norad;

I'm not exactly sure what we're arguing about here - if we ARE arguing, that is.

We both seem to be furiously agreeing that there are a lot of far more dangerous things to worry about than being eaten by a bear. My original response was to state that, if being eaten by a bear is your primary concern, then taking "precautions" which significantly increase the danger to you and your travelling companions is IMO a disproportionate response. If you're concerned about critters other than a black bear, especially Bigfoot's hairless cousins <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />, then you're into a completely different threat scenario and those comments may not apply.

I agree that one's response should be modified to deal with the threat level. Obviously, I would not expect a police officer investigating an armed robbery in progress to react the same as if he/she were directing traffic.

Your point about an armed criminal preferring an unarmed victim like me to an armed victim like you is obvious, but irrelevant. I never suggested otherwise; what I did say was that a criminal is as likely to be deterred by an unloaded firearm as he/she is by a loaded one, as there's (normally) no easy way for them to tell at a glance which one you have. (Obviously, if there's no magazine in the chamber, this may not apply, but if there's an empty magazine, or a full magazine with no round loaded in the chamber, and/or the safety is on, it would.) Thus, having a live round in the chamber and the safety off is not likely to act as a greater deterrent than having the chamber empty and the safety engaged.

A bear, on the other hand, is not going to know the difference between a human carrying a rifle and one carrying a trekking pole or a camera tripod. Thus, my point being that if you want to avoid a confrontation with a bear, you're far better off yodelling "The Hills are Alive" than you are carrying a rifle. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

What exactly do you mean by "Much faster"? It's been over 10 years since I served in the military, but I've fired FNC-1 semi-automatic rifles, FNC-3 fully automatic rifles, Browning 9mm semi-automatic pistols, and 9mm SMGs; very limited experience, I admit, but in none of those cases can I see it taking more than a second to load the magazine and cock the weapon. I suppose if you're into black powder or muzzle loaders, it would take longer; but I've never gone beyond what I did in the military.

I've heard that, in some locations, Black bears have been observed stalking humans for prey and it's not unheard of for them to attack campers in tents. I suspect these are almost always bears that have been fed by humans and have learned to associate us with their din-dins. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />