious to outside stimuli. They don’t think clearly, and there are precious few ways to reach them and make them stop. You can’t even grab a collar to pull them apart, as in their frenzy, they can turn and attack you - that’s how out of it they are. Lots of pics of those after-effects on trainer’s arms online.
Finally got control over the dogs and made them get along, but bear spray wasn’t a viable option once they initiated. You really have to see a cuddly, fuzzy, funny, loving pet slip into that mode to understand it. Suddenly they’re like a robot killing machine, oblivious to the outside world, oblivious to pain and discomfort, and just violently biting, shaking, and tearing as fast as they can. They are a different animal.
So the truth on bear spray may be in the middle, and depend on how pissed a bear is, and how initiated their attack has become. One walking up to you, to play with you as a chew toy, may break off if it’s hit from twenty feet away. But I would not trust bear spray to stop a pissed off bear close in, especially once an attack mode was initiated in it’s head. If it’s an intermitant deterrent, why trust your life with it?
Based on my non-bear animal experience, on that trail, once the bear had the kid and was in attack mode, pepper spray would surely have been useless to stop the attack. The only way the attack was being stopped was with a well placed bullet by someone skilled with guns and calm under pressure.
Not that spray isn’t better than nothing. But that doesn’t change the fact that sending kids (who are more likely to encounter a bear due to inexperience), without giving them the only way to stop an attack was gross negligence. If there wasn’t a kid there good enough with a gun, there should have been an adult who was.
I think Psycho and his buds just want people on this site to not trust an inferior option, when a firearm is so far superior. We need eery Freeper we can get.
PS - love your tag.