Interesting article on bear spray vs. bear handgun defense

Just got back from a Yellowstone visit and almost everyone around the place had a can of bear spray.
They rent them out for $30/ can so you return them and they get rented over and over again. Good profits made on that deal!

Well, we were 3 couples on the trip. And as we were relaxing over an evening drink, our neighbors came over to give us a can of bear spray since he couldn't take it home on the flight.
A few whiskeys later… my buddy decided to give us a demonstration on how to properly use the spray.
After we laughed for a few seconds… the gentle breeze swirled and blew the pepper spray right back at us. All 3 of us were bent over choking and coughing with out tongues fully extended! Lol
Lesson learned! Be very aware of the wind if you try that !!!
And you didn't stop by and say hi ? Lol. Where I used to live , a pit bull was at my front door one day growling at me. I said ok. Got pepper spray. Sprayed and west wind blew back in my face. Felt like somebody slugged me in the face and burn.
 
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And you didn't stop by and say hi ? Lol. Where I used to live , a pit bull was at my front door one day growling at me. I said ok. Got pepper spray. Sprayed and west wind blew back in my face. Felt like somebody slugged me in the face and burn.
Would have loved to visit and hang out with some of you mountaineers!
However, we were on a short 5 day vacation because we had to get back to finish preparing for the rice harvest which is beginning Friday for me.
It was a wonderful trip for me as I love the mountains and huge valleys.
That terrain is completely different from where we live and hunt.
Perhaps in the future!
Same goes here!!! If any of you come down here to visit the hot flat southern states and land anywhere around here… let me know… I can hook up a hog hunt, go out to shoot at my range or simply sit around and have a drink and tell stories!!
But… no bear spray!! 😂
 
Would have loved to visit and hang out with some of you mountaineers!
However, we were on a short 5 day vacation because we had to get back to finish preparing for the rice harvest which is beginning Friday for me.
It was a wonderful trip for me as I love the mountains and huge valleys.
That terrain is completely different from where we live and hunt.
Perhaps in the future!
Same goes here!!! If any of you come down here to visit the hot flat southern states and land anywhere around here… let me know… I can hook up a hog hunt, go out to shoot at my range or simply sit around and have a drink and tell stories!!
But… no bear spray!! 😂
Sounds like Heavan. What date were you down here ? I work fir City Parks. This year I've kept track of state license plates. I'm up to 40 plus Wa.DC. Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. I may have seen you. 😉
Did you visit Yellowstone ? If so you went past my house. Lol.
 
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Sounds like Heavan. What date were you down here ? I work fir City Parks. This year I've kept track of state license plates. I'm up to 40 plus Wa.DC. Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. I may have seen you. 😉
Did you visit Yellowstone ? If so you went past my house. Lol.
Yep.
Rented a van with Idaho plates from the Jackson airport.
Drove up to stay in West Yellowstone through Teton and Yellowstone parks.
Toured Yellowstone for 2 days and back to Jackson and Tetons for 3 days.
 
Good for bear attack 😲
dogz. Might be too heavy 😉

Have no idea how well it would work on a bear, but the last part showed someone sticking a shark with it. From personal experience, you cannot kill a shark. Couple examples. Buddy hooked a little 4 footer and brought it boatside. I hit it directly thru the brain with a .357 resulting in it screaming line off the reel as it headed for the bottom and broke off. Heavy line, wire leader...
Caught about a 6' shark. Gaffed and tail tied it. Dragged it home backwards thru the water to drown it. Drove to buddy's house and hung it by the tail from garage rafters, with a big 20 gallon bucket under it to catch the drippings. Went inside to celebrate with a beer. Came back out and it had bitten off a huge chunk from the bucket.
Sharks mostly function with the autonomous nervous system in their spine. Cut off their head. Doesn't mean they're dead, just harder for them to bite you.
Think you're safe in the boat? A big mako or thresher (much better eating than wormy marlin, BTW), can leap 10 or 15' or so out of the water, and many have landed in their would be captor's boats.
 
Oh my gosh that's kinda funny, the bear liking it. Reminds me of my littlest and oldest dog, Tikka (that way I can say I have a tikka as well 😁). Most dogs HATE really spicy things, we had heard that sprinkling cayenne pepper around the garden plants would keep the dog away from them with digging a such when she was a pup. To our dismay, she followed my wife around DELIBERATELY LICKING UP THE CAYENNE POWDER 🤣. She is a strange animal, it worked with the other dogs. She'll be 11 soon, a wire haired daschund Jack Russel terrier cross, a real lion heart trapped in a frail and small body haha. She is wise in her old age, when she was younger she almost got herself killed or mauled a number of times because there was NOTHING ON EARTH she would back down from 🤣
My Mom brought home a little runt Pug, We named him Mike. He'd attack the local collie on sight. Heart of a lion.
 
Rattlesnakes are the same way. You cut off their heads and the body will still strike at you. I've had it happen. A bloody stump striking your hand is pretty freaky. I'd skin them and wrap to put in freezer and their bodies are still skirming.
I was working as a laborer on the Lewiston grade, digging footing holes for a new high tension line. A front loader ran over a rattlesnake, leaving it writhing in pain. I walked over and tried to chop its head off with my shovel, to put it out of its misery. Made no impression, snake continued to suffer. Of course my shovel was pretty dull, from digging in rock chips all day.

Elsewhare, I shot a rattlesnake, clipping its head off with my S&W Model 19 at about 35 ft, a good shot that I have since regretted. There was no residual life apparent in him. Maybe shock. I do see videos of pieces of snake squirming around in a frying pan in SE Asia; those were chopped up with a cleaver, likely "killed" by chopping off the head w/same.
 
Last weekend we went for a mid day hike. Admittedly wasn't thinking bears would be out, so we were cruising along solving the world's problems when a distinctive bark caught my attention. Out of the foliage appeared half a bear near 10 feet from me. I grabbed the hood of fellow next to me with my left had wile drawing a noise maker with my right. He drew his phone for a Pic as it's rare to bumble into a bear that close.... then we both spotted a cub. Probably the fastest I've ever backed up from a bear, granted I'd not let go of his hoody. When his brain processed the cub he went from pictures to a retreat jet assist... some what negating my "hey bear, whoa bear" routine.

The video, the quivering cracking voice helped roughly nothing. Take whatever Dumbo feather it takes for you to feel secure enough to more confidently interact with a bear.

And don't bumble through the brush in the summer like we did last week.... totally my fault for not paying attention and wandering into bear family walk.
 
Apparently ancient Alaskan natives used 'whalebone' springs to trap polar bears. The whalebone (actually baleen) was sharpened and folded under tension. It was then inserted into blubber and the whole thing was frozen to keep the spring folded. Polar bears would then swallow the bait whole. The blubber melted, realeasing the spring and cutting the bear from the inside. The bear would be tracked for miles until it became too weak for self defense and killed. Sinew backed bows were also made from 'whalebone'.
 
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