Okay. That changes things a little bit. I must
apologize, I was assuming that you were planning a
huge Alaskan adventure; complete with grizzly bears,
brilliant red salmon, and millions of mosquitos. Not
that such a trip wouldn't be fun, of course!!!
Since I've got a problem with being long winded..er,
fingered, here. I'll give you the short answer to
your question at the outset; and if you're looking for
a more in-depth discussion, please read on.
Short answer: Yes. In my very humble opinion, bear
spray is better than a pistol. Especially for black
bears.
Now the explaination. First of all, you're talking
about black bears. According to people who know a
heck of a lot more about bears than I do, black bears
are almost NEVER aggressive. In fact, most of those
that know will say that a black bear will almost
always run away from an encounter with a human. In
fact, the only times I've heard of a wild black bear
(read: not affected by lots of unnatural contact with
humans) acting in a socially unacceptable way, the
human in the situation either inadvertantly gets
between a mother bear and her young cub; or does
something stupid like leaving food laying around
within reach of the bear. Black bears are also a
heckuva lot smaller than grizzlys; which means that
you're not going to be dealing with a 700 pound
monster...more like a 300 pound monster.
What all of this means is that you're dealing with a
bear that has a much smaller potential for aggression
than a grizzly. This is a good thing, because
anything you do to ward off a black bear has that much
more of a chance of being effective.
Now, on to pistols vs. OC pepper spray. What follows
are my opinions, and, as such, take them for what they
are worth.
A pistol is most definately more lethal to the bear.
If you're able to put several shots from a .44 into
the skull of even the largest black bear, s/he will
die. No questions asked. Problem solved. Or is it?
Okay, let's assume that, in defense of your life,
you've managed to kill a bear, now what? Well, first
of all, you'll have to contact the local fish and
wildlife people and tell them what you did. You'll
have to lead them to the carcass and explain
exhaustively what happened. Depending on where you
are, you may be subject to arrest, and your hunting
and fishing privelages are certianly in jeopardy. At
the very least, it will ruin your fishing trip.
On the other hand, if you're using OC pepper spray,
your chances of killing the bear are exactly zero.
Sure, his/her face will sting for a little while, but
s/he isn't going to die. So, with OC, you take the
chances of killing the bear and the local authorities
out of the picture.
OC also offers other advantages.
First (and probably most importantly), you are MUCH
more likely to use OC effectively against a bear than
a pistol. With OC, the idea is to put up a fog of
searing pepper spray in between you and the bear.
With a pistol, you have to hit a relatively small area
on a charging animal while under extreme stress. As
any person who has shot a pistol under any kind of
stress can tell you, this is exceedingly difficult.
Second, in many states, the authorities REALLY frown
on people who tote pistols around. If you happen to
be in one of these states and wind up conversing with
a State Patrol officer when he sees your pistol,
expect to spend at least the night in jail.
Third, it's going to be a lot easier to convince your
wife (or anyone else you might be with) to carry and
use OC themselves, because it's no-where near as
intimidating of a prospect.
Fourth, you can buy about 50 cans of OC for the cost
of one pistol and the required ammunition. This, of
course, doesn't include the cost of the ammunition
that you'll be required to expend in order to become
competant enough with the pistol to be able to hit
anything.
There are certianly some drawbacks for OC when
compared with a pistol.
First of all, there is the shorter range. Keep in
mind, though that this is somewhat offset by the
difficulty of consistantly hitting anything more than
15 feet away with a pistol. Especially when you're
under stress.
Second, there is the wind issue. If you spray that
stuff into the wind, you will learn very quickly why
bears don't like running into a cloud of it.
Third, there is the fact that these bear spray things
are sort-of complex to operate. They're like
mini-fire extinguishers. Not something that the
average person has a lot of experience using.
Finally, they are kind of awkward to carry around.
But, then again, so are pistols.
Okay. I'm really done typing about this now. Again,
a Google search for "OC Bear Sprays" will reveal
plenty of other information.
Have fun. And, after you buy your OC, don't put it in
your chili. It'll make it too hot, even for a Texan.
Rix
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> In a message dated 7/21/02 4:11:32 PM Eastern
> Daylight Time,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>
> > Okay. That's enough preaching about bears and
> pistols
> > for one day. I hope all of this helps. Be
> careful
> > and have fun.
> >
> > Rix Benson
> >
>
> It helped alot! The only prob I have with a rifle
> is that it it just me and
> my wife. We fish in the Great Smoky Mountains. They
> got Black bear, I think
> thats all.
> Do you think the "Bear Spray" might be better
> than a pistol?
>
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