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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: guns not for bears
Posted By: shawn baker In Response To: Re: guns not for bears (Don Flowers)
Date: Wednesday, 15 December 2004, at 3:33 p.m.
It's curious that people who spend lots of time in bear country are the people who are least likely to pack heat.
People for whom bears are the "scary unknown" are more likely to think that guns are an effective deterrent.
Bob's advice is good--followed by lots of Alaskans who deal with griz/browns frequently...but you can't just go buy a gun and load it up and take off for the hills with it. It's pretty darn helpful to know how to handle the darn thing. Handing out guns as protection to the uninformed? That's just scary, Ken!
IMHO, predatory black bears are not enough of a real statistical risk to worry about. 99% of the other blackies will run away from you (if you ever see them at all). That leaves griz. Play by their rules.
Robert, most of my time in bear country is while hunting...horseback. Sometimes rounding up cattle..horseback. Most of my paddling is done within range of more dangerous 2-legged predators. I do spend some time backpacking in griz country, though. Or did you think I had a patronus ala Harry Potter?
How ya been, Don?
Shawn
: Full agreement with Shawn. It is irresponsible to not include pepper spray
: (and a few cans of it) The alternative is killing bears that don't need to
: be killed and it is hard to justify that. After all, you are in their
: territory and you likely attracted them -- not enough to sign their death
: warrent. Keep the gun as a back-up and the knife for the day when you
: really want to get hurt bad. For the record, I have paddled a bit in the
: north and have live most of my life in remote bear areas including, for
: the past 25 years, on the last place on a dead end road with Crown land
: and two sides and bears in the area including gizzley (which have even
: munched away in my garden). I've done my research and find Steven Herraro
: (Bear Attack) probably has the most accurate info on the subject. Odds of
: problems are low and spray will likely deal effectively with anything
: which comes up (including the equally dangerous moose).
: good luck
: don
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