Many parts of the US prohibit carrying firearms in the wilderness. This is particularly true of National Parks.

On the off-chance of being attacked by a bear or some other large creature while camping/backpacking there, do you think its possible to incapacitate them with a Taser?

Anyone's thoughts on this?

I am not sure on this one, but I would think that most animals have thick fur that kinda acts like a heavy coat and the barbs might just bounce or skip off of the body.

Dave

I think I'd rather have a road flare.

1. Tasers are short range, single shot and require controlled activation. They work well if backed up with a shotgun.
2. I carry a 10" AOW pump shotgun in the pack.
2. Don't ask, don't tell - carry a big bore hand gun.
3. Pepper spray - at least 4 oz.
4. The 15 minute road flare mentioned is not above consideration. At least you will have 15 minutes to get your personal effects in order if the threat is human.

I don't like tasers. A man died in Vancouver last week after being tasered in an airport. At least with pepper spray you spray and the threat has the option to turn away from the cloud...with a taser the victim just has to sit there and have muscle spasms until you're done or the battery runs out. I like to think the wildlife deserves a bit more respect than that...they were there first. I know some of you are going go into the kill or be killed way of thinking...but it's relatively easy to avoid an animal attack proactively.

Also, carrying pepper spray is legal...I'm not sure about in the US but in Canada a taser is classified as a prohibited weapon and all the same laws and rules apply.

Which is pretty silly, but I thought it was allowed in places, maybe its the national forests, I forget now. I remember seeing all the hunting rules on one of the national web sites.

National Forests allow firearms, National Parks generally don't.

I personally don't see tasers as being particularly useful against wildlife. As ponder pointed out they're short range devices. I don't want to wait until a bear is 15 to 21 feet away. Not to mention they're also around $300 dollars. (Taser C2, 15 foot range, $300-$350 price tag, extra cartrige $25 http://www.taser.com/products/consumers/Pages/default.aspx) Pepper spray is highly effective against bears and doesn't cost nearly as much ($40-50). Pepper spray has about double the range of a taser. (http://www.udap.com/Bearspecifications.htm)

Given the choice between a gun, taser, and bear spray against a bear, I'd chose bear spray.

Interesting question. I certainly would not want to be the test case for your idea but it would be interesting to read the results of the test case or the autopsy report.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/26/taser-death-at-vanco.html

Here's an article about it on the guy who died. It links to YouTube as somebody got it recorded...it's pretty disturbing if you ask me.

I had to go hunt it down, forests if your hunting or have a permit, can't really find anything on the parks web site stating either way. They sure don't make it easy to find.

The range of a civilian Taser is limited to 15 feet. At that range you might as well just punch the bear… in fact, you may end up doing just that if the Taser doesn’t suppress the bear’s central nervous system real quick. Bear pepper spray just seems like it is a better option.

Redflare:

Carry a ski pole without the basket attached as a walking stick, the sharp steel point on the end is a good weapon no matter how may feet are on the thing that is bothering you.

Hello to all,

I am in agreement that most animals fur in the wild, will act as an insulator against the barbs of a "taser gun", or the prongs of a hand held (contact) taser. However I have heard some of the hand held units emit quite an obnoxious sound that may drive animals away. Although as others have mentioned in this thread I do not want to be the one to find out.

From the few people I have met that have used bear repellant, on animals they claim to have had great sucess.

Thank you for posting a very interesting scenario for wilderness survival.

I can't remember where I read it but there is a 0% mortality rate when pepper spray is used properly against bears.

Is that shotgun a restricted item?

A friend of mine carried tasers in the Sudan as an antidote
to cobra bite.

When working on a trail crew for the USFS last year in AK my DD2 was often the point person for bear protection. The crew personnel carried the industrial sized pepper spray, she also carried a 12 GA. Never saw a bear.

This summer she and a buddy were fishing and ran across several black bears. Both species went to great lengths to avoid one another. They did have the pepper spray in case (my DD, not the bears...).

Yes. An AOW (Any Other Weapon) has a one time $5 tax (Permit) on it. The shotgun I carry is a 10" Rem 870 12 3" mag. It holds 4 - 3" shells. I carry 000 BUCK - SLUG - 000 BUCK - SLUG.

Wrangel-St. Elias NP in Alaska not only allows firearms, info at one of their visiter centers actually recommends it (don't have a link for that, but saw it myself last year)...

That is interesing. A 10" 870 really sounds like a Class II weapon to me, not an AOW. Where did you get your "...one time $5 tax (Permit)..."?

Also, keep in mind that, even with a Fed "permit," individual states (such as CA), can prohibit your possession of lots of weapons (link) "...These weapons may also be further regulated by states or
localities, and while these weapons can be legally owned under
federal law, some states and localities further regulate ownership
or prohibit it (see below)..."

That could work, plus a great emergency fire starter (in fact, I used to carry cut down flares for that very purpose). But we once had a huge shipment of flares that were almost impossible to light, or keep lit if you ever got it going. I can not imagine trying to strike a flare in time to slow down a charging griz...

ANSWERS

1. BATFE - File under form 4
2. I live in America, the state of Idaho, which has no firearm laws more stringent than federal law. There is no waiting period to purchase. You can buy as many as you can afford. We can own .50 BMG weapons of any type, "assault weapons of any type", machine guns, silencers, AOW's, Pen guns, short shotguns, short rifles, destructive devices, explosives, switchblades, brass knuckles, pet ferrets, gas powered leaf blowers, two stroke outboard motors and ammunition made out of lead. Idaho is a "SHALL ISSUE" state relative to CWP's. They have to give you a concealed permit if you are not a criminal. It is LEGAL to carry your firearms uncased in your vehicle loaded, cocked and off safety. This is still America.

From Taser Weapons at http://www.taser.org/faq.html:

"Will this thing stop a grizzly? I have three small children under 5. We backpack the Cascades, 4X4 camp in remote areas. My wife and I both pack high caliber automatic handguns as
defense against a bear or human predators. (We ran accross an mom a few years back and narrowly escaped with our lives.) We would like to get rid of the handguns with the accompanying dangers to our children and carry a non lethal weapon such as a taser. I have used a taser against a human attacker with great success. How effective is this device against a blubbery grizzly? Will it put her out long enough for us to withdraw?
Any help would be appreciated."

"We absolutely cannot guarantee that it will have any affect
on a grizzly. We have no record of anyone ever having
used a TASER® Weapon in the wild on a grizzly. The TASER® Weapon is designed to work on a human, and therefore we strongly advise you not to carry it as your only means of defense against a grizzly or any other type of animal. When used against a 2000 lb buffalo it stunned him for only an instant. He dropped onto
his hind quarters, but was back up in 2 seconds and became
very angry. If a grizzly reacts in the same way, it would make
a bad situation even worse. Others do carry TASER® Weapons when
in remote areas for protection against human attackers, but
keep your firearms for protection against wild animals."

Sue

Either this person has really bad luck or really needs to learn to avoid bad situations better (like being more aware of surroundings). Yikes.

Mucho more better than CA!!!

You noticed that, too. Mr. and Mrs. Darwin Award? Three children under five? Maybe they plan to toss the least favorite to the bear, and run?

Sue

Ahhh, sweet memories of Ideeho...

Where the women are handsome and the men are good-looking.

Or is that Lake Wobegone?

OK, that pretty much is the end of discussion.
Thanks Sue

We were once shown a video of a large bull getting hit by a taser. It dropped the bull cold and instantly. After the taser cycled, the bull got up so angry that he full-force charged the steel fence that the operator was standing behind. That must have hurt. It shows how angry that bull must have been.

The taser is designed to penetrate thick layers of clothing, so I have to believe that the needles could find their way through thick hair. I don't see a problem with that. If you ever saw the barbs that come out, you would understand.

One problem is the effective range. One would need nerves of steel to wait as long as you would need to and still maintain good sight picture. At that range, there would no chance of a re-load.

The biggest problem, over-riding all other variables, is that the animal is only incapacitated for a very short while. Even if your shot is good and the barbs penetrate, you only have seconds before, as Yamamoto said, you awaken the giant with a terrible resolve. Unless you had solid protection very close by, you will wind up with a bigger problem than before.

I don't think a taser would work AT ALL.

Because what are they made for? There can only be one subject and that would be humans; there is a reason for that. A human compared to a bear...There is a huge size difference and tolerable voltages.

The tasers are set to the case where it will bring down a human being, but will that same amount be the same for a bear? Or a cougar? It's simple as that. The bear will more than likely be more mad. So is that slight chance the bear will walk away compared to it charging at you be worth the risk?

Don't be stupid, just get the spray.

I was just reading that last month Taser and the UN were having it out. The UN tried to declare the use of a Taser akin to torture. Taser came back and argued that if a Taser is torture so it pepper spray and riot batons (referring to police use of course).

I agree, the spray makes more sense.