Forum Index > Full Moon Saloon > guns, grizzlies, and the bad guys
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IBEX
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IBEX
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PostTue Jun 25, 2002 12:25 pm 
OK Maybe not that serious.
Thanks Dslayer, I was hoping that was what you meant. I was just feeling a tinge of paranoia. I almost thought I would have to start packin' to protect myself from other packers….. that were protecting themselves from other packers….. that were pro……well you know.

"....what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen...." -Rene Daumel
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Mentalfloss
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PostTue Jun 25, 2002 12:50 pm 
Bear spray
I'd never owned bear spray but I bought a cannister in Canada on a trip to Mt. Fitzwilliam. On that trip I quizzed every Canadian I could about whether they'd ever encountered a griz and if they carried bear spray. None had encountered a griz but all carried bear spray. This is a very scientific study as you can see. Anyway, I figure that if I'm afraid of humans (which I'm not) the bear spray is lighter, generally non-lethal, and very effective in warding them off. Every year we read about some guy who kills or wounds someone or himself "accidentally" with his gun. Why take the chance?

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Dslayer
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PostTue Jun 25, 2002 4:21 pm 
Ibex-I understand better than most why anyone would be nervous about gun-toting yahoos-I've seen more than my share and I understand how my anyone "who messes with me," comment is somewhat inflammatory-no harm in asking me what I meant. Mentalfloss-I just saw something on TV related to that deal where the King County officer was shot about pepper sprays and they said that they were about 80% effective on humans but that in some cases people who really are adrenalized, or have a high pain threshold or I imagine, really high on drugs-has no effect, I wonder what % of bears is unaffected-plus in the demonstration of pepper spray, you had to be real close to what you wanted to spray. I'm going to carry pepper spray as well as my pistol on my Montana hikes, but I like having the pistol as a backup for sure.

"The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights is my concealed weapon permit."-Ted Nugent
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polarbear
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PostTue Jun 25, 2002 7:20 pm 
I took Brian's bear quizz, barely passing with the bare minimum of 80. That's about the same score I got on my driving test which means that trying to identify a grizzly while driving is probably not recommeded for me. If you pass the quizz you get a neat certificate that you get to print out. Last time I took it I got about a 50, so I think I got an easier version this time, or maybe the grizzlies are starting to look more like real grizzlies. biggrin.gif Speaking of cougars http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/75954_brfs25.shtml

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Mentalfloss
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PostWed Jun 26, 2002 1:32 pm 
oh well
Oh well...this is just a matter of preference I suppose. I guess I don't worry a lot about confronting a drug-crazed maniac 2 days off the trail somewhere. For that matter, I don't worry a lot about bears either. No firearms in national parks in the USA or Canada. Of course there are plenty of areas outside the parks. I've heard that I can't take my bear spray back into Canada even though I bought it there. Anyone know about this?

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Brian Curtis
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Brian Curtis
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PostFri Jun 28, 2002 12:04 am 
I've never had any trouble taking bear spray into Canada and I've always declared it when I have some. I've heard that some bear spray is not-approved, but they've never asked me what kind I had nor have they asked to see it. I've only carried bear spray into Canada a couple times so my sample size is small.

that elitist from silverdale wanted to tell me that all carnes are bad--Studebaker Hoch
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Steve
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Joined: 29 Jan 2002
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Steve
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PostFri Jun 28, 2002 7:06 am 
There are for all intents and purposes no grizzlies in Washington. People who say they have seen one (like I've heard from people on the cascade pass trail) really think that if a bear is brown then it must be a grizzly. I've got a hunter friend who has been hunting in the north cascades since '77 who says that maybe, just maybe, he saw a grizzly because it was bigger than any bear he'd ever seen in Washington before but could not get an ID since he was two hundred yards away. Most people know that black bears range from cinnamon to black and there are even white furred black bears and my buddy saw a black bear that had black fur with white patches (first and last he'd ever seen). BTW on my recent 25 day vacation we saw (from about 50 yards) a juvenile grizzly bear when we were in the Grand Tetons. Got the thing on video tape. It was small (~250 lbs) but you could tell it was a grizzly. People were getting out of their cars to look at this thing and fortunately it ignored them.

Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.
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brownster145
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PostFri Jul 19, 2002 7:58 pm 
To be honest, I probably would not be able to tell the difference between a small grizzly and a big black bear with brown fur if the bear was more than 50' away. The one tell-tale sign I do know is the larger hump on the back of the Grizzly. I can, however, tell the difference between grizzly tracks and black bear tracks. Last year, while hiking in the Pasayten, (a beautiful area) I came across some BIG and very fresh grizzly tracks. To be specific, it was on the Billy Goat Loop trail, in the Ashonla River Valley. I had no protection (unless a fishing knife counts), not even bear spray, as I was guarenteed by a ranger in Winthrop that there were no Grizzly bears in the area. I'll know better next time. Needless to say, I was a little edgy for the remainder of my trip. As far as packing a gun in the backcountry goes. If you feel safe carrying one, go for it. If not, don't. I don't carry one mainly because I don't own one. If I had one, I would, at least some of the time...

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Backpacker Joe
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Backpacker Joe
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PostTue Aug 06, 2002 9:25 pm 
Well, just having returned from three weeks on board the USS Enterprise (NCC 1701D) I see that there has been some good converstion-ing going on. Hell, everyone knows my position. I'm thankful to you all that I'm not getting to beaten up about it. As I have said in the past, if you choose not to carry great. I never meant to insinuate a clear irrisponcibility in not carrying. I just dont believe you are as safe as you could be. I dont have a problem with people not carrying, I would just appreciate the same form them. TB

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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