Very informative and educational with a sense of humor and not fearful. Great combinations. Thank you!

Great video! Lots of common sense, like carrying both firearms and spray. Like the way, you emphasize avoidance as the best defense.

Guys if your in bear county carry a gun. Read to many stories that the bear spray didnt work and they ended up dead. If you come cross a sow with her Cubs they are extremely aggressive. Carry a good firearm and hike in groups if possible

I agree with most of your video. The only question I have is this: If your are carrying bear spray and a firearm (pistol, long gun) if you have a sudden attack, you have a split second to decide which to use . Bear spray will deter some bears. However, a bear that is determined to attack you it is of no use. That is why you never hike alone in Grizzly country.

Our Bear story is a bit long but long story short, Bear at 3:00AM two feet from our tent stomping and pounding the ground as he is snorting and growling. He spared us and we feel very lucky.😳😬

I know this is an old video by now, but I'm glad you pointed out the discrepancy in the wordage comparing bear spray to firearms. I've read that bear spray is much, much less effective against a charging/attacking bear, whereas firearms are much more effective once you weed put incidents involving firearm malfunctions/failures to fire - something like 97% effective, I believe? So if a bear gets curious, spray it. If it attacks, shoot it. Then fill out the paperwork.

Would like to here of bear dumpster diving episodes behind restaurants.

It's always great to see credible, practical information videos, which rely on objective evidence, rather than personal anecdotes. Which, in this case, obviously aren't very reliable given the low incidence of bear attacks. Plus the logic of the opinions makes sense. Always a good sign...

I once had luck shoving a bell down an attacking Grizz's throat.

Bear spray is effective on curious bears, not as effective on aggressive bears. So use which tool according to the situation. If you have to choose 1, for weight, or room, pick the pistol. Here's the catch though, you need to practice to be proficient, and you need hardcast lead, solid copper, brass, or fmj. Don't use hollow points for bear defense! Hollow points, even in large caliber handguns like .44 magnum can splatter/deflect off the skull, and not Penetrate enough in soft tissue.

Great video, do you keep one in the chamber, or safety off full tube magazine or something else?

This says that bear spray is effective for "undesirable bear behavior." Guns are effective in stopping "aggressive bear behavior." If a bear is attacking, don't rely on bear spray.

Charging bear! What do I reach for? Bear spay? Fumble with Cap. Safety off. Maybe it squirts? Maybe it hits the charging bear and doesn't blow back in my eyes and blind me? Maybe the bear has time to feel pain before I am dead or maimed and broke $$$,$$$? Vs. Bang, bang, bang. Walk away ignore the paperwork! Enjoy my day! Any questions?

Does bear spray work well as an air freshener or would bells work better?

Do not cut the zip tie...its there so that you dont lose it while hiking those trigger guards will catch on things and fall off and then you end up spraying yourself if you don't notice it's gone in time ...I've sprayed myself twice because I lost the guard and didn't notice so never cut the zip tie off ...also the trigger guard glows in the dark at least it does on the brand he's showing

Bear spray is recommended for those not competent with large caliber firearms. When a bear charges you better be fast and accurate with whatever you choose to carry.

Both!🤠👍

What about air horn? I like to think that one should use air horn to make a noise and scare the bare before resorting to the bear spray.

good video. and love your replies to those who are trying to get a rise out of you. I like how they word things undesirable vs aggressive. personally I've had three encounters with aggressive bears. the first was on horseback luckily the dogs distracted him long enough for us to get out of there. that was the one and only time i have ridden without a rifle. the other two were hunting and a warning shot worked each time. ruined the hunt tho. go figure. I do carry both when out wandering around like having options. usually a 12 gauge pump first two rounds are tipple ought then slugs. on average we see a bear or two on each ride. the record so far was a grizzly and her two cubs and three black bears.

I wish it was possible for me to carry a firearm.. especially after a couple very close bear encounters and one mountain lion. If I was to show up with a gun around anyone I hike or camp with.. they wouldn't even allow me to go with them. These people are my family too so it makes it difficult..

What if the bear is charging me from the North and I use Bear spray but the wind is coming from the North too?

I have read the entire report by Smith and Herrero that you refer to. The fact that they compiled data from over 100 years is one of the biggest problems with the report. Some of the data they used was from the old black powder days and they noted in there report that , according to their stats , the number one cause of firearms failure to defend a bear attack was the inability to reload. Well NO SHIT SHERLOCK !!! Maybe they should have limited the scope of their data to only include modern repeating firearms that were in common use from the mid 1980's and forward when people started using pepper spray for bear defense . The study was far from a fair comparison. The other point that is often overlooked in the Smith. Herrero study is the fact that, in most of the cases where pepper spray was used , the bears were curious and were not displaying any aggressive behaviour. In only about 13% of the incidents they documented, where pepper spray was used, were the bears showing any aggressive behaviour and in the few cases when the bears came on a full on charge, the bears charge right trough the pepper spray and the person was injured. These are the facts about what is really written in the report and anyone can look it up and read it for themselves if they don't believe it. The study is written by Steve Smith and Stephen Herreo and is in the Journal of Wildlife management .

The people that promote bear spray would rather have the bear survive than You! When using bear spray you have to wait till the bear is within @ 30', the spray only discharges about 10-15'. You don't for a 2nd chance at detterance if the bear runs through the cloud of pepper spray! Bullets have a lot farther effective range, you can start shooting at 60'. Shotguns are very effective at stopping charging bears!

I seriously hope he didn't actually grab bear poop and put it on the bells.

Bear spray left hand .44 Magnum right hand.

Why not carry all three

Shoulda used your crazy driver spray.

Is bear spray more effective/stronger than pepper spray?

Why do you think a pistol is more effective than a rifle/shotgun?

mace is the crulest thing to do to an animal as it will make it suffer for a very long time, they don't know how to treat it like us! All animals know that anything that sprays is danger and will avoid it instantly. You don't have to spray direcly at it just the sound and viaual will do, unless otherwise

500 S&W Magnum carbine rifle, more effective than a shotgun (a lot more power, anywhere from 500 to 1500 ft lbs more energy)

Bear bells=in bear scat: Bear spray=wet angry bear: 12 Gauge with: 12 gauge slugs=affective, if you face shoot bear until threat is over!

This isn’t hard,Always carry a gun because it’s WAY more effective then bear spray..even the stupid article is talking about 2 different types of encounters! Bear spray is 90% effective to a peaceful bear..well no shit..even in that type of situation a gun is 100% effective cus you can get better shot placement. If the bear is aggressive,bear spray won’t do anything..hell even the gun might not save you if the bear is charging you.. It’s simple take bear spray and gun I’m tired of hearing people say guns don’t work because of that stupid article

Both derp

Where bear bell's, make noise carry a rifle or shotgun !! Forget spray, you don't have time for both!

so (disregarding the bells) you've only got one option because you surely can't pump a bear full of shotgun slugs AND shoot bear spray... So it makes it a mute point. Why would you carry both knowing you can only deploy one.... These are the videos that crack me up. So you've got one option: What is it?

bear spray in canada, gun in the us