shotgun shells to scare bears off?

Just shoot a standard slug into the ground just before the Bear or hit a tree right near it, will scare the piss out of the bear and 95% of the time it will take off running away.

They are not extremely over priced unlike the specialty rounds mentioned in the above post.
 
A while back near here, a chap decided to scare a bear off with those bear bangers and lit
a fire that got to be a major concern for the folks that fight them.
I forget the story, but they were going to hang him with the cost of putting the fire out.
Go mean or go home.
 
Nitroxrunsthrume said:
Looking for info on where i can find shells to help a friend scare a black Bear and cubs off
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Best move is to call the fish cops and let them deal with it.;) Last thing you want is some pissed off bear in pain hanging around the neighborhood looking to take his anger out on somebody.

Grizz
 
"Bear" in mind that most 12 gauge bear bangers go off at 50-70 yards from the shooter. If the critter is 40 yards away and the shell goes off 15 yards past the animal...it may just scare it towards you !
I'm with Grove and kennymo, a regular slug/buckshot will do fine at scaring bears and if you should need a more decisive solution..you will already have it loaded up.
 
kamlooky said:
A while back near here, a chap decided to scare a bear off with those bear bangers and lit
a fire that got to be a major concern for the folks that fight them.
I forget the story, but they were going to hang him with the cost of putting the fire out.
Go mean or go home.
Click to expand...

Yup, in dry conditions, keep the crackers high up in the air so the pieces cool before they hit the ground. Open choke, smooth bore, if you shoot them in a rifled barrel, they go off in the barrel, which is very noisy, but doesn't hurt the gun . . . unless you happen to but a lethal round in behind it, and the exploded cracker shell leaves a partially plugged bore. Oh, by the way, these things are corrosive, so clean the gun ASAP with hot soapy water.
 
I would not use bear deterrent rounds in my shotgun... Not unless I had another shotgun loaded with lethal rounds ready to use... The reason being that sometimes the bear deterrent round ends up putting the shotgun out of action, as Boomer indicated above...

Last thing I want in my hands is a club when I could have had an operational shotgun with lethal rounds!

Cheers
Jay
 
If the bear is close, simply fire the cracker shell straight up in the air, that solves the shooting behind him threat. Its been my experience that the sound of live fire is not as effective on a bear as the flash-bang of a cracker shell. More than once I've fired over a bear's head and had him walk away slowly in a stiff legged posture showing his displeasure, others have approached! One guy I know shoots into the dirt immediately in front of them, kicking dirt in their face, which combined with the noise of the shot effectively moves them along, but I won't do it because I believe it creates an unacceptable risk of a wounded bear. A better solution it to have rubber bullets backing up the cracker shells. The pinch they give keeps even the most reluctant bear moving, but aim for a big muscle, in the ribs a rubber slug can kill a bear If you must use less lethal ammo in your primary shotgun, I recommend loading the magazine with slugs and single load the less lethal ammo. Should things go south, you can still land a lethal blow quickly.
 
I don't like Bear Bangers because of the fire risk, also I understand that they are corrosive. I think a better option is the less lethal rubber buck shot, rather than the rubber slugs or baton rounds (available from SFRC - see animal control), also a pump action with less lethal rounds and slugs is the best solution I have found.
 
I bought a variety of items for bear control from Kodiak Wildlife Products, but if you have the option to buy local, you will save about $60 on the hazardous products shipping fee for the pepper spray, etc.
 
Boomer said:
If the bear is close, simply fire the cracker shell straight up in the air, that solves the shooting behind him threat. Its been my experience that the sound of live fire is not as effective on a bear as the flash-bang of a cracker shell. More than once I've fired over a bear's head and had him walk away slowly in a stiff legged posture showing his displeasure, others have approached! One guy I know shoots into the dirt immediately in front of them, kicking dirt in their face, which combined with the noise of the shot effectively moves them along, but I won't do it because I believe it creates an unacceptable risk of a wounded bear. A better solution it to have rubber bullets backing up the cracker shells. The pinch they give keeps even the most reluctant bear moving, but aim for a big muscle, in the ribs a rubber slug can kill a bear If you must use less lethal ammo in your primary shotgun, I recommend loading the magazine with slugs and single load the less lethal ammo. Should things go south, you can still land a lethal blow quickly.
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You probably have 100x more bear encounter experience than 99% of the guys on here (myself included). Your insight is appreciated and sounds logical to me!
 
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