Hey Izzy. Think I saw that one. I believe I commented at the time that human life takes presedence. I understand they were upset, but it was attacking.

Sorry Chaos. Btw what are spiders?

One advantage of spray versus bullets is that all the participants walk away (or perhaps scamper) from the encounter and go on living. It is likely that the bear learns that humans are nasty and there are better things to do than mess around with them. If the objective is to maintain a healthy ecosystem, spray is the better tool.

REALLY! My guess is you have not been in big bear country. [/quote]
Really? You carry the rifle at a high-ready (heck, even low ready) the entire time you're out camping?

Anything other than that, and a pistol will almost always be faster to get up and sighted in.

Have I been to big bear country? Depends if you consider the Yukon "big bear country" or not. It's not my normal playground, but I do get around.

what happened to the old strategy of simply lying down and pretending to be dead? It's not guaranteed that you won't be injured or mauled, but it may prevent death. Seems like it might be a workable solution against a grizzly that was acting out of territorial instinct. once the bear realizes that you are not a challenge - it might move on.

i can't say that i have seen any statistics on the success of this passive defense, though.

Pete2

There are no grizzlies where I live, and the black bears I have encountered usually head the other way. My cousins adult daughter was attacked last fall while she was sitting in her treestand bow hunting for deer. She had to get 65 stitches in her leg.

Here is a link to some videos and testimonials from people who were attacked by bears and other animals and used pepper spray.

I carry a 4oz can of pepper spray when I'm in the wilderness and not hunting. In my opinion, that will be sufficient protection for the most likely scenarios, including two legged predators.

http://www.udap.com/testify.htm

Herrero,in his book, Bear Attacks, recommends playing dead in a sudden encounter situation with grizzlies. He gives a table, page 127, which shows that attacks decreased in sixteen incidents, did not change in eight, and increased in two. The strategy evidently is less successful with black bears

A colleague of mine played dead in an Alaskan grizzly attack; the same bear injured her companion in the incident.

I don't know that I could "play dead." If by myself, maybe. With someone else? Nope, that was a seizure, fainting, whatever. I ain't a quitter! (shame is a wonderful thing, huh?)

Don't worry, if your nightmare creature has eyes and mucous membranes, the pepper spray will slow them down too.