Bear Pepper Spray in Bear Country Or While Hunting Bears

I read an article recently in Field & Stream concerning a black bear attack on a hunter while bow hunting moose. The hunter survived with mostly puncture wounds that narrowly missed his lung and spinal cord.

To his credit and incredibly good fortune he did get one arrow off at the charging bear. The shot was true and the arrow penetrated the chest and came out the belly. The bear could have easily killed him if that shot had not been good and if he had not continued to fight by repeatedly stabbing the bear with another arrow tipped by a Muzzy broad head. The fact that the bow hunter was alone and without backup makes his survival even luckier.

Statistically just what are the odds that the average hunter, whether a bow hunter, or handgun hunter or even a rifle hunter can bring his or her weapon of choice to bear and accurately place not only a KILLING shot, but a STOPPING shot to the bear before being mauled or knocked down? NOT very good apparently.

In a study of hundreds of bear attacks, pepper spray deterred a charge approx 92% of the time, while bullets did so only 66% of the time. The stats do not mention whether or not the bear spray was rated for BEAR protection and up to the task and the bullet study does not differentiate between a 125 grain JHP .357 Magnum and a 45-70 stuffed with Garret Hammerhead loads.

The real crux of the situation is that most of us can bring the BEAR rated pepper spray into play and point and shoot faster and more accurately that we can bring a rifle into play.

For your next baited or spot and stalk bear hunt, here is a LINK to acceptable bear sprays.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Bear-Pepper-Spray-By-Guard-Alaska---A-Product-Review&id=1126588

You can also buy bear pepper spray from Cabela's, BassPro, and several other outlets.

The thought also occurs to me that even while bear hunting with a rifle, it might be a good idea to have an easily accessible compact reliable handgun on your person (IF it is legal to carry where you are hunting and you have a permit to do so) That handgun should be stuffed with hard cast heavy for caliber bullets. If you were surprised or knocked down by a bear and separated from your primary weapon be it a bow, or a rifle, muzzle loader etc., it gives you some extra insurance. (Remember I sold insurance for a living for over 40 years).

This would be in addition to the BEAR SPRAY in a holster on your person and your primary weapon if it is a rifle.

Since the bear spray has the highest percentage of deterring a bear, I would make sure I could get to that easily at all times and keep it in my tree stand even if hunting black bears over bait. Also if you are NOT specifically hunting bears, then you will avoid legal and social complications if you can deter the attack without killing a bear.

Dan