If you need some bear spray I can hook you up. that stuff is crazy expensive.
I get studies and stories at work about how bear spray is more effective than a gun.
The funny thing is, I don't know one single person that lives around bears that actually carries bear spray, not one. I have spent a lot of time in Alaska and not one of the people I headed into the bush with carried mace. Saw a lot of bears too. I had mace with me the first time I backpacked there and the locals told me a joke about bear spray and bear bells(I am sure tony knows it). I don't carry spray there now and don't carry a gun either.
I do think that for people who aren't familiar with guns or doesn't have a huge amount of practice with the large caliber weapon should carry spray. I have customers ask me all the time if they should carry bear spray or a gun. I believe if you are asking the question you should carry spray. You wouldn't be asking if you had the ability to use the gun effectively. It is much easier to go buy a can of mace and use it to hit a bear than to buy a .454 casull and hit a bear. If you discharge the mace be prepared to be incapacitated for the next hour or so. If you miss the bear it will be longer than an hour
In summary I think they both have their place. hitting the bear with what ever you decide to carry is the most important part you will be scared and shaky. I am MUCH more worried about people bugging me than bears. I carry a gun for them.
If you kill a bear around here you will pay for it. No way to prove it wasn't a false charge. Unless it has you or someone your with in a jaw or something. Spray would be better in that regard, unless you are dead.
I would agree with most of your premise...
Where I would disagree, is not using anything while in the woods where there are known to be large bears. Some people go there whole lives successfully in the woods, without ever encountering an apex predator. Is that skill? Is it luck? Maybe a little of both. I for one, will not leave my own safety, or that of my family/friends to any degree of luck, atleast not intentionally.
2nd, to say that using a firearm, such as the Casull, is not as easy as using bear spray... is a half truth. For some dipshit hippie greenie out of towner hitting REI before they head for the BUS out at Stampede (For those of you who don't know about the bus, read
THIS, and
THIS) then yes, bear spray (And Bells too for that matter:greg
would be appropriate.
However, through practice and training, you can become just as proficient with a large caliber revolver, if not moreso, than someone with a spray bottle full of 2 party irritant, especially in a high adrenaline situation. Not only that, but you are assured a REAL chance to survive the encounter, because there is a REAL probability to neutralize the threat... not just irritate it.
I guess, for where most of you folks live, the fine thing for shooting a bear would be a deterrent for carrying a gun for bear protection, but again, regardless of a fine, knowing that my family was as safe as possible would be worth any penalty, especially if you actually found yourself in a situation where you're bear spray didn't work, and you had no choice but to discharge the firearm.
Again, IMO its a no brainer up here... If you're going to use bear spray, do not make it you're primary-sole line of defense. Make it Secondary or backup at best. Maybe for down in the states, that should be reversed... but under no circumstances would I EVER take the revolver out of the equation all together. If there were places that had bears/etc., and you weren't allowed to carry a firearm, I just wouldn't go there. My family's safety is not worth the risk.
