Bear outside my tent

[Bonzo]

So don’t camp by someone who’s carrying!

How do you go about figuring that out?

[Bill in Roswell]

Here in the southeast, FS officers use air horns to scare bears away. Ive witnessed it twice. Yet I never see mention of air horn use with black bears. I now carry a small air horn. The one I got came with 2 air canisters. They are small, fit into hip belt pocket, weigh under 2 oz.

[Jerry Adams]

That’s what I was thinking, a loud noise like an air horn might scare away a bear

There are small electronic devices intended for walkers to scare away muggers that might work and would be lighter.  Although a 2 ounce air horn is light enough

[obx hiker]

Bear Spray Bidet:    “He isn’t talking.”

Figures. Probably speechless.

[Daryl and Daryl]

I carried an air horn for many years prior to switching to bear spray.  Thanks for the reminder of how light they are compared to 12 ounces of Bear Spray.

Once I accidentally discharged my air horn when I was working my way through a brushy/narrow/cramped section of non-trail.  My startle reaction just about tore me apart.

[jscott]

I agree that the airhorn is a good idea. If you’re being charged by a bear, the chance of pulling out your gun and hitting it in a way that would have an effect would be marginal, I’d think. with the air horn, there’s no need to aim. And if you blast it at a noise prowling outside of your tent, and that turns out to be your wife, you won’t have risked hitting her with a bullet.

[obx hiker]

Anyone have any experience with these things? Bear Bangers?

The evidently fired by something like a flare gun. Seems to be somewhat of a Canadian thing?

The whole kit and kaboodle

Hey have some fun on 4th of July and give a friend a bear spray bidet. (OK maybe not a friend ;)

[Philip Tschersich]

I used to carry an Orion 12 gauge flare pistol that I loaded with Shell Crackers. Faster to load and reload than the Bird/Bear Bangers. The 3 inch shell didn’t technically fit in the Orion flare pistol, so I had to ream out the plastic barrel, which I’m sure lawyers would love. But it was light and worked extremely well.

[Todd T]

My guess is that noisemakers only work where the bears haven’t encountered them before.  I’ve certainly seen reports (and video) of bears ignoring the noise as though nothing happened.  Just like with your kids, if you threaten and don’t follow through, you shouldn’t expect the bear to believe you next time.

[jscott]

I wonder, Todd. At the least, a noise maker will set off a startle reflex and cause a tent-prowling bear to draw back, at least temporarily. and in fact, if you have no food in your tent, I would imagine it would scare a bear off for good. I mean, how often does a bear target a tent because it wants to eat the occupant? in the lower 48. (Yeah, it has happened.)

Personally, I’ve never felt or experienced a need for any of this. I’ve had lots of bears wandering around near and through my camp in daylight and at night. I follow proper procedures; the bears and I leave each other alone.

[David Thomas]

I’ve done trips with USFS personnel in Alaska who carried bang shells.
And when I carry a company shotgun, it’s loaded bang – beanbag – slug – slug -slug.

[obx hiker]

“And when I carry a company shotgun, it’s loaded bang – beanbag – slug – slug -slug.”

I’ve wondered about that sequence. Are there variations involving like double-aught or is that pretty much the ‘standard’?

What’s a bean-bag?

[BC Bob]

Anyone have any experience with these things? Bear Bangers? The evidently fired by something like a flare gun. Seems to be somewhat of a Canadian thing?

Bear bangers do seem to be Canadian thing.  Pen-sized launcher.  I haven’t tried them.  You’re supposed to fire them up into the air, definitely not a bear.  One of the criticisms is that you may end up scaring the bear towards you.  They’ve been banned in many places, including all federal parks here.

[BC Bob]

A couple of Stephen Herrero quotes from his book…..

….Some tents are safer than others. When camping in bear country, I like to have a foot or two between me and the tent wall. Curious or garbage-addicted bears will sometimes bite or claw the sides of a tent as if testing to see if something edible is inside….

….If you do a lot of winter camping and cook inside your tent, consider having both a summer tent and a winter tent. I do, because of food-odor impregnation into my winter tent—and I eat big, sometimes highly odorous meals while snow camping….

Herrero, Stephen. Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance . McClelland & Stewart. Kindle Edition.

[BC Bob]

This video was posted on the BPL forum years ago.  Still among the best info I’ve seen.

Safety in Bear Country Dr Tom Smith

An overview of basic bear safety procedures and suggestions for training people who travel in bear habitat. Dr. Smith summarizes his research regarding bear spray, and bear response to human activity.

[Jerry Adams]

In black bear country – Oregon, Washington, California – bears aren’t a problem, just follow standard procedures, but in Grizzly country I think you need some protection.

I would not want to rely on a sound device until there was a lot of testing.  Maybe people carrying several devices and using the sound device first.

[Jerry Adams]

I saw that on Amazon.  $15.  4.8 ounces.  Air horn advertised as a bear horn.

[Daryl and Daryl]

Here’s a thought on air horns.

Took a class on bears once.  Instructor said black bears have evolved to run and hide in the forest.  Some of our observations here support that.  Grizzlies have evolved in more open country where combat is more common.  No place to hide.

So an air horn might send a black bear running but trigger all-out combat in a grizzly.

 

[David Thomas]

Obx (What’s a beanbag?): It’s a bag of shot that spreads out to a few inches of diameter delivering a less-lethal impact to the bear/human.  I knew a guy who got hit with one (voluntarily, during LEO training, with a vest on) and described it as being hit in the chest with a well-swung baseball bat.

If you wanted the slug to be the first shot, you’d cycle the pump twice to eject the banger and the beanbag.

Daryl (and Daryl), On black bears hiding:  I concur if there are grizzlies or human hunters around.  In the central Kenai Peninsula (where there are both), I only ever catch fleeting glimpses of black bears darting back into cover.  On the southern end of the peninsula where there are 1) no grizzlies due to the lack of salmon streams and 2) few humans because it’s way past the towns and villages, I’ve sometimes seen black bear on every hillside I look at and saw a dozen on one berry-filled plateau 6 weeks when doing some field work.

[Bill in Roswell]

Dave, a hiker was killed in the Smokies by a black bear ob Hazle Creek when he tried to get his food back from s bear in possession of his food bag. It only takes one bear having a bad day.

[jscott]

Bonzo wrote:

“So don’t camp by someone who’s carrying!” (I wrote that)

How do you go about figuring that out?”

Go over and start saying how much you admire Nancy Pelosi.

[Bill in Roswell]

My reference to air horns was only for eastern black bears. Western bears and grizzlies I wouldnt trust an air horn. Though I live in GA, I spent many years hiking in CO and NM. Those brown bears are bigger than the typical southern black bear, even if they are the same species.

[Bonzo]

Go over and start saying how much you admire Nancy Pelosi.

If it was as simple as that, we likely would have fixed a lot of things by now.

In all honesty, I am way more concerned about a person wandering into my camp uninvited than a bear doing the same thing.  With a bear, you can be almost 100% certain that politics and/or Jesus isn’t their main focus of conversation, and that makes them far more welcome in my camp than most humans.

Regarding shellcrackers in flare guns: be careful with that.  Yes, the lawyers will have a free-for-all regarding it, but the real danger is a barrel rupture and the resulting shrapnel that comes from it.  I’ve seen the aftermath of exactly this combination – and also low-pressure minishells – and it isn’t pretty.  Some guns seem to hold up to the modification, and then there’s that other group of them that doesn’t.  The solution is a metal-barreled flare gun, but those can be hard to find…or outright illegal to create, depending on how you interpret the rules and regulations of your specific country.  Either way: be careful.

[Dave @ Oware]

Bear scratch marks on tree. The highest just over head height meaning a teenage bear was showing off. Kettle Crest Range, NE WA this October. It was at an opening to a trail thru a dense dog hair of lodgepole pine. Maybe he was marking it for himself as a waypoint. It is a waypoint on my GPS now.

[Brad W]

I have had lot of things sniff around my tent in the middle of the night, foxes, coyotes, black bears, mt lions, bison, mice, etc. If they linger for what I thinks is something more than the normal exploratory sniff I usually kick the roof/side of my tent which makes enough noise to usually make whatever it is run away and not come back. In the few cases that didn’t work after multiple times, I said loud and firmly get outa hear and that worked. I think after that would have been whistle.

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