"Harry Andreas" wrote in message
...
In article , Bob McKellar
wrote:

Harry Andreas wrote:

In article ,
(SteveM8597) wrote:

I have carried a firearm a time or two while backpacking in grizzly
country but
not in state and national parks where they are illegal. I hear the
situation
in some of the CA parks is pretty bad, though. Not what I would
consider a
survival situation, just common sense.

Best bet for bear and cougar defense is actually pepper spray,
although I've
also carried a .357, especially when hiking with kids.


So, pepper spray doesn't work well on kids?

Bob McKellar

LOL.
But seriously, pepper spray has limited range and is OK for your own
personal protection. But if a cat threatens or grabs a kid you need to be
able
to reach out and touch the cat.
I wouldn't try a handgun on a bear though. Too dicey.

The ol' Black Bear actually accounts for many more attacks against humans in
the US than does the Grizzly, which makes sense being as they are more
widely distributed and have a larger population. I carried a 12 guage pump
with a slug barrel when I went fishing by myself in Alaska (on the Kenai and
close-by streams)--and of course the only bear I saw was the stuffed one
standing in the airport building at Fairbanks when I flew in. Pepper spray
is bettter than nothing, but I remember camping in the park in the Smoky's a
few years back and a ranger stopping by our campsite to warn us of a rogue
black bear that they were trying to catch (they had one of those neat
galvanized pipe traps near the hike-in only campsite) in the area. He said
that it had ransacked the campsite a few days earlier and one of the campers
hit it with pepper spray in the face without seriously discouraging it, so
the guaranteed-quality of capsiacin aginst a Grizzly is somewhat suspect. A
good handgun, where it is allowed, would be my preference over the spray,
and the caliber is sort of dependent upon the shooter's ability--the favored
round for poachers going after black bears is still the .22 (albeit in rifle
form), last I heard, and I know of one case where a camper killed a black
that had attacked him with a .22 pistol. Though I'd rather have a .40 S&W or
better in Grizzly country if I had to leave the shotgun behind (saying
something about my confidence, or lack thereof, in my own short-iron
shooting ability).

Brooks


--
Harry Andreas
Engineering raconteur