Dennis..my reaction to a nasty evening at home with the spray may have made me a bit "gun shy" on the subject of pepper spray.
you know when i drive North to canoe country and pull off the freeway it's all black bear this and black bear that.black bear cafe,black bear real estate,black bear lodge-so on,but once i'm out on the lakes and in the camp site a bear sighting is very rare.since 1983 i have had only one in my camp and it ran off after i did some pot banging.it was early AM and i just packed up and move on for the day.
the bears in my neck of the woods don't seem to be the aggressive gang found out West or in Alaska and there has not been a bear attack in the canoe park,BWCA for 20 or so years.
when i prep for anything i look at history so i don't have a basement filled with food or water because Minneapolis is not the sort of place that gets earth quakes,hurricanes and so on.
you can see where i'm going with this.
it's sort of like a PFD,i have never needed one but the one i do have has a ditch kit in the pockets.i do have a smaller spray that i carry in a pocket on the portage trails.maybe i'll keep that as a security blanket on my solo trips.
like all this survival stuff there are some hard choices between what you really need,what you think you need,and what you have just because its neat to have.