Pepper spray is an excellent bear deterrent but it has it’s weaknesses:
- You have at most six seconds of spray
- You can never be 100% sure that you have pressure in your can (if you test it, you lose one or two of those precious few seconds).
- It’s questionable in the wind
- It’s problematic and probably not effective from inside of a tent.
Large bore handguns are a great back-up to pepper spray and great from inside a tent but firearms have their downsides as well. They’re
- heavy
- expensive
- Not legal in many areas
- kill or gravely injure the bear unnecessarily
I am experimenting with a third option – the handheld marine flare. The version made by Ikaros is ideal. Unlike a typical road flare, it is ignited by simply pulling a string. With a properly designed holster, this can be operated with one hand. As far as I know the marine flare is untested on bears, but it is a good bet that the brightness, sound, and the heat would be an effective, last stand deterrent against an aggressive bear.
Advantages of marine flares as a bear deterrent:
- light weight
- can be ignited with one hand
- can be used in close quarters
- burns for 60 seconds
- the metal tube from the spent flare can be used to strike and poke with
- relatively inexpensive (usually less than $20 at marine supply stores).
Disadvantages of marine flares as bear deterrent:
- forest fire risk
- hazardous materials risk
- risk of suffocation and burns in tents
Video demonstrating the ignition of an Ikaros marine flare:
[flowplayer src=’http://pseudo01.hddn.com/vod/bearsotp01.upstartvod/BearFlare.mp4′ width=640 height=480]
