It doesn't appear to have bounced off of his/her skull?
Glad that your wife, yourself and your chooks were OK.
Bear spray experiences, had an interesting one last night.
- Thread starter Ardent
- Start date
It doesn't appear to have bounced off of his/her skull?
Glad that your wife, yourself and your chooks were OK.
It was maybe 20yrds away when i shot it with a 3 1/2" slug. They were both boars, the second was shot a couple days later on a neighbouring farm also killing chickens. They managed to kill close to 20 of our birds. They weren't huge for the island but I'd say at least 300lbs, you can tell they weren't juveniles by the browning of there muzzles, I'd put them around 3yrs old. What was strange is they were travelling together. After we found out we weren't the first they had visited.
ET
ET
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It was maybe 20yrds away when i shot it with a 3 1/2" slug. They were both boars, the second was shot a couple days later on a neighbouring farm also killing chickens. They managed to kill close to 20 of our birds. They weren't huge for the island but I'd say at least 300lbs, you can tell they weren't juveniles by the browning of there muzzles, I'd put them around 3yrs old. What was strange is they were travelling together. After we found out we weren't the first they had visited.
ET
How did he taste?
Likely tasted like Cat.I like cats, they taste like chicken.
On a more lighter note has anybody tried those boat canned air horns for keeping a bear at a distance rather than doing the up close bit with the pepper spray?
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Well this went places, as most bear defence internet threads do. Haven't read all the stuff since so I'm likely missing some of the messages.
I did however catch somebody in shock and disbelief we (presume directed at me, though I have sons, not daughters) didn't shoot a bear with our kids in kid carriers that we walked into point blank. With some pretty serious amusement I must explain to those who haven't figured it out already that it takes longer to unshoulder and chamber a round, and shoot, than to just move on. The gun came off the shoulder and was being cycled immediately, but first and foremost we were moving away. Once the distance had spread and the gun was ready there was zero point in killing the bear, he was as surprised as us and nothing had to die. I'm again embarrassed at my thread that not shooting the bear is now considered tantamount to bad parenting apparently. This is by no means the first or last bear we'll meet close hiking the backcountry. For those interested, we met this bear in Wilmore Wildnerness, they don't meet a ton of people, it isn't Jasper out there.
Second, much of what you'll get in any of these threads, and the bear that started the thread, are black bears. Since we've now diverged far from my initial sharing of the experience with the spray, we might as well continue to discuss the other bears. My bluff charge experience relates to an entirely different species. The CO's here consider the blacks to be more of a pain to deal with than Grizzlies, I'll say I trust Grizzlies more, and respect them more as well. I've seen one good bear awareness video out of all the ones I've been forced to watch at work, it was one the Yukon government collaborated on. In it, they purposely incited bluff charges with wild bears to film the segments and demonstrate actual behaviour instead of another fake video. A woman did the point work to boot, and was charged several times in the video, each time the bears stopping short. On one occasion it was even done on a sow with cubs. Balls. The reality and message in that is bears do not need to die every time they are encountered at close range, others seem to differ. Behaviour absolutely can be judged within reason, to think otherwise is to wilfully choose not to. If it could be cataloged, to make up a number, likely 99.99% of these encounters end with zero incidents, I bump into bears extremely often in my job as mentioned. Many others here do as well. I'm no expert, and I'm certainly not dead or playing a particularly dangerous brand of roulette either. I've hunted things scarier and far more dangerous than bears on another continent, and it puts things into perspective a good deal, you don't need to walk afraid of every bear you encounter. Just damn well pay attention and give respect.
Now, my biggest beef with the shoot first, ask questions later mentality is the effect on bear populations, and by bear populations, I should be clear I mean and am concerned with Grizzlies. Many Grizzlies were shot historically where I work, mentioned in passing tales by old grader operators and people who've been in the area a long time. "He was getting to close to camp" and all that. There used to be a lot more Grizzlies, too, now there are four judging by a couple years of watching the area from the air. Just last shift I was told a story about one of the old guys at another site mauled by a Grizzly they wounded and were following up, because they thought they saw him near the site too much. None of it had to happen, of that I'm certain. People are eager to shoot "problem" bears, or any bear considered to be looking at you sideways. To the fellow with private land and the chickens, I skimmed the post, and it's likely well justified, also a black bear and in no danger of population collapse. Grizzlies on the other hand do shoot out of areas far too easily, look at much of the south now.
Just as I'm concerned with conservation in hunting because I love the sport and the wilds, I'm even more concerned with unreported, unregulated "problem" shooting of bears, Grizzlies in particular, and the mentality threads like this propagate. It's my own thread and that's likely my fault, and my take on it is strong, but it worries me. These threads routinely turn into festivals of "No way I'M waiting to see what he's gonna do" and "Shoot first and live" advice and mentalities that filter into the bush as the general modus operandi. There is no question it is not necessary nearly as much as people seem to think, to boot. Expert I am not, but well bushed, absolutely. We all have our opinions, and I just sincerely hope those opposing mine don't end up killing Grizzlies in particular that didn't have it coming, because they didn't understand what was going on. I'm not out for hugging bears and suggesting we never get in their way or on their menu, I am absolutely against blind fear and well armed individuals mixing in the vicinity of the bears I worry about.
I did however catch somebody in shock and disbelief we (presume directed at me, though I have sons, not daughters) didn't shoot a bear with our kids in kid carriers that we walked into point blank. With some pretty serious amusement I must explain to those who haven't figured it out already that it takes longer to unshoulder and chamber a round, and shoot, than to just move on. The gun came off the shoulder and was being cycled immediately, but first and foremost we were moving away. Once the distance had spread and the gun was ready there was zero point in killing the bear, he was as surprised as us and nothing had to die. I'm again embarrassed at my thread that not shooting the bear is now considered tantamount to bad parenting apparently. This is by no means the first or last bear we'll meet close hiking the backcountry. For those interested, we met this bear in Wilmore Wildnerness, they don't meet a ton of people, it isn't Jasper out there.
Second, much of what you'll get in any of these threads, and the bear that started the thread, are black bears. Since we've now diverged far from my initial sharing of the experience with the spray, we might as well continue to discuss the other bears. My bluff charge experience relates to an entirely different species. The CO's here consider the blacks to be more of a pain to deal with than Grizzlies, I'll say I trust Grizzlies more, and respect them more as well. I've seen one good bear awareness video out of all the ones I've been forced to watch at work, it was one the Yukon government collaborated on. In it, they purposely incited bluff charges with wild bears to film the segments and demonstrate actual behaviour instead of another fake video. A woman did the point work to boot, and was charged several times in the video, each time the bears stopping short. On one occasion it was even done on a sow with cubs. Balls. The reality and message in that is bears do not need to die every time they are encountered at close range, others seem to differ. Behaviour absolutely can be judged within reason, to think otherwise is to wilfully choose not to. If it could be cataloged, to make up a number, likely 99.99% of these encounters end with zero incidents, I bump into bears extremely often in my job as mentioned. Many others here do as well. I'm no expert, and I'm certainly not dead or playing a particularly dangerous brand of roulette either. I've hunted things scarier and far more dangerous than bears on another continent, and it puts things into perspective a good deal, you don't need to walk afraid of every bear you encounter. Just damn well pay attention and give respect.
Now, my biggest beef with the shoot first, ask questions later mentality is the effect on bear populations, and by bear populations, I should be clear I mean and am concerned with Grizzlies. Many Grizzlies were shot historically where I work, mentioned in passing tales by old grader operators and people who've been in the area a long time. "He was getting to close to camp" and all that. There used to be a lot more Grizzlies, too, now there are four judging by a couple years of watching the area from the air. Just last shift I was told a story about one of the old guys at another site mauled by a Grizzly they wounded and were following up, because they thought they saw him near the site too much. None of it had to happen, of that I'm certain. People are eager to shoot "problem" bears, or any bear considered to be looking at you sideways. To the fellow with private land and the chickens, I skimmed the post, and it's likely well justified, also a black bear and in no danger of population collapse. Grizzlies on the other hand do shoot out of areas far too easily, look at much of the south now.
Just as I'm concerned with conservation in hunting because I love the sport and the wilds, I'm even more concerned with unreported, unregulated "problem" shooting of bears, Grizzlies in particular, and the mentality threads like this propagate. It's my own thread and that's likely my fault, and my take on it is strong, but it worries me. These threads routinely turn into festivals of "No way I'M waiting to see what he's gonna do" and "Shoot first and live" advice and mentalities that filter into the bush as the general modus operandi. There is no question it is not necessary nearly as much as people seem to think, to boot. Expert I am not, but well bushed, absolutely. We all have our opinions, and I just sincerely hope those opposing mine don't end up killing Grizzlies in particular that didn't have it coming, because they didn't understand what was going on. I'm not out for hugging bears and suggesting we never get in their way or on their menu, I am absolutely against blind fear and well armed individuals mixing in the vicinity of the bears I worry about.
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Likely tasted like Cat.I like cats, they taste like chicken.
On a more lighter note has anybody tried those boat canned air horns for keeping a bear at a distance rather than doing the up close bit with the pepper spray?
Many times, they become conditioned to them rapidly, and will even react with curiousity from time to time. Good tool on a good bear, pretty useless on a bad bear.
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
And, for those convinced you're as good as dead or need to be gun at the ready for every bear watching you, this was just last week. More Grizzly encounters, this one watched me work from 60 yards away, this is a cell phone picture. Again he's fine, and so am I- they'll even approach and become assertive from time to time, once a year or so, like the other pic of the pissed off Grizzly. Below that is curious a Grizzly sow and cubs in another area I worked and hunted, they're also fine. If they were shot every time Grizzlies would already be locally extinct in both areas. I'm not an expert, but I do spend an awful lot of time around these guys, and I'm afraid I'm not about to let bear defence threads shape my opinion on what to do with them and I hope others don't as well. That is my worry and motivation. I wish some of the true bear pros, Boomer, pounder, and so forth could explain their view. They deal with Polars like most of the country does black bears, and not many are shot.
The_Sicilian
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toronto & South River, ON
Nice! We just picked up 11 acres in Minden last month. Whereabouts? I sell bear spray.. you can come by and pick some up
Definitely keeping some handy along with the 12GA..oh and our noisy German Shepherd for the early warning. Congrats and enjoy!
city boy
Boar-------------mature male bear, we will excuse you being a ''city boy'' and all.
Same experience
Lost track of this thread, on the road moving daughter. I agree with your approach entirely. The local outfitter knocked one over a couple seasons ago. I, along with others, hazed that bear for a few weeks a number of different ways but it would not move on and this is a cottage community which is heavily populated by kids some weekends. There was a hunter from the States with mobility problems and luckily I ran across him while on my ATV. Treed him and went and got the guide. Problem solved and everyone happy. Point being, of course, the local community tried hard to move him along before taking him out.
Just reread my post. I treed the bear not the hunter.
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Ardent,
I'm a conservationist too and fully understand what your saying and where your coming from. Education and experience goes a long way, but I have neither when it come to grizzlies, that said I would not shoot to kill without feeling threatened. I would not be able to tell the difference between a real charge and a false charge so in that situation I'd probably feel threatened in either situation, but if time allowed I would give it the respect of a warning shot, but if I feel like its me or the bear its a no brainer.
Here's a little food for thought: You take a vacation to china and do some back country hiking, just for the sake of the argument your packing a firearm and a can of bear spray. In your adventures you come across panda. The panda is at a distance but is aware of your presence, for whatever reason the panda turns all it attention to you and charges do you
A) Shoot a warning shot and be ready for a follow up kill shot.
B) Use your bear spray that has been proven to be less than a 100% effective.
C) Hope for the best because they are a endangered species.
Of coarse assuming your not educated and expirenced in panda behaviour.
On a side note the sausage was delicious, I even BBQ up a pack and fed it to the chickens. Thought it was fair that the chickens got to eat bear because the bear ate chicken
I'm a conservationist too and fully understand what your saying and where your coming from. Education and experience goes a long way, but I have neither when it come to grizzlies, that said I would not shoot to kill without feeling threatened. I would not be able to tell the difference between a real charge and a false charge so in that situation I'd probably feel threatened in either situation, but if time allowed I would give it the respect of a warning shot, but if I feel like its me or the bear its a no brainer.
Here's a little food for thought: You take a vacation to china and do some back country hiking, just for the sake of the argument your packing a firearm and a can of bear spray. In your adventures you come across panda. The panda is at a distance but is aware of your presence, for whatever reason the panda turns all it attention to you and charges do you
A) Shoot a warning shot and be ready for a follow up kill shot.
B) Use your bear spray that has been proven to be less than a 100% effective.
C) Hope for the best because they are a endangered species.
Of coarse assuming your not educated and expirenced in panda behaviour.
On a side note the sausage was delicious, I even BBQ up a pack and fed it to the chickens. Thought it was fair that the chickens got to eat bear because the bear ate chicken
Nice! We just picked up 11 acres in Minden last month. Whereabouts? I sell bear spray.. you can come by and pick some up
Congrats and enjoy!
Millbridge, we were there last week, didn't see any bear, but ou was told by the neighbour that our property is on the route to the dump. Wife decided the tent wasnt
Going to cut it anynore, so getting a small trailer til we build a cabin. Next weekend we start putting up a small perimeter fence for the mutts.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
He's a gun nut like the rest of us...my guess is that they headed home, if you catch my drift.
bearkilr
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nowhere, ......just past the middle
That's a definite "will" for me. I like bears, but not that much.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
I always cheer for the Bears, except when I'm playing against them.
I've seen police grade OC spray not work with a damn on both dogs and humans. Yes, sometimes it works great, but not always. I would bet the same with a bear.
Personally, I would take a fire extinguisher over OC spray for any dog.
Personally, I would take a fire extinguisher over OC spray for any dog.
